The City of Prince George is looking for corporations to bid on the new name for the downtown pool, but the Chamber of Commerce CEO Todd Corrigall said this should have been done much earlier.
Corrigall said that while it is encouraging that the city is looking at naming rights for sponsorship dollars, organizations should have been approached about this before construction even started.
“This is a moment where you have an opportunity to engage a strategic discussion with somebody who is going to be a partner with you for a very, very long time, and hopefully be investing millions of dollars through the facility naming process.”
He added that pushing the process directly to an RFP process completely eliminates that discussion, and makes it purely a financial discussion.
“People are not willing to just throw money to have their name on the building. What they’re looking for are opportunities to be partners, opportunities to host events, host activations for their clients or their staff.”
Corrigall added that there are organizations that could have helped in this process as well, and could accurately have estimated the value of that naming process.
When looking for an example of well initiated partnerships, Corrigall said we don’t have to look any further than our neighbours.
“I think if you look just across the Rockies, Alberta has been highly successful, municipally and provincially, in developing those relationships and understanding prior to construction what the value propositions are, and what becomes important to a partner.”
He added that this is a large investment, and partnerships need to last for a long time.
“This is a long term partnership. Even signage for a building of this scale costs many, many thousands of dollars, so that’s not something you want to change every three, five, or ten years. You want an organization that’s invested in your community and in your facility for decades to come.”
Corrigall said he was also worried that by going through the RFP process, the city might be undervaluing what should be millions of dollars, money that could be going towards offsetting facility maintenance costs.
If the City’s renaming process is successful, they’ll start looking at other facilities to be renamed.
Something going on in the Prince George area you think people should know about?
Send us a news tip by emailing [email protected].
