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Looking to plug their gaping budget holes, cities and states around the nation are selling off the naming rights at schools, parks, government buildings and even boat launches, according to a report in The Wall Street Journal.
Major sports complexes, hospitals and universities have long put the names of big sponsors in front of television cameras, but now corporations are adding their names to more public places. These deals don’t offer the sponsors the same widespread media exposure they can find in a television camera lens, but they do boost their local presence, the report said.
Hundreds of naming rights are up for sale, according to the Journal, and mass-transit stations are especially popular. New York has sold the naming rights to the Atlantic Avenue-Pacific Street subway stop in Brooklyn to Barclays, and AT&T recently paid Philadelphia about $3 million to rename the city’s Pattison Avenue terminus (named for a 19th-century Pennsylvania) AT&T Station, the report said.
Chicago is currently soliciting bids for naming rights to bus routes and train lines, and the Frank Gehry designed BP Bridge (image above) is one of several parts of Chicago’s new Millennium Park that has been renamed for corporate sponsors. Elsewhere, the “North Face” logo can be found on trail markers in public parks in Virginia and Maryland, while Nestle is building playgrounds in several New York state parks and displaying the name of its Juicy Juice brand, the Journal said.
Critics say putting a corporate name on a city’s subway station dishonors historic citizens and causes geographic confusion, the report said, while parents living in districts where schools are accepting corporate sponsorships argue that the deals reinforce the idea that everything is for sale.
But municipalities say they are simply trying to balance purism with pragmatism, noting that in the current economic climate it makes good economic sense to accept multimillion-dollar payments.
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As long as Americans foolishly continue to buy foreign over domestic instead of supporting what their country and they produce the collapse of this ONCE great country will continue unabated. Want jobs? Want a better economy? Want a brighter and more prosperous future? BUY AMERICAN!!! It is the ONLY way out of this mess. LEARN IT!!!
I can't say I disagree, but isn't' it awfully hard to define "American" these days? US companies have outsourced as much work as they possibly can to earn multi-million dollar bonuses for the CEOs, leaving many Americans out of work. The car with the highest USA content, by the way, is the Hyundai Sonata. Most "traditional" US brand names are built elsewhere.
Yeah right! Coming from someone who is using a Chinese made computer to type a diatribe about buying "American."
I'll buy American if the product is cost competitive and well made and the factory it comes from was non-union. I try to avoid buying union made junk whenever possible.
We are merely borrowing and spending to sustain our unsustainable life style. This is like being a rich kid who inherited a fortune and is wasting it on nightlife. Consumer economy is a myth. When the multinational corporations are done plundering America, they will simply move out to suck the blood of other nations. They are working hard to create consumer culture elsewhere around the globe. Consumer consume, go into debt and become poorer. Only producers prosper.
Deficit is around 1.5 trillion a year. Calculate how many jobs that deficit is funding. Imagine life if Uncle Sam cannot borrow. It is going to be the biggest crash the world has ever seen. We cannot sustain our jobs at the current salary levels and the free market is telling that to us as it is. Loud and clear.
Today's economic problems are not about what we are doing now. They are about what we have already done for many decades. The mistake was to inflate credit to excessive levels. FED made credit easy, America borrowed. Inflated the money supply with borrowed money, inflated the prices and salaries. We borrowed from the future. The future is here. Money supply will deflate. It is not reasonable to expect that all will be fine when the pay back time arrives.
http://www.tradingstocks.net/html/prepare_for_market_crash.html
State and local governments are awash in debt and require massive bailouts to sustain their spending. We need to allow deflation to wipe out unproductive sectors so that we can start fresh. Trying to keep a bloated zombie financial sector is killing us. Service economy is a lie. We cannot live giving haircuts to each other. Unfortunately no production capacity will be left in America by the time we realize we have no choice but to produce more, export more and import less.
I rest my case the STUPID replies show WHY the U.S. is collapsing. Everyone THINKS working for a foreign manufacturer in a factory is a good thing. I assure you it is NOT. All the profits are going overseas and so are the higher paying design and managerial jobs. When there is no money here they WILL pull out. Their affiliation is with their country of origin. You either support what YOU and your country produce or we die. We have lost our textile, steel, and electronics industries. ALL we have left is automobiles and when that is gone instead of 10% unemployment it will be 20% and continue to grow. ANY argument against buying U.S. products from U.S. manufacturers is stupid at best. If you don't like it here move to the country of your choice so those of us who love and support this one can get it back on track. We won't miss you. BYE!!!
The real proplem is that property taxes have killled the american dream. Why do you think so many retirees leave the country. property taxes makes it impossible to keep a home and food on the table.
http://abrahamsays.blogspot.com/2010/11/is-american-dream-dead.html
Property Taxes? Really? Most peoples property taxes are below their annual insurance premiums. While you will most likely never use your insurance, your property taxes pay for your water system, sewage, 911, police, fire department, roadways, etc. These are things you get daily use out of.
I have always loved people who scream about not wanting to pay taxes and at the same time complain about getting pot holes fixed. Remember "sheep", 80% of your taxes do not in fact go to government salaries, it goes to paying for the things you use every single day.
concerning what property tax pays for -
I'll give you police and fire, and some of the roadway cost (ever hear of gasoline tax and wheel tax?) - but my water, sewer, trash collection, and storm water collection is paid for with a monthly bill like any other utilities. The water bill covers the fire hydrants and has sales tax added.
By billing all this as a utility charge, the IRS gets a break. Personal utilities are not federally deductible, while property taxes are.
I know - soooooo many retirees leave the country every year its crazy. They are fleeing in droves! My god, imagine an interstate system without a single left turn signal left on! I yearn for this day!
Also, property taxes too low in FL are part of the reason we can't keep our schools properly funded. People want to buy multi million dollar homes and then whine that their taxes are too high - buy smaller and more affordable then. It's not like its a "surprise tax", its a property tax! I would argue the American Dream is alive, its just too bad so many of us have forgotten what civic responsibility is and how paying taxes is just a small part of that responsibility.
Spot on!
In reply to mailman, Ivan et all.
You have no idea what property ownership is do you? Do you have any Idea why the American indians have Allodial title to the land and property and we don't? Just engage brain before typing. old dictionaries are full of history read one for a change.
This is sickening. They lowered the taxes to get these businesses to come to town and now have to advertise the businesses because the taxes aren't high enough. This country is now one of corporations, governed by the corporations for the corporations. In other words, Corporate Oligarchy, not Democracy.
It was never a Democracy. It's a Republic. The word "Democracy" just sounds cooler and is only used in propaganda. It's hard to say "Let's Spread Republics!" but not so hard to say "Let's Spread Democracy!" which is why it's used.
I'm waiting for the federal government to allow me to name one of their submarines after Ted Kennedy & Oldsmobile.
So how about a trip to the Victoria's Secret Science Museum or the Viagra Children's Amusement Park or the Trojan Condoms Park?
"Bus driver, I need to get off at the Vagisil stop. Thank you much."
'"Bus driver, I need to get off at the Vagisil stop. Thank you much."'
This made my day
Not that many years ago, my friends and I laughed when we saw movies like Red Planet and Mission to Mars where there were logos on the spacecraft reminicent of NASCAR's stickers all over the stock cars. Also, in "Alien 3," it was obvious that the "Corporation" really WAS a corporation that had the power of the Government (WAS it the government??!!).
Evidentally, the future really IS here! We really, TRULY, as a society need to STOP THIS CRAZINESS NOW!!! In fact, as far as I am concerned - the sale of PUBLIC PROPERTY naming "rights" to corporations is basically a legalized bribe!
Everything IS for sale - what's wrong with admitting it? How do you think the names originally came to be? Some person or group favored a certain name, and deals were made. It may not have involved transfer of money, but there was some way that power decided the issue.
Why not sell the naming rights to the city itself? Instead of Chicago, it can be Google, Illinois. An ad on every postmark, municipal bond, and airline schedule. Then sell the state name. Google, in the state of Fedex. To maintain the name, a substantial payment must be paid on a regular schedule. If a company fails, hold an auction for renaming rights. Every item with the obsolete, traditional state name would become a collector's item and available for sale. (Remember when the 21st state used to be called Illinois?) How about the United States of Chevrolet? We don't owe Amerigo Vespucci anything. That deadbeat's had many more than his 15 minutes, and completely free of charge.
Wow.. Philadelphia will sell part of its history to AT&T for 3 million dollars yet it refused one million dollars from DC Shoe Company to allow skateboarding at Love Park.
If the rich and powerful elite use this as a means to name every available nook and cranny after themselves I will personally start tearing down the signs.
Wow...Philadelphia will sell part of its history for 3 million dollars yet it refused one million dollars from a sneaker company to allow skateboarding in Love Park.
Public pensions are unsustainable. We can sell all the parks we want but it won't pay the bill in ten years.
Announcement......Attention.....The Brooklyn Bridge is now the Bridge Over Troubled Waters!
The selling of America by corporate America! First jobs sent overseas in the name of corporate greed. Now, those same companies buy naming rights to advertise products made overseas.
We have come full circle. Next, the federal government will sell naming rights to federal parks, rivers, lakes, states and national treasures.
Don't give Obama an idea.
so what happens next year when all this quick cash is gone? most municipalities are so far in debt these little trinkets won't last long. at what point in time do local, state and national government's realize that they are simply unsustainable? over paid, over staffed, over budgeted, over pensioned, etc. etc.
It's not a "tax more" situation - it's cut everything back to being sustainable and realistic. in the state of Oregon over 50% of the population of Oregon is employed by some type of government agency. That is completely unsustainable.
Thank you for saying this so well. This country has turned into nothing but a bunch of complaining crybabies.
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Here's a thought: The Bank of America White House?
In the movie"Top Gun," Tom Cruise's character,Maverick flew into the jet-wash of "Iceman" portrayed by Val Kilmer. Maverick's jet went into a flat spin- and headed uncontrollably out to sea. This is similar in many ways to the direction of this still great American nation. We are spiraling out of control,; have lost control of the device that could propel us back on course; and, like Maverick's "rear," Goose, will end up dead in the water from a violent crash into the canopy. The naysayers are rallying against me with:"it's only a movie" mantra. But, unlike the movie- we as a people once united cannot save ourselves from doom by re-shooting the scene that will cause our further demise. We must somehow find a way out of the madness before some company decides to name a product "Death's Door" and passengers on the train must get off at the next stop!