Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs

County parks go commercial

Naming rights to trails, ballfields, playgrounds, gardens, and more for sale!

Among the marketing literature...
Among the marketing literature...

Many of the 50 miles of new trails built by San Diego County Parks and Recreation shall remain nameless — both at the trailheads and on the maps — unless and until someone buys the naming rights.

According to marketing materials recently produced by the county parks department, for between $1000 and $200,000, people and businesses can buy five-year naming rights to skate parks, splash pools, community gardens, playgrounds, and many of the 400 miles of trails the county has built and maintains.

Trails in 36 county parks are in the naming-rights program, according to the county's list. Projects in development now — 8 miles of trails in the Otay Valley Regional Park, 20 miles in the San Luis Rey River Park, and 22 miles in the Tijuana River Valley Regional Park — will show on park maps but won’t have names, deputy parks director Jason Hemmens confirmed.

Sponsored
Sponsored

"We haven't named any yet, but we're hoping people are interested in naming our trails," Hemmens said. "The trails will not be named otherwise unless the board of supervisors approves the names."

Brands looking to promote themselves can also take a swing at five-year naming rights to 31 ballfields for between $2000 and $10,000. Also, opportunities to name 3 community gardens, 5 equestrian staging areas, 11 playgrounds, and other county park amenities.

So far, ballfields have been most in demand for naming rights. Three ballfields at 4S Ranch and a tennis court sold five-year rights at $10,000 each in the first few months.

The county hopes to raise up to $2 million from naming rights, according to county parks marketing manager Shannon Singler. The money will go for capital improvements, not for operations and maintenance.

The fundraising strategy arose from a 2012 report by Colorado-based consultant firm Greenplay, which looked at funding alternatives for the county parks. The naming-rights program was approved by the board of supervisors and put in place in January 2014.

Sponsors have to be compatible with the “family-friendly, healthy lifestyle orientation of the county government,” Singler noted.

"If the board of supervisors has already adopted the trail names, they will remain the same," Singler said. "Not all the trails in the county are available for the program." She said trailhead signs won't go up on trails where the naming rights are available.

"Trails could be listed as trail number one, two, or three until the rights are sold," she said.

Sgt. Don Parker of the San Diego County Sheriff's Department Search and Rescue Team had this advice: keep your cell phone with you.

"We're generally looking for people who are lost already, so trail names aren't that important," he said. "Depending on your carrier, the frequency of the pings, and proximity of the tower, we can pinpoint to within a few meters to a quarter mile circle of where the missing person is."

The latest copy of the Reader

Please enjoy this clickable Reader flipbook. Linked text and ads are flash-highlighted in blue for your convenience. To enhance your viewing, please open full screen mode by clicking the icon on the far right of the black flipbook toolbar.

Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

Gonzo Report: Eating dinner while little kids mock-mosh at Golden Island

“The tot absorbs the punk rock shot with the skill of experience”
Among the marketing literature...
Among the marketing literature...

Many of the 50 miles of new trails built by San Diego County Parks and Recreation shall remain nameless — both at the trailheads and on the maps — unless and until someone buys the naming rights.

According to marketing materials recently produced by the county parks department, for between $1000 and $200,000, people and businesses can buy five-year naming rights to skate parks, splash pools, community gardens, playgrounds, and many of the 400 miles of trails the county has built and maintains.

Trails in 36 county parks are in the naming-rights program, according to the county's list. Projects in development now — 8 miles of trails in the Otay Valley Regional Park, 20 miles in the San Luis Rey River Park, and 22 miles in the Tijuana River Valley Regional Park — will show on park maps but won’t have names, deputy parks director Jason Hemmens confirmed.

Sponsored
Sponsored

"We haven't named any yet, but we're hoping people are interested in naming our trails," Hemmens said. "The trails will not be named otherwise unless the board of supervisors approves the names."

Brands looking to promote themselves can also take a swing at five-year naming rights to 31 ballfields for between $2000 and $10,000. Also, opportunities to name 3 community gardens, 5 equestrian staging areas, 11 playgrounds, and other county park amenities.

So far, ballfields have been most in demand for naming rights. Three ballfields at 4S Ranch and a tennis court sold five-year rights at $10,000 each in the first few months.

The county hopes to raise up to $2 million from naming rights, according to county parks marketing manager Shannon Singler. The money will go for capital improvements, not for operations and maintenance.

The fundraising strategy arose from a 2012 report by Colorado-based consultant firm Greenplay, which looked at funding alternatives for the county parks. The naming-rights program was approved by the board of supervisors and put in place in January 2014.

Sponsors have to be compatible with the “family-friendly, healthy lifestyle orientation of the county government,” Singler noted.

"If the board of supervisors has already adopted the trail names, they will remain the same," Singler said. "Not all the trails in the county are available for the program." She said trailhead signs won't go up on trails where the naming rights are available.

"Trails could be listed as trail number one, two, or three until the rights are sold," she said.

Sgt. Don Parker of the San Diego County Sheriff's Department Search and Rescue Team had this advice: keep your cell phone with you.

"We're generally looking for people who are lost already, so trail names aren't that important," he said. "Depending on your carrier, the frequency of the pings, and proximity of the tower, we can pinpoint to within a few meters to a quarter mile circle of where the missing person is."

Comments
Sponsored

The latest copy of the Reader

Please enjoy this clickable Reader flipbook. Linked text and ads are flash-highlighted in blue for your convenience. To enhance your viewing, please open full screen mode by clicking the icon on the far right of the black flipbook toolbar.

Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

Pie pleasure at Queenstown Public House

A taste of New Zealand brings back happy memories
Next Article

Woodpeckers are stocking away acorns, Amorous tarantulas

Stunning sycamores, Mars rising
Comments
Ask a Hipster — Advice you didn't know you needed Big Screen — Movie commentary Blurt — Music's inside track Booze News — San Diego spirits Classical Music — Immortal beauty Classifieds — Free and easy Cover Stories — Front-page features Drinks All Around — Bartenders' drink recipes Excerpts — Literary and spiritual excerpts Feast! — Food & drink reviews Feature Stories — Local news & stories Fishing Report — What’s getting hooked from ship and shore From the Archives — Spotlight on the past Golden Dreams — Talk of the town The Gonzo Report — Making the musical scene, or at least reporting from it Letters — Our inbox Movies@Home — Local movie buffs share favorites Movie Reviews — Our critics' picks and pans Musician Interviews — Up close with local artists Neighborhood News from Stringers — Hyperlocal news News Ticker — News & politics Obermeyer — San Diego politics illustrated Outdoors — Weekly changes in flora and fauna Overheard in San Diego — Eavesdropping illustrated Poetry — The old and the new Reader Travel — Travel section built by travelers Reading — The hunt for intellectuals Roam-O-Rama — SoCal's best hiking/biking trails San Diego Beer — Inside San Diego suds SD on the QT — Almost factual news Sheep and Goats — Places of worship Special Issues — The best of Street Style — San Diego streets have style Surf Diego — Real stories from those braving the waves Theater — On stage in San Diego this week Tin Fork — Silver spoon alternative Under the Radar — Matt Potter's undercover work Unforgettable — Long-ago San Diego Unreal Estate — San Diego's priciest pads Your Week — Daily event picks
4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs
Close

Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

This Week’s Reader This Week’s Reader