Yellowknife (Mar 28/03) - C.B. Shorty Brown, you've got yourself an arena.

The founder of a long-running skates-for-kids program easily beat out all comers to be the voters' favourite person to have his moniker adorn this city's new arena.

Well OK, so the voters were contestants in Yellowknifer's two-week-long "Name the Arena" contest, but the feeling was clear.

Brown won more than twice as many votes as the runner-up, Elaine Whitford.

Only 10 per cent of voters want the city to sell the name to a corporate entity. Mayor Gord Van Tighem hopes to reap a cool half-million loonies for the arena this way.

Sneaking into third place by the time the contest closed Monday evening was a feeling for a "no-name" title.

Included in that group were generic suggestions ranging from literally not having a name on the building, to Yellowknife Community Rec Centre, PolarPlex, and The Great Aurora Centre. Poor old Gerry Murphy, the man whose name is associated with the soon-to-be crushed old arena, didn't get any votes until the last day of the contest when he earned two ballots.

People had their reasons for voting.

"All that will be left for Northerners to skate on is ice inside buildings," explained Christa Domchek for picking "Global Warming: The Next Generation" as a name.

Yellowknife has too many sports heroes to have one name on a building, wrote Nickie Gordon in a letter to the editor.

"I would like to suggest that individuals and organizations be recognized for their contributions and achievements with 'stars' in an appropriate place in the complex," Gordon wrote.