At the recent Jasper Municipal Council meeting, a motion was passed that allows individual or corporate sponsorship to fund capital improvements, equipment or building renovations in exchange for public recognition that can come in the form of signage, plaques, naming rights, logo use or “other actions”.

Now this all got me excited. I am currently pooling my pennies together to contribute some funds to the new activity centre so that the Annalee Grant Activity Centre can be a reality. 

Oh the possibilities – the Annalee Grant Median Upgrades. The Annalee Grant Pedestrian Underpass; what about the Annalee Grant Off-Leash Dog Park, or better yet: Annalee Grant Junior/Senior High School (I know that one isn’t up for debate as it’s a school board project, but in my mythical world where pennies count as sponsorship, it is!).

Travelling through the U.S., especially in Phoenix, Ariz., showed me a whole new realm of weird names for stadiums and other buildings. 

There’s the University of Phoenix Stadium, which contrary to the name, does not host the school’s athletes (because they don’t actually have any), it is the home of the Arizona Cardinals. Just next door to that football stadium is the Jobing.com Arena, which the Phoenix Coyotes call home. 

In San Francisco, historic Candlestick Park was named the Monster Park for a few years after Monster Cable bought the rights. The locals were outraged, and once the contract expired it was renamed Candlestick Park. 

My favourite naming right is possibly the Chick-Fil-A-Bowl, a college football bowl game in Atlanta, Ga. that used to be called the Peach Bowl. 

In 1953, Anheuser-Busch’s head honcho proposed the name Budweiser Stadium for the new home of the St. Louis Cardinals baseball team. The idea was rejected by then commissioner of baseball, Ford Frick. Busch had a trick up his sleeve, however, if he was unable to name the stadium after the famous beer brand. He pitched Busch Stadium, which was approved, and immediately launched “Busch Bavarian Beer”. The beer is now called Busch Beer. Last year Busch and Busch Light came in at number seven and six on the list of top domestic beer brands in the U.S. Andheuser-Busch was ranked as the number one brewing company in America in 2009, and controlled 22 per cent of the global beer market in 2010, clearly the idea proved to be a money-maker.

I have come up with a few awesome sponsorship deals that the municipality should really consider when searching for sponsors for their new projects. Here is my very informative list, with very real products that are out there (Google it!):

• The Barf Detergent Activity Centre

• The Terror Fruit Punch Library

• The Love Love Sand Junior/Senior High School

• The Sheep Rescue Pedestrian Underpass

• The Paranormal Explorers Day Care Centre

• The Squeezy Buns Horse Treats Peace Garden

See? The possibilities are endless. The Municipality of Jasper has really opened up a can of worms that I am quite literally thrilled to just dive right into. It turns out that you can have your stadium and drink it too. 

DISCLAIMER: The Last Word is an opinion column, it is meant to provoke thought and debate. As such, any opinions written here are the writer’s own and do not reflect the viewpoint of any other Fitzhugh staff member or the directors of the Jasper Media Group Inc.