By Thia James

New facility naming policy to apply to new buildings only: Mayor

Sep 25, 2014 | 6:32 AM

A potential new naming rights policy that would allow corporations and organizations to buy the naming rights of City-owned buildings in Prince Albert will only apply to new facilities.

The naming rights policy is in its draft stages and is expected to make its way to city council. The issue was most recently raised in Prince Albert following Saskatoon’s agreement to rename the Credit Union Centre. In that instance, the naming rights will go to Crown corporation SaskTel on Oct. 1, with the building taking a new name: SaskTel Centre. SaskTel will pay $350,000 over 10 years for those rights.

A similar move would not be possible under a proposed new policy governing naming rights in Prince Albert.

“Unfortunately, what we have now is we have named them. There was no time limit in, so we can’t change those ones. It’ll be for any new building and any new fundraising thing moving forward,” Mayor Greg Dionne said on Monday.

He said that when a building is named in Prince Albert, it seems to stay that way forever. But Dionne is looking to change that for future buildings.

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As the mayor points out, in cities where naming rights for a building are contracted for a fixed period of time, those agreements generate revenue for that building.

“And so, if you name it, you get the one donation after 10 years; that should be the run of the donation. Then after that, it’s up for grabs again,” Dionne said.

Prince Albert’s most famous arena, the Art Hauser Centre, was renamed for the man who was a major contributor to last decade’s “Bring Back the Magic Campaign.” Dionne noted that Hauser donated $1 million to refurbish the then-named Communiplex, and therefore the building should be named after him.

“The only thing is, the way it sits today, it’s named after him forever. And nothing lasts that long. And so, in 10 years, when the building has to be refurbished, and we need another million dollars, if a donor comes through, the name should change,” he said.

For the buildings that have already been named, Dionne said they can’t deal with them because the commitments have already been made.

But the City wouldn’t hand over naming rights to a new building based on who is willing to pay the most money. At least, not across the board.

Dionne said that in some buildings, the highest bidder will get the rights because that’s how the money will be raised for the facility. In the cases of other buildings, the naming rights will recognize the good deeds of the organization or company.

The policy will leave it up to fundraising committees whether or not a corporation could enter into a naming agreement.

“If it’s a new building being built and a corporation came through, for example, we’ll say Cameco comes through and says, ‘well, we like that idea, we like that philosophy in that new building, we’ll give you $3 million.’ On a $7 million building, they can name it. Those are the kinds of things we’re going to look at,” Dionne said.

Other smaller cities are — and have been — looking to naming rights agreements to help fund the operation of their public facilities.

In Moose Jaw, a city of comparable size to Prince Albert, the recently opened home of the WHL Warriors opened in 2011 with the brand of a major potash company emblazoned on it.

Mosaic Place, also known as the Moose Jaw Multiplex, is so named because of a 10-year agreement between The Mosaic Company and the City. Starting in 2011, the company began annual payments of $150,000.

The City is currently working on its own formal naming rights policy and Jody Hauta, director of parks and recreation said they are reviewing policies from other Saskatchewan cities. In Moose Jaw, there are also agreements in place to name portions of buildings, and in these cases the names will be in place for an indefinite period of time.

But with Mosaic Place, he said the multiplex was separated out because they saw that other cities were entering into naming rights agreements for their multiplexes.

“When Mosaic Place was being built, there was a community fundraising group known as the Moose Jaw Multiplex builders and what they did is they had requested city council for the opportunity to be able to sell the naming rights.”

He said the funding from the naming rights is all going towards the operations of Mosaic Place.

For Mosaic Place, he said, the funding that comes via the agreement is treated as an additional revenue stream.

“The intent of naming rights and some of your regular rentals is to get a stable source of revenue that you know is coming in on an annual basis and that offsets, obviously the costs and expenses of operating the facility,” he said.

It’s common for naming rights agreements to have a term set, Hauta said, and that gives a term that the facility will have a consistent name. But it also has a reciprocal benefit for the party providing the funding.

“Naming rights are certainly becoming more and more common across Canada and the value of naming rights continues to go up because of the exposure that corporations are getting from them.”

tjames@panow.com

On Twitter: @thiajames