"Imagine the Google Switching Center. Now try on the Sony Pictures In-Railroad Entertainment System. And the Morton's Steakhouse dining car. Naming rights have rescued major California businesses before. Now the chief of the often-belittled California High-Speed Rail Authority (HSR) thinks they may be at least part of the answer to keeping the half-built bullet train system going long enough to actually carry passengers."
"the train has already secured Part 1 of its fiscal survival plan, an absolute must after President Trump canceled $4 billion in federal grant money for the poorly planned but partly built project. That happened when Gov. Gavin Newsom this fall signed a new law called SB 840, giving the train project one-fourth of the state's take (or about $1 billion a year) for 20 years from cap-and-trade fees of companies that pay to continue their polluting ways."
"HSR director Ian Choudri first floated the idea of leveraging that money's presence to help sell naming rights. Some laughed, but Inglewood's year-old Intuit Center brought in about $500 million for its naming, and Aspiration Partners, a financial technology firm that went bankrupt in March, reportedly offered $1 billion. The Intuit Center cannot even move. If it costs that much to plaster your name on a building, imagine how much could be raised by selling naming rights for a constantly-running luxury train."
California's high-speed rail lost a $4 billion federal grant but secured SB 840, which allocates roughly $1 billion annually from cap-and-trade fees for 20 years to the project. The project's estimated cost exceeds $100 billion, so the SB 840 funds serve as seed money. HSR director Ian Choudri proposed leveraging those funds to market naming rights across the system. Recent high-profile naming deals, such as Inglewood's Intuit Center fetching about $500 million and a reported $1 billion offer from Aspiration Partners, suggest large sums are possible. Naming opportunities could include the entire system, engines, cars, stations, seats, and in-car advertising.
Read at www.mercurynews.com
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