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Might visitors to the Windy City someday ride the Lowe’s Chicago El, shop on the Microsoft Magnificent Mile and tour Old Navy Pier?
The city has hired a marketing firm to explore the potential for selling naming rights and sponsorships as a way to bring in much-needed city revenue, the Chicago Tribune reported Friday.
The Daley administration has awarded a $285,000 contract to Octagon Inc. to examine what the city has to offer and, by next spring, produce a marketing plan that will attract corporate sponsors and advertisers.
Octagon will inventory city programs, events, buildings and other physical assets and determine which would be most attractive to companies that might want to affix their names in some way.
The contract states that any plan must ensure “the integrity of the city of Chicago’s brand image,” and ideas must be presented to an advisory group of civic leaders, which has not yet been formed.
Mayor Richard Daley’s press office and Octagon did not return telephone messages Friday from The Associated Press inquiring about the contract.
Chicago wouldn’t be the first city to offer municipal names for sale.
Nextel has sponsored the Las Vegas Monorail and New York has entered into partnership agreements with such firms as Snapple, Verizon and Pepsi Cola, according to city budget office spokeswoman Wendy Abrams.
In Canada, the city of Winnipeg, Manitoba, announced plans two weeks ago to sell naming rights for city pools, arenas, buildings and even city services in an attempt to offset a $2 billion shortfall. Similar programs are operating in Calgary, Ottawa and Toronto.
i feel the shame
