April 2011 - Parks & Recreation - 54

F i scal B l u es
numerous conservancies and park friends groups
in helping keep his parks open and running. " I desperately need conservancies to help me keep up
some of our signature parks, " Turner says. These
groups range in size from the larger Herman Park
Conservancy down to groups representing twoblock-wide parks. " So, even though I may not have
park funds-park capital bond monies-I still have
development going on because our park board can
raise money privately.
" There are all kinds of ways to make it work, "
Turner says. " Right now we are looking at an all-fee
structure. I cannot set a fee structure unless my [city]
council approves it. In the past, they've never wanted to charge for things. Compared with other cities,
it will be minuscule. "

Los Angeles
Parks and recreation in Los Angeles, a city of 3.8
million, is an equally complex undertaking. It's a
" semi-proprietary " department that gets a direct appropriation of property taxes, close to $140 million in
the past budget year. Going into the 2011-12 budget
cycle, that figure will drop to $128 million, according
Jon Kirk Mukri, general manager of the Los Angeles
Department of Recreation and Parks. His department
also derives another $30 million to $40 million in its
own revenues, from a variety of venues, such as the
Greek Theatre. " That's not bad, " Mukri says of the
roughly $177 million for his budget.
Unfortunately, for the past three budget cycles,
the city has been charging Mukri's department for
" common support and services, " such as utilities

Name Your Price
Naming rights extend way beyond the entrance sign

ention park naming
rights, and most people
think of multi-millionaire philanthropists, not average
citizens. Creative park (and park
foundation) directors, though, are
redefining the traditional notion of
naming rights-and they are negotiating, packaging, marketing, and
cross-promoting those rights in
ways that can appeal to every level
of giving.
In the city of Fairfax, Virginia,
Mike McCarty entered the realm of
park naming rights when a wealthy
county resident, Geraldine Sherwood, donated $5 million for a
new community center that she
wished to be named for her late
husband Stacy. McCarty, in accepting the gift, asked that the
city of Fairfax be given the rights
to name spaces in and around the
community center. Reserving additional naming rights, he argued,
would help provide for the ongoing capital purchases and replacement costs the community center
would require.
Mrs. Sherwood agreed to those
terms, and the Stacy C. Sherwood Community Center project launched the agency's first
comprehensive naming rights

52 Parks & Recreation

Apr i l 2 0 1 1

campaign. The city stipulated that
rooms and spaces inside the center-as well as playgrounds, trail
sections, ball fields, trees, and
other exterior elements-may be
named after an individual, organization, or corporation for a onetime donation. Donation amounts
are based on a per square foot
price for designated periods of
time, with the maximum duration being 20 years. And, if multiple donors select the same space,
the naming rights are awarded to
the donor agreeing to the longest
duration.
Fairfax has cross-promoted its
naming rights program with a local arts foundation, Spotlight on the
Arts-an arrangement that has not
only led them to more donors but
has also given them a ready-made
foundation vehicle for accepting various types of donations.
So far, McCarty says, the community center naming rights campaign
has brought in about $500,000.
And its importance lies not just in
the funds raised for this particular
project, but also in the lessons the
county has learned about a donation
opportunity open to virtually every
member of the community.

www.NRPA .ORG

Naming rights are nothing new
to NRPA President Dianne Hoover,
director of Recreation and Parks
in Bakersfield, California. She recently wrapped up her latest substantial naming rights project with
the opening of Aera Park, a 11-field
baseball complex named for an energy company. Previously she had
coordinated the sale of naming
rights for the city's amphitheater for
$500,000 for five years to Bright
House Networks, a cable company (see Parks & Recreation, August 2006). Aera Park is a public/
private/nonprofit partnership between Bakersfield Recreation and
Parks, Aera Energy, and Bakersfield South West Baseball (BSWB),
a local PONY baseball league. The
BSWB league previously played on
the campus of Cal State University
but needed to find a new facility
due to expansions at the university.
Fortunately, the president of Aera
Energy was a big baseball fan and
was already seeking naming rights
opportunities with Bakersfield Recreation and Parks.
" It's really all about partnerships, " Hoover says. " I've heard
people say, 'I really don't want to
give up that authority.' We don't

April 2011 - Parks & Recreation

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