Sell the Naming Rights to Your Suits, Councilman

[Gary Ruskin]

Commercial Alert				May 2, 2001

Following is Commercial Alert's statement about a proposal to sell the
naming rights to a part of the City of San Diego.

NEWS RELEASE

For Immediate Release:		For More Information Contact:
Wednesday, May 2, 2001		Gary Ruskin (503) 295-6916

Sell The Naming Rights to Your Suits, Councilman

Following San Diego City Councilman Brian Maienschein's proposal to sell
naming rights to the city's 26-block downtown ballpark district,
Commercial Alert suggested that the councilman sell naming rights to his
business suits to save taxpayers the money from his salary. 

Under Councilman Maienchiein's proposal, the city would sell the name of
the neighborhood surrounding the Padres new stadium to a corporation. 
This would be separate from the naming rights to the stadium itself. 
Currently the neighborhood fits within what is called the East Village. 
Under Maienchiein's proposal, it might become the "Preparation H
District," or the "Budweiser Corner" or perhaps "Monsanto Village."

"If we can generate a significant amount of money, it is going to be in
San Diego's best interest because we are going to save a ton of money
for the taxpayers," Maienschein said, according to the San Diego
Union-Tribune.	

"Maybe the councilman could sell naming rights to his business suits
instead," said Gary Ruskin, executive director of Commercial Alert. 
"That could save the taxpayers the cost of his $54,021 annual salary."
              
"If he wants to inflict this indignity upon citizens of his city,
shouldn't he inflict it upon himself first?" Ruskin asked.  "He could
look like a walking NASCAR racetrack, and thus be a testimony to his own
beliefs."

"We challenge the councilman to lead by example, and to turn his own
wardrobe and person into an icon of aggressive commercialism," Ruskin
said.

San Diego is already well-known for its commercialism.  In 1999, the
City of San Diego struck an exclusive marketing deal with the Pepsi
Bottling Group of San Diego.  Under the deal only Pepsi soft drinks will
be sold on city property in exchange for up to $23.6 million over 12
years.  

Ralph Nader founded Commercial Alert in 1998 to keep the commercial
culture within its proper sphere, and to prevent it from exploiting
children and subverting the higher values of family, community,
environmental integrity and democracy. 

Commercial Alert's website is at <http://www.commercialalert.org>.

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WHAT YOU CAN DO TO HELP:
Contact Councilman Brian Maienscheim and tell him (politely) what you
think about the commercialism of his proposal to sell the naming rights
to the ballpark district of San Diego.  His email address is
<bmaienschein@cd5.sannet.gov>, phone is (619) 236-6655 and fax is (619)
238-0915.

--------------
BACKGROUND:
Following is an article from the May 1 edition of the San Diego
Union-Tribune.

http://www.uniontrib.com/news/uniontrib/tue/metro/news_1m1park.html

City may put naming rights of its own to bid; Councilman sees ballpark
area earning money for S.D.
by Anthony Millican 

For a city that already celebrates corporate sponsorships at Qualcomm
Stadium, Cox Arena and the Culligan Holiday Bowl, now comes a proposal
to sell naming rights to the entire downtown ballpark district.

San Diego City Councilman Brian Maienschein wants to find a corporation
willing to attach its name to the 26-block district in what is now
called East Village. The deal would be separate from the naming rights
for the ballpark itself, which the Padres plan to sell.

Thus, the new ballpark could bear one corporate moniker while the
surrounding district could be promoted under the name of another
company.

Any money raised through sponsorship of the district would go toward
lowering the city's $225 million share of stadium construction costs,
Maienschein said.

No city in the country has named a section of downtown after a corporate
sponsor, he said.

"If we can generate a significant amount of money, it is going to be in
San Diego's best interest because we are going to save a ton of money
for the taxpayers," Maienschein said.

That would push the naming rights trend to new heights. Or lows,
according to some critics.

At his news conference yesterday outside the ballpark site, where
construction has stalled, Maienschein fielded repeated questions about
whether the city would seek to rename other high-profile locales, such
as Mission Bay or Ocean Beach.

Maienschein said his proposal is limited to the ballpark district.
Others joked about what might be next.

"I represent the Marina District and I wonder how it would go over to
call it Coca-Cola or the Pampers District," said downtown resident Ann
Fathy, a member of an advisory committee to the city's redevelopment
board.

Fathy worried about the precedent.

But Mel Shapiro, a longtime critic of the ballpark, said he liked
Maienschein's thinking.

"You could name every street leading to the ballpark" after a
corporation, Shapiro said. "You could have bids on it. And there is some
precedent. (A portion of) Texas Street is now Qualcomm Way."

Mayor Dick Murphy said through a spokeswoman yesterday that he had yet
to read the Maienschein proposal and thus could not comment on it.

Under the memorandum of understanding on the ballpark, the
voter-approved contract between the team and city, the Padres own the
naming rights to the stadium and adjacent retail parcels. Previous
estimates of the revenue the Padres could raise through the sale of
stadium naming rights have topped $100 million and some have suggested
it could be twice that over a 30-year period.

A key legal question is whether a city-generated deal to attach a
corporate name to the overall district would lower the value of the
team's naming rights deal for the ballpark proper.

Padres executives provided little insight in a terse statement issued
after Maienschein's morning news conference.

"Like him, we too await a comprehensive legal analysis by the City
Attorney's Office and by the Padres' lawyers. We will then respond
through appropriate channels with our partners at City Hall," said
Padres president Larry Lucchino.

Asked to assess the possible impact on the Padres' naming-rights deal,
Maienschein said he answers to the taxpayers and not to the team. He
also said he is no fan of the contract provision that allows the Padres
to keep all of the naming-rights proceeds from the new facility.

"Whether this ends up reducing the value of their naming rights that
they get to put into their bank account is not something I am overly
concerned with," Maienschein said. "If they want to be good and
responsible and let us have a share of the naming rights (proceeds from
the ballpark), I'm in favor of that."

Jack Monger, former president of the San Diego County Taxpayers
Association, applauded Maienschein for taking what he called a bold,
innovative approach. Monger remains a board member of the taxpayers
association and was at yesterday's news conference to show his group's
support.

"First of all, we said to the council, 'Come up with something
innovative, come up with some new ideas,' " he said. "Here comes one. On
the surface, it appears to make sense. We'd like to hear the city
attorney's position on whether it is possible or feasible."

Monger said he anticipates continued debate as to the appropriateness of
selling off the naming rights to a chunk of downtown.

"It's a toss-up between how much do we want to take out of our pocket to
fund this (ballpark) and how much do we want to get by selling off and
allowing a commercial name (on the district)," Monger said. "That's a
decision the council is going to have to make and I sense they are going
to get a lot of public input."

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-- 
Gary Ruskin | gary@essential.org
Commercial Alert | Congressional Accountability Project
http://www.commercialalert.org | http://www.congressproject.org
phone: 202.296.2787 or 503.295.6916