Most City buildings won’t be renamed under new rules

The City of Prince Albert has a new naming rights policy – but it exempts existing facilities’ naming rights from being up for grabs.

The policy will allow individuals, organizations or corporations, to buy the naming rights for new facilities built in the city. The rights deals won’t last longer than 10 years, since that is the time limit the City has placed on such agreements.

Under the new policy, long-standing sponsorship agreements may continue upon the approval of city council.

In the cases of existing buildings named for organizations that are still fully functioning or are partnered with the City, they won’t be considered for re-naming, according to community services director Jody Boulet.

“A lot of those, we do recognize there’s been significant contribution previously from a lot of different people and organizations that did lead to some name recognition on some of our facilities and we want to respect that,” he said.

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The policy is expected to have the greatest impact on new facilities. The policy requires the application to name a City facility must include evidence of the community’s support for the proposed name. As well, it has to include the value of all funds, goods and services the applicant will provide and the recognition it is to be provided in return.

The policy bars the consideration of corporate names for parks, but allows it for trails and greenways, facilities or assets within parks or facilities.

A big aspect of the corporate naming and sponsorship policy is its potential to entice financial support for a facility, Boulet said.

But, he added, it’s also good for companies to link their business ventures back to City-owned assets.

“There’s a lot of value to a lot of those locations and we get a lot of visits through those facilities. In a lot of ways, it helps them reach their target audience too,” Boulet said.

While the City isn’t looking to limit its options when it comes to potential sponsors or naming rights purchasers, Boulet said there would be cases where it makes sense to link up with a larger corporation, citing SaskTel Centre in Saskatoon as an example.

For community groups, which may not have be able to make the same sort of financial contribution as a corporation, but their volunteers and support would be considered.

“So, it’s not just going to be considered for facilities, but it’s also going to be for maybe certain park features, maybe not the park itself, but features within a park or ball diamonds, things to that effect, where it’s going to really open up, I think, a lot of opportunities for the City that we’re not currently taking advantage of,” Boulet said.

And when the City does get funds in exchange for naming rights, the City plans to re-invest that money in the facility. Boulet said he thinks it’s going to be a more sustainable approach than leaving spaces without a commitment from a corporation or organization.

Boulet said this policy has been a long time coming.

“We’re hoping to, in the future, do some new things in the community as far as facility infrastructure is concerned. If we can add a naming rights opportunity, or sponsorship opportunities within the facility as well, because they’re not all just naming rights … then it’s going to bring us some further revenue that we weren’t previously getting.”

tjames@panow.com

On Twitter: @thiajames