CTA considers corporate sponsorship

http://cbs2chicago.com/topstories/local ... 90607.html

Considers corporate sponsorship for train lines (ala US Cellular Field)

I certainly hope this is not persued, I can't fathom calling the red line the Target line.

I think CTA should consider finding corporations that use color schemes similar to CTA rail line. The CBS2 story linked above from this morning, used examples like the UPS Brown Line, Florida Orange Juice Orange Line, and the Jolly Green Giant Green Line. A Target Red Line wouldn't be too bad either. Whether you like the idea or not, this is probably the best way for the CTA to get money it badly needs.

Yeah, and if K-Mart had any spare cash around after picking up Sears last year, they could pony up for express service out to O'hare called the "K-Mart Blue Line Special."

Heh heh heh.

fishcat wrote:Yeah, and if K-Mart had any spare cash around after picking up Sears last year, they could pony up for express service out to O'hare called the "K-Mart Blue Line Special."

I like that.

Perhaps instead of corporate sponsors, they should name the lines after business plans such as the ; "Get new management Red Line" or "Can Kreusi Green Line" or "Terminate Carole Brown Line", etc...

F40CFan wrote:Perhaps instead of corporate sponsors, they should name the lines after business plans such as the ; "Get new management Red Line" or "Can Kreusi Green Line" or "Terminate Carole Brown Line", etc...

Hahahahaha!

In all seriousness, though, they need to start weening themselves off of advertising and sponsorship. The ad-wrapped cars are enough as it is. Ideas like this might seem like a good idea now, now but eventually it's going to make the system look shamelessly tacky.

Byte, I agree with you 100%. Perhaps the state should send in some independant auditors and find out where the money's really going.

This is a good way for the CTA to get money and keep it's buses and trains in good operation(with no service cuts, or fare hikes).

But how much money will the cta will get out of this.

Well, see it is a good way to get money, but only temporarily. Their intentions are good, and if they were going to do something like this only temporarily, then it would be okay. But what ends up happening is they get "addicted" to the money they get from the advertising, and it never goes away. Rather than doing all those ad-wraps, and also those recent ad projections in the Blue Line subway, I think they should have just "accepted" the fact that the money they were getting from the government wasn't enough, and taken their case directly to Springfield, saying that they would like to run the system with aesthetic integrity, and would need money to do so. If they'd done it that way, the financial crisis from this year might have happened a few years ago, and improved funding could have been obtained. When you start advertising all over the system, other than the posterboards in stations and the interior ads on the trains, all of a sudden when there's a budget crisis, people will point out all the cars that aren't ad-wrapped, and how they should wrap more of them for the money they need. Let's keep in mind here that the CTA is a publicly-subsidized carrier, and should be funded entirely by government funds and money taken for fares, not by profits gained from advertising.

Maybe we can ride on the Tropicana Orange Line or the Big Red (chewing gum) Line with free samples and a money-saving coupon for customers?

I hope if it happens the car interiors aren't plastered with ads for the sponsor and they don't play corporate jingles and radio-type ads over the PA (which will miraculously work in each car at all times)!

A consultant has suggested selling naming rights for train lines as one way the CTA board can close a multi-million-dollar budget gap.

Consulting firm AECOM, hired for $1.2 million to analyze the transit system's operations

Whats there to analylize??? It's crap like this that put the CTA in the hole. 1.2 million to have them tell Franky an idea that may/may not work.

That is one of the stupidest ideas I have ever seen. Where is the corporate sponsored names going to end? maybe they could call Chicago US cellular city man would I hate that. They wonder why they they dont have money to run service but they can spend it on a study like this it is pure stupidity. I don't even like the color names that was stupid to I still call the lines by their old names.

I don't even like the color names that was stupid to I still call the lines by their old names.

Me too. And what's funny is that the CTA does also. On their web site is a mape of slow zones. Each line is drawn in its color, but refered to as "Ravenswood", "Douglas", "Congress", etc.

Article that appeared in the Metro section of Monday's 10/10/05 Tribune...

What's funny is that people might actually start paying attention to these ads, especially if the doomsday service cuts actually happen next time around...

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Auto insurance ads? On the `L'? What's next?
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Jon Hilkevitch
Getting Around

October 10, 2005

At Geico, 15 minutes could save you 15 percent or more on car insurance and make you never, ever again want to ride on the slowpoke trains run by the Chicago Transit Authority.

Putting a new spin on the CTA commute, a Florida company has installed Geico ads on the arms of fare-collection turnstiles at 12 Loop rail stations.
The advertising sleeves are wrapped around 300 turnstile arms as part of a pilot program, said John Payne, co-owner of Monster Media. The ads will be on the turnstile arms for two months while the CTA gauges customer reaction and how well the sleeves hold up as thousands of people move through the turnstiles.

It might seem counter-intuitive to promote cars and automobile-related services on trains and buses, but 1st Amendment protections bar the CTA from rejecting such ads even if the transit agency wanted to do so.

Besides, under its contract with Viacom Outdoor to handle advertising throughout the CTA system, the cash-strapped transit agency receives $20 million over four years or 65 percent of the net revenue, whichever is larger, said CTA spokeswoman Noelle Gaffney.