Statement of Brian Whitfield, Managing Partner, Sommet Group:
"First and foremost, we at the Sommet Group hope to resolve this amicably, in the best interests of all concerned. But the reason we have withheld payments is because our supposed partner in naming rights is not acting like one. We entered into the agreement with the understanding that in partial exchange for our payments, our business units would be the preferred provider of certain products and services. This is in keeping with the Hockey Club's expressed desire to do business with local companies. Instead, the club has chosen arbitrarily to use our competitors, and the most recent straw that broke the camel's back was their order of thousands of T-shirts from out of state instead of from Sommet's BrandCentrik business unit. That in our view is not being a good partner as was promised."
