Providence’s Dunkin’ Donuts Center to Be Renamed

Multiple media reports indicate the Dunkin' Donuts Center in nearby Providence, Rhode Island will soon be known as something else.

As we reported earlier this year, Dunkin's contract for naming rights to the 13,000-seat arena expired in April, but the company's name remains in place until a new sponsor is announced, probably in September.

WPRI Target 12 reports that the Lincoln, Rhode Island-based Amica Mutual Insurance Company is expected to take over naming rights of the arena that has been affectionately known as "The Dunk" for two decades.

The formal announcement of the name change is anticipated sometime next month. That might explain why the Dunk's Dunkin' kiosk was closed when your humble correspondent was there on Saturday night.

Imagine, not being able to purchase a Dunkin' Cold Brew at the Dunkin' Donuts Center! Not even a munchkin!

Rhode Island Monthly reported Amica Mutual Insurance won a "months-long bidding process" initiated by the Rhode Island Convention Center Authority to assume the naming rights.

Providence Business News quoted Amica spokesman Brendan Dowding, who said the insurer is "in active discussions with the Rhode Island Convention Center Authority about securing the naming rights to the Convention Center and Civic Center," but that "nothing has been finalized yet."

Rhode Island Monthly stated, "Long-time Rhody residents will remember that the 31,000 square foot arena originally went by the Providence Civic Center before Dunkin' took over in 2001."

The Providence Civil Center opened in 1971 and has hosted many concerts and shows over those many years. My first date with my wife Suzanne was a Frank Sinatra concert at the Civic Center.

Over the years, I've seen many acts, including Rod Stewart, Neil Diamond, John Denver, Garth Brooks, Vince Gill, Alan Jackson, The Boston Pops' Christmas show, and Disney on Ice at that venue, which is home to the Providence College Friars and the Providence Bruins.

Change is sometimes sad, but it can also be good. I look forward to many more hours of entertainment at the Dunk – or whatever it will become known as next.