The Portillo’s Parking Garage? The Allstate Airport Train? Or how about the Trader Joe’s Terminal?
Those are just some of the possibilities as both O’Hare and Midway airport leaders look at selling naming rights and sponsorship opportunities for everything from bathrooms to entire terminals.
“As a global gateway and trusted partner to Fortune 500 companies and internationally recognized brands, the [Chicago Department of Aviation] is committed to thinking commercially and leveraging every opportunity to strengthen airport revenue in ways that support our airline partners and the traveling public,” Chicago aviation commissioner Michael McMurray is quoted as saying in a press release. “By inviting the industry’s best ideas and gauging market interest, we are laying the groundwork for innovative sponsorship and naming opportunities.
Mayor Brandon Johnson said there will be limits to what’s acceptable. “Obviously there will be some guidelines,” Johnson told reporters. “We want to make sure that our decorum reflects the classiness of our city.”
Aviation officials are asking firms interested in potential naming and sponsorship deals to submit initial interest by Feb. 17 at flychicago.com. The request for proposals indicates the airport is willing to slap a brand name on everything from baby changing stations to animal relief areas to holiday decor, a satellite concourse now under construction and the planned new international terminal.
“It’s rare – not unique – but rare,” sports industry consultant Marc Ganis told WGN Investigates. “It appears they are looking to deploy strategies used in sports facilities that now commonly have naming rights, entrance titles, area sponsorships, thematic branding, parking lot sponsorships and other similar advertising and corporate branding opportunities.”
More than 80 million passengers pass through O’Hare every year. Midway serves more than 22 million passengers. All already see an influx of advertising.
“In and of itself it’s not a bad idea if done properly, not excessively and the money is used to offset costs and perhaps enhance the passenger experience,” Ganis said; while urging caution. “As we’ve learned over many years in Chicago – the Skyway and parking meters come to mind – when public assets are sold or leased the taxpayers rarely benefit but the politically connected do very well.”
The openness to selling naming rights and sponsorships comes as O’Hare embarks on the latest phase of expansion with the construction of a new concourse. See it HERE.
For more information, visit FlyChicago.com/SponsorshipRFI.
