THUNDER BAY — For the right price, businesses in Thunder Bay could now put their names on major city-owned facilities, including the Fort William Gardens.
Council voted unanimously to move ahead with a plan to sell naming rights to several recreational sites.
Administration recommended 3-year implementation plans for naming right contracts to allow the city to test the waters and fine-tune its strategy.
If successful, the city could extend those contracts to five to ten-year implementation plans.
Judy Haber, CEO of the consulting firm Performance Sponsorship Group (PSG), provided council with an overview of the naming rights plan at Monday's meeting.
Haber stated that council would need to be transparent throughout the naming rights process as they will be building a partnership with the business, but “fundamentally, at the end of the day, it's up to city council to determine whether or not they want to proceed with who they want to attract as prospects,” said Haber.
In a memo to city council, PSG identified five potential sites, including Fort William Gardens, the Canada Games Complex, the proposed multi-use indoor turf facility, the Prince Arthur’s Landing festival area, and the Centennial Botanical Conservatory.
“Our exercise that we were tasked with was to examine the value of our assets if, in the case, we wanted to attract corporate support,” said Haber.
The festival area and conservatory were flagged as high priority because their reopening presents an opportunity to increase the marketing value of the facilities, according to the memo.
PSG and city staff set up criteria for prioritizing, including:
- The seasonal significance and annual foot traffic
- Facilities that are suitable for re-naming using a brand or corporate name
- Inherent leadership position for a brand or corporation.
New construction and major facility enhancements were also factored into the valuation process.
Coun. Greg Johnsen asked who would be in charge of vetting the sponsors: PSG or city administration.
“We will work with city staff in helping develop a list of prospects for approval by city staff and possibly for approval through council. Once those prospects have been approved, we then, with working with administration, develop a sales piece,” said Haber.
Although the amount a business would pay would be negotiated between the municipality and the business. Recently, the City of Kenora secured $700,000 in naming rights sponsorships for three recreation and tourism facilities over 10 years.
Coun. Rajni Agarwal noted that Kenora is smaller than Thunder Bay and asked Haber if she had any data on what businesses could pay in cities similar to Thunder Bay in size and scope.
Haber said that every city, large or small, has different pricing models.
“Every municipality and city and town that we've worked for across the country, that's generally something negotiated before the deal before the naming rights deal closes,” said Haber.
She stated that several factors will affect pricing, one of which is the state of the facility.
“This is the art of the business,” said Haber.
