Naming right would cost big bucks
THE STREET
Monday, September 11, 2006
If you don't like the suggested names for the new regional museum, all you have to do is write a check - a very big check.Something more than $11 million.
Kathleen Woith, vice president for communications for Lakeview Museum, says it's going to take at least that much for someone to buy naming rights because that's how much Caterpillar Inc. has contributed thus far.
"We asked Caterpillar, and they declined it," Woith said, noting that instead the international gallery will be known as the Caterpillar International Gallery.
But museum officials think letting someone else name the museum for less would be a slap to Big Yellow.
Meanwhile, you have only until noon Wednesday to vote for your choice between AMAZeum, ExploraSphere Museum, Port of Exploration Museum or Museum on the Square.
Vote online at www.namethe museum.org or at any of the ballot boxes around Peoria, including all CEFCU locations. The winner and corresponding new logo will be unveiled in October.
Woith admits that some of their favorite names - such as The Museum of America's Heartland or Heartland Exploration Museum or The River's Edge Museum - were all rejected by trademark attorneys as being too close to existing museums.
"There are 17,000 museums, and they all have good names and we can't have them," Woith said.
Museum officials also had gotten some heat for not including Peoria in the name, but, as Lakeview President Jim Richerson said last week, "The central Illinois or Peoria part didn't test well, either locally or regionally."
Apparently, it's not that people don't like Peoria. Unfortunately, we're unknown to a majority of the focus groups they interviewed in southern Wisconsin, northern Indiana, St. Louis and Chicagoland.
"Sixty-nine percent said either they didn't know enough about Peoria or Peoria sounded like a small town to them," said Woith, adding that proponents want a museum name that will be attractive to tourists far and wide.
So, what if none of these names resonates with Peorians, likely the people voting?
If no name is a clear standout, then officials say it will be up to their 25-member naming committee, which includes members from all the museum partners, Caterpillar and community folks, to agree on a choice. The Lakeview board will then vote that recommendation up or down. (J.D.)