In case you missed it, take a look at this plan for the cash-strapped New York M.T.A. to sell off naming rights to subway stations. The first taker: Barclays, which will buy the privilege to change the name of the stop at Atlantic Avenue and Pacific Street in Brooklyn to Barclays Center.
I think this is a fantastic idea, but why stop short? Currently Subway restaurants are getting a free ride on the backs of the taxpayers, reaping scads of publicity from the system without paying a dime for the privilege. Why not sell the naming rights to the whole thing? I think the “Dow Chemical Underground Rail System” has a nice ring to it.
And why stop there? How about naming rights to freeways? One very equitable possibility: why not rename Michigan’s Chrysler Freeway the Chrysler Unsecured Creditors Expressway? Seems like fair compensation given what the lenders have been through.
P.S. — The supercomputers are still crunching the data on your hilarious entries in the Worst Road competition. Results soon.
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Is it smart to put your name on things you don’t control? A station could turn into a crime hot spot, a highway into a congested nightmare. Even litter or pot-holes would show the name in a bad light.
Why stop there? Top business schools are already auctioning off their names to the highest bidder (e.g. Oxford’s Said business school).
Why not public buildings like the White House? It could become Microsoft House. The Pentagon could be the Boeing Building.
I think this answers your question, ‘why stop there?’.
@Lee, in this vein, I think it would be York, Jersey, and Mexico that would have to pay their ‘New’ counterparts, not the other way around. And something tells me the Dutch aren’t going to be too happy about doing that….
And I honestly think it’s a terrible idea. The whole point of having a name is to tell you, roughly, what you can expect when you get off at a stop (a concept that is lost on the MBTA, but that’s another issue).
We call the 42nd St. stop on the 4/5/6 Grand Central because, well, that’s where it is!
Imagine if we sold 33rd St. as Duane Reade and 72nd St. as Starbucks. ‘Take the 2 to Starbucks, and then meet me by Duane Reade.’
Aren’t public structures supposed to be named after the politician that delivered the pork to the district?
In the wake of the financial crisis I believe the selling of Naming Rights for the purpose corporate branding unnessacaraly skews the values of ours are future generations.
Ernon Park should have had the name changed in honor of the Whistle Blowers, not just sold to another corporation.
Freeways are still dedicated to national and civil icons and few would be disapointed by realing the biography of any of the honored individuals.
why stop there? hah!
When deep space exploration ramps up, it’ll be the corporations that will name everything: the IBM stellar-sphere, the Microsoft galaxy, Planet Starbucks.
i can see it now “And today in traffic news, there’s a backup on the Mc408, we’d advise taking the Burger King expressway as an alternative.” I don’t disagree with corperate sponsorship of public roads, but not remaing rights. Sposorship of overpasses or sidebarriers to provide ads on this sides of, thus removing eyesore billboards.
Too bad A&P is no more…