Monroe
County is selling naming rights to lodges in its park system.
           “Throughout the United States,
budgets are being reduced,” says parks director Frank Allkofer, calling the
move a “revenue enhancement.”
           The county is starting with the more
popular lodges in its 20-park system — lodges in Greece Canal Park, Black
Creek Park, and Webster Park — seeking requests for proposals from interested
sponsors, Allkofer says.
           Sponsors will own the rights for
varying, finite lengths of time, Allkofer says. Individual terms will be
negotiated with the parks department. “We’d like to get them long-term, if we
can.”
           For their money, sponsors will get a
plaque in the lodge and their name on the Monroe County Parks Department web
site. They would not be responsible for any of the lodge’s upkeep or
maintenance.
           Allkofer would not say how much he
wants for the naming rights — afraid that publishing a dollar amount would
influence how much sponsors are willing to pay.
           “We’re not going to give these
things away,” he says.
           Although this is a new idea for
Monroe County, the concept is being discussed on a national level as
municipalities struggle with budget deficits and funding cuts.
           “There is always a shortage of
funding for upkeep,” says Cynthia Howk, architectural research coordinator with
The Landmark Society. “This has certainly been one of the strategies. It may
provide a very reasonable funding stream.”
           Not knowing the details of Monroe
County’s plan, Howk says she would neither endorse nor criticize it. But, Howk
says, there is a difference between a donation — which usually has an
educational purpose — and a corporate sponsorship.
           The main issue, Howk says, is “what
is attached to it other than simply the name?” using Coca-Cola as a fictional
example. By buying naming rights, she posed, would the soft-drink company also
insist the park sell nothing but Coca-Cola products?
           Many county legislators contacted
for this story were unaware of the details of the plan. The parks department
doesn’t need the Legislature’s approval on contracts under $5,000. Most
legislators say they’ve heard the idea tossed around, but weren’t aware it was
actually in the works. In fact, Allkofer hopes to have the first sponsorship
secured by year’s end.
           “I think it’s ridiculous,” says
Democrat Fred Amato, a member of the Legislature’s Recreation and Education
Committee. “They’re in a financial crisis and need to raise funds. There’s a
big mess out there and they’re trying to get funds any way they can.”
           Amato accused the county
administration of giving away the store in an attempt to dig itself out of a
financial hole, citing the upcoming sale of 28-acres of the IOLA campus at
public auction as another example.
           “If there’s a possibility of selling
it, they’re going to go ahead and do it,” he says.
           Legislator Lynda Garner Goldstein,
another Democrat on the committee, joked that she is “waiting for a proposal to
sell the county office building.”
           She doesn’t know the details of the
plan, Goldstein says, but does not like the idea of “commercializing parks.”
           Republican Legislator Tracy Logel,
vice chair of the committee, supports selling naming rights, she says, if it’s
done in a tasteful way.
           The current names of the lodges are
generic for the most part and do not have any special historic significance as
far as she knows, says county historian Carolyn Vacca. Vacca doesn’t see how
selling naming rights could negatively impact the county’s parks.
           “It’s not a case where somebody’s
putting up billboards, Vacca says. “As long as it’s consistent with the
architecture of the lodges there and the surroundings, it shouldn’t detract
from the natural beauty of the park.”
           In fact, if the revenue generated
from the sales helps maintain that natural beauty, Vacca says, then “in the
long run, it’s probably doing more good than harm.”
This article appears in Sep 17-23, 2003.
