The square is dancing for a sponsor again.
For the second time in as many years, the provincial government is flogging naming rights for Robson Square, which has played a pivotal role in the city’s sports history.
This time the approach is different. It published a request for proposals November 25 to find a marketing professional to identify “a viable potential advertising partner or partners (sponsor) for Robson Square, and introduce that entity to the province.”
The six-month contract, which could be extended to nine, would include the contractor as an adviser during negotiations with the prospective sponsor. Such a naming rights deal would run three to five years with a government option for five more years. No price was disclosed. The province is willing to give up its monthly event date on the Vancouver Art Gallery’s fourth-floor to the sponsor.
Robson Square was where the Vancouver Whitecaps held their Soccer Bowl ’79 victory rally. Arthur Griffiths and the rest of Vancouver’s Olympic bid committee erupted in triumph there in 1998 when the Canadian Olympic Committee chose it to seek the 2010 Winter Games. During the Games, it was the wildly successful epicentre of the provincial government’s public, business and media activities, drawing an estimated 1.5 million visitors. London 2012 chairman Sebastian Coe told me he wanted to recreate Robson Square somehow at the next Summer Olympics.
But there’s a catch. The province rightly says it won’t sell naming rights to those in the business of tobacco, alcohol, pornography, weapons, “other life-threatening products” or those who harm the environment. The Citizens’ Services intellectual property program has a naming committee that decides which government assets can be sponsored. The naming privileges policy says “All naming recognition shall be consistent with the government’s values and objectives, and must uphold the integrity and reputation of the government.”
One thing, however, sets this deal apart. The RFP clearly states that “City of Vancouver sign bylaws will be observed.” This is notable after the video board installed at BC Place Stadium’s Terry Fox Plaza angered neighbours.
Bylaw inspectors could force the sign’s removal because it is oversized and creating glare on surrounding streets and buildings, but they’re powerless because PavCo is exploiting the stadium’s provincial status under the B.C. Enterprise Corporation Act.
The $10.2 million ice rink at Robson Square was renamed GE Ice Plaza in 2007 but not fully resurrected and reopened until late 2009. The rink reopened for the new season December 1, just over two weeks after Occupy Vancouver was ordered to remove its tent village from near the provincial court entrance.
Vision’s tee time
The City of Vancouver hired CK Golf Solutions for a $62,000 no-bid contract to develop and implement a golf-marketing plan. The year-long deal, which tees off January 1, would involve an email newsletter, press release program, social media, website maintenance, development of corporate and special events packages and market research.
CK, according to the city’s notice of intent, was chosen because it has “extensive knowledge” of the Lower Mainland golf industry. It might have an easier job if McCleery, Langara and Fraserview get the rubber-stamp to serve booze on the links in 2012.
After three years of promoting cycling, with a brief dalliance in hyping mixed martial arts, does this mean the Vision Vancouver-dominated city administration is realizing the benefits of golf? Nobody from city council or park board was on-hand for the ceremony when Sean O’Hair won the RBC Canadian Open at Shaughnessy Golf and Country Club last summer. Although the storied club is on Musqueam reserve land, it was celebrating the 100th anniversary of its founding in Shaughnessy.
Uniform effort
Another sign of the maturity of youth soccer in Vancouver.
Dunbar, Kerrisdale and Point Grey soccer associations have merged as Vancouver United FC under a new green, blue and grey logo featuring the Burrard Bridge. The new uniforms are supplied by Adidas, which also supplies the Vancouver Whitecaps and the rest of Major League Soccer. The professional-looking jerseys include the logo of Right To Play, the international charity based in Toronto that encourages the use of sport for education and esteem in developing countries. The design package was provided pro bono by Emblematica Brand Builders. •
