National
Parks Will Start Selling Naming Rights to Corporate Sponsors
By: Kevin Mathews at care2causes
You’re probably shuddering at the
thought of these national treasures being linked to corporate sponsors, but
thanks to new federal rule changes, this possibility is closer than you think.
Since
it was established, the National Park Service has thwarted attempts to
commercialize these nature preserves.
In the past, the parks have limited
commemorations of large donations to modest, easy-to-overlook plaques.
Now,
during the park service’s centennial celebration, the organization is deciding
to court corporate money by offering up a lot of opportunities
for naming rights.
The government is hoping to avoid going too far by maintaining a ban on out-and-out advertisements or naming park roads after companies.
What is allowed,
though, seems not much better. Company names and logos can be conspicuously
attached to:
- Visitor centers
- Benches
- Lockers
- Bricks
- Educational guides
- Park buses and trams
- Youth programs
Heck,
corporations can even design, construct and maintain their own buildings in a
park.
Basically,
there are all sorts of branding opportunities now available to corporations.
Visitors trying to get away from the logos and commercialization that are core
to city life may be disappointed at how much companies are permitted to
encroach on these formerly sacred spaces.
In
case you haven’t already guessed, the decision is motivated by a need for
money. National parks currently have a list of $11 billion worth of maintenance
projects that have been put on the back burner.
Designs for new amenities that
would hopefully attract younger visitors have had to be shelved for similar
budgetary reasons.
Feel
free to blame Congress for this approach. After ignoring multiple requests to
increase funding to the National Park Service, lawmakers instead opted to
loosen the rules for parks receiving private money.
Funny, that seems more like
a perk for the legislators’ corporate friends rather than the parks themselves!
Despite
the need for money, park directors aren’t exactly relishing the rule changes.
Now, they are expected to start reaching out to rich patrons to pay for their
parks, even though fundraising isn’t typically their area of expertise.
At this
point, park heads are explicitly being told to schmooze and secure those newly
available dollars.
The
National Parks Conservation Association has expressed some concerns at
the precedent this sets.
“Does that become a major part of the job?” asks
representative John Garden. “Can the Park Service say, ‘This person’s doing an
awesome job at protecting bison, but they’re not raising enough money’?”
There
are people who will tell you this step is necessary because it’s impossible to
keep national parks afloat without getting this extra money.
I’d contend that
it’d be easy to fund parks if politicians actually required corporations to pay their fair share of taxes –
then you’d have the money without all that obnoxious signage!
Make
no mistake: Selling naming rights is a choice that the government is making…
and a terrible one, at that.