Should Spokane sell naming rights to the Pavilion? Mayor says no
Spokane Mayor Lisa Brown disagrees with efforts to sell the naming rights to the U.S. Pavilion, one of the city’s most notable monuments, to an as-of-yet-unnamed corporate sponsor, she expressed to the independent Spokane Park Board in a Tuesday letter.
“The Pavilion is a cherished public identifier of our city and I believe it is inappropriate to compromise its identity by selling its naming rights for commercial purposes,” Brown wrote.
The Spokane Riverfront Park Committee had been set to vote to recommend approval of a $2.5 million, 10-year deal granting naming rights of the Pavilion to an unnamed corporation on Jan. 6, though that meeting was canceled and the next action isn’t expected until Feb. 10. Any final decision would be made by the Spokane Park Board, which operates independently of the rest of the city administration under authority vested to it by the City Charter.
The Park Board has been seeking a naming rights sponsor for the U.S. Pavilion since 2019, although efforts were stalled in 2020 and 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Attempts to find an interested party in 2022 and 2023 were unsuccessful.
In 2024, the board contracted with the Cleveland-based Superlative Group to seek a sponsor for the Pavilion.
The city frequently works with corporate sponsors for events, with financial support going to help maintain park land and support free educational events, entertainment and cultural programs, Spokane Parks and Recreation spokeswoman Fianna Dickson wrote in a Friday email. In 2024 alone, this amounted to more than 60 sponsors helping to fund 117 events, Dickson added.
This also wouldn’t be the first time that the city of Spokane sold naming rights to a corporate sponsor, including inside of Riverfront Park.
The Park Board in 2019 agreed to sell the naming rights to the Riverfront Park skating ribbon to Numerica Credit Union for 10 years at a cost of around $90,000 per year. The Providence Playscape, an accessible playground that lowers obstacles for kids with disabilities, is so named because the medical center fronted the costs to build the facility.
Naming rights to the Spokane Podium – or The Podium Powered by STCU – were sold to the credit union for 10 years by the Spokane Public Facilities District, an independent agency, in 2022 for around $100,000 per year.
But while Brown supports sponsors for events and public engagement by corporations, she expressed that she was broadly not “a supporter of this national trend” to sell naming rights of buildings built with public money and particularly feels it is inappropriate to do so with the Pavilion.
“I don’t think anybody has sold the naming rights to Seattle Space Needle yet, but, you know, maybe that’ll be next,” Brown said. “But to me this is like that – the river, the Pavilion and the clock tower, they’re just centerpieces, and I don’t think any amount of money really makes it OK.”
Like the Space Needle, the U.S. Pavilion was constructed ahead of the world’s fair coming to the Inland Empire in 1974 with funding from Congress shepherded by former U.S. Rep. Thomas S. Foley, of Spokane, and former Sens. Warren Magnuson and Henry Jackson.
The Pavilion received a major facelift, along with the rest of Riverfront Park, using a $64 million park bond approved by voters in 2014. Led by NAC Architects, Garco Construction and Berger Partnership, the interior was reimagined with terraced grassy seating areas, an elevated walkway for scenic views and lighted “blades” decorating the 4.6 miles of cables overhead. The Spokane Park Board approved an additional $23.6 million in 2019 to complete the redesign.
Attempts to reach Park Board President Bob Anderson for comment Friday were unsuccessful.