NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- The Nashville Predators announced on Wednesday they have terminated their naming rights agreement with the Franklin-based Sommet Group.

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Sommet was in the last year of a three-year deal that gave them naming rights to the downtown arena where the Predators play their home games.

The Predators also announced they have filed suit against Sommet stemming from the what they call the "company's failure to fulfill its naming rights payment obligations under that agreement."

"We have reluctantly terminated our relationship with Sommet Group," Nashville Predators President of Business Operations, Ed Lang said in a press release. "For months, Sommet Group has not met its payment obligations under our naming rights agreement. We repeatedly reached out to Sommet Group and sought its compliance with these obligations. Unfortunately, Sommet Group did not do so, or give us any indication that it would. We regret that Sommet Group left us no alternative but to terminate the agreement and seek legal redress."

Predators' representatives said they would present a proposal to the city's sports authority in the coming weeks to rename the arena.

Brian Whitfield, Sommet's managing partner, issued a statement saying they hope to resolve the issue amicably. But he said they withheld payments because the Predators were not acting like a partner, instead using a competitor for products and services rather than the Sommet Group as the preferred provider.

"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," Whitfield said.

This is the second naming rights deal to fall through for the Predators on their arena, which has had three names since opening in December 1996. The building started off as the Nashville Arena in honor of the city that built and paid for the building. Then it became the Gaylord Entertainment Center in 1999 as part of an $80 million, 20-year deal.

The Gaylord Entertainment Company quit making payments in May 2003, and the team and company sued each other before settling that legal fight and ending the naming rights deal in February 2005. Sommet, which handles human resources administration, human resources administration, payroll and risk management services, put its name on the arena in May 2007.

Lang said the Predators plan to present a proposal for a new name to the local sports authority within weeks.

The Predators currently are seventh in the Western Conference and have won six straight games.