Imagine the Boca Grande Woman's Club Swing Bridge.
Or the Reyn Guyer Swing Bridge.
Or the Bayard Sharp Swing Bridge.
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Jim Cooper
All are possibilities provided a naming rights fee deal can be negotiated by the principals and paid to the Gasparilla Island Bridge Authority.
Jim Cooper, GIBA executive director, is now hunting for a person or organization interested in paying for naming rights to the bridges. Proceeds from such a deal would go to reduce bridge construction costs estimated at $40 million.
Sharp would be a strong historical fit. The island resident was the prime motivator in convincing the State Legislature to create GIBA in 1996 as an independent taxing district that gave island residents and voters control of their own destiny through a locally elected government of neighbors living within the boundaries of the GIBA special district on Cole and Gasparilla islands only.
It's unclear how much it will cost to buy the naming rights a GIBA bridge. The idea has been tried elsewhere with mixed success.
The top tier in naming rights involves sports stadiums that provide national exposure to companies that pay the price to stamp a brand on baseball parks, basketball arenas and football fields. Those deals have generated the greatest amount of revenue with seven-digit payoffs.
Here in Lee County, stadium naming rights given to JetBlue Airlines will now provide $1.2 million - $150,000 per year - over eight years. The JetBlue brand will continue to be than name of the spring training facility in Fort Myers where the Boston Red Sox play at least through 2019 and an extension could be negotiated.
Just buying naming rights, however, doesn't ensure people will use the stadium's new name. JetBlue Park, for example, is most often called Fenway South or Little Fenway because it mimics the parent club's famous home park in Boston.
A similar situation exists in New Orleans where the Superdome became the Mercedes-Benz Superdome after the state of Louisiana and the German automaker signed a 10-year deal in 2011. Most sports fans still call it the Superdome as they have ever since it opened in 1975.
The 23 multimillion-dollar National Football League naming rights deals still have great value even if the businesses don't trip lightly off the tongues of sports fans. The NFL is by far the highest-rated TV show year after year so even the Superdome pays off handsomely for its sponsor.
Do naming rights fees for lower-profile infrastructures such as roads or bridges offer a value, too?
Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell thinks so. In January he convinced the General Assembly to allow the state to sell naming rights to its transportation infrastructure.
Under the proposal, private entities can pay an annual fee to name highways, interchanges, bridges and other infrastructure. The naming rights fees would help pay for road and bridge maintenance - just as it would for GIBA.
No asset is too small. Virginia also allows private companies to bid on state rest areas although it reserves the right to reject any vulgar, offensive or "inappropriate" names.
The Virginia Center for Transportation Innovation and Research estimates naming rights could generate $27.3 million in revenue in five years although some in the Virginia Legislature have ridiculed the estimates as wildly optimistic. Virginia's program begins July 9. GIBA'S is under way although no takers have yet been found.
