"Now the chief of the often-belittled California High-Speed Rail Authority (HSR) thinks they may be at least part of the answer to keeping the half-built bullet train system going long enough to actually carry passengers. Call this Part 2 of HSR's survival strategy. Just make sure many of the fees are collected in advance and that they're enough to make a difference."
"That happened when Gov. Gavin Newsom this fall signed a new law called SB 840, giving the train project one-fourth of the state's take (or about $1 billion a year) for 20 years from cap-and-trade fees of companies that pay to continue their polluting ways. That won't build much in a project whose cost is now estimated at more than $100 billion, but it's decent seed money."
"HSR director Ian Choudri first floated the idea of leveraging that money's presence to help sell naming rights. Some laughed, but Inglewood's year-old Intuit Center brought in about $500 million for its naming, and Aspiration Partners, a financial technology firm that went bankrupt in March, reportedly offered $1 billion. The Intuit Center cannot even move. If it costs that much to plaster your name on a building, imagine how much could be raised by selling naming rights for a constantly-running luxury train."
Naming rights could raise significant revenue to support California's half-built high-speed rail. The project secured about $1 billion annually for 20 years from cap-and-trade under SB 840 after a $4 billion federal grant was canceled. HSR director Ian Choudri proposed using that guaranteed revenue to help sell naming rights for the system, trains, cars, stations, seats, and interior advertising. High-profile naming deals like Inglewood's Intuit Center, reportedly worth about $500 million, suggest strong market interest. Many fees should be collected in advance and set high enough to make a material budget difference. The system is planned to link San Diego and Sacramento and faces costs over $100 billion.
Read at The Mercury News
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