Scottrade buys naming rights to St. Louis arena

~ Savvis paid $5.5 million in 2005 to end its $72 million, 20-year naming agreement after five years.

ST. LOUIS -- The sports arena that is home to the St. Louis Blues is getting a new name -- the Scottrade Center.

The arena had been known as the Savvis Center since suburban St. Louis-based Savvis Inc. paid $72 million for a 20-year naming rights deal in 2000.

In June 2005, financially-troubled Savvis paid $5.5 million to end the contract.

On Thursday, the Blues and Sports Capital Partners, the team's new owner, announced that the brokerage firm Scottrade has purchased naming rights. Terms were not disclosed.

Scottrade is a deep discount stock brokerage formed by Rodger Riney in 1980 in Scottsdale, Ariz. He moved the company to the St. Louis area a year later. Riney still serves as Scottrade's president and chief executive officer.

The privately-held company has annual revenue of more than $700 million.

The Scottrade Center, home to the St. Louis Steamers indoor soccer team and the RiverCity Rage indoor football team as well as St. Louis University men's basketball, officially opened on Oct. 8, 1994 as the Kiel Center on the site of the old 9,000-seat Kiel Auditorium.

The facility replaced the St. Louis Arena, a building constructed in the 1920s and located across from Forest Park in the west end of the city, as a home for the St. Louis Blues.

The Scottrade Center is a 12-story building seats 22,000 for basketball and 21,000 for hockey, according to its Web site.

The building, which was built at a cost of $135 million, is owned by the city of St. Louis and operated by Sports Capital Partners under a long-term lease.