New names could be coming to some Thunder Bay recreational facilities

Some famous Thunder Bay buildings could be getting new names in the coming years.

On Monday, city council will consider moving ahead with the possibility of selling naming rights to Thunder Bay recreational facilities like the Fort William Gardens, Canada Games Complex, Centennial Botanical Conservatory, and Port Arthur Stadium.

A report is recommending councillors approve a three-year naming rights implementation plan, which would allow the city to begin pursuing possible sponsorship deals for the included facilities.

"Naming rights are a type of sponsorship and a long-term contractual arrangement where a third-party provides financial contributions, goods or services in return for access to the commercial and marketing potential associated with the public display of their name as part of the asset," the report reads. "This is a proven model to fund recreational and cultural facilities."

There are several levels of naming rights, the report states, from the actual name of a facility, to naming a specific area within a facility, such as a pool or field within a larger facility.

"There are many factors that impact the anticipated naming rights value of a facility," the report reads. "Primary naming rights revenue for a single-use facility can range from $75,000- $500,000 over a 5 to 15 year period."

"Higher value ranges are typically associated with major urban centres, resident professional sports teams, and new construction."

Westfort Coun. Kristen Oliver said she's excited to see the report coming forward.

"Naming rights is certainly not new," Oliver said. "Most municipalities have some sort of infrastructure that has a naming right to usually a private entity, a company of some sort."

"I think it's a great way to generate additional revenue without having to go back to the tax base," she said. "And I think it's also a wonderful way of bridging partnerships between municipalities and the private sector, and doing some publicity for these businesses that are willing to come into an agreement and put their name on one of our buildings."

The report also names the Prince Arthur's Landing festival area, proposed turf sports facility, Delaney Arena, Fort William Stadium, satellite arenas, and city baseball diamonds as places where naming rights could be made available.

"I think people do have attachments to the names of things," Oliver said. "When we look at Fort William Gardens, it's been around for a long, long time."

"Even my mother has memories of roller skating through there when it first opened," she said. "But at the end of the day, I think the community would likely be more supportive and recognizing that the city is looking at opportunities to generate additional revenue without it going back onto the tax base."

"When we're looking at how that is going to transform and create these opportunities, this is something I think the community will likely get behind."

The report to council notes that the City of Kenora was able to secure $700,000 in naming rights sponsorships for three of its recreation and tourism facilities since 2022.

Oliver said there will likely be discussion among councillors on how to use any money brought in by selling naming rights to Thunder Bay facilities.

"Even as we're having the discussions about the multi-use indoor turf facility ... we're looking at how do we generate a reserve fund for that future maintenance and those repair costs that will come up at some point?" she said. "And looking at how do we take that off the tax base and put it back on to the user."

"Is that done through a registration fee, that for every registration there's a $5 facility fee or something that's tacked on to start building those revenues? Is there an opportunity through the naming rights to allocate some of those dollars into a reserve fund? I think that's likely some of the questions we'll be hearing on Monday night."