State parks seeking corporate sponsors

SEATTLE – Hoping to spur investment in Washington’s parks, state park managers are already advertising for corporate sponsors willing to donate money in exchange for putting the company name out where visitors can see it.

State officials are working on a policy that would allow private sponsorship of the state’s 120 parks, and the Parks and Recreation Commission could vote on the measure Oct. 19.

But the search for potential sponsors is already under way.

“Join the fun when Seattle’s active urbanites go play in the great outdoors!” reads an ad the parks agency recently ran in a trade magazine for the sponsorship industry.

State officials say the goal is a new source of revenue for repairs and construction in the cash-strapped park system. The agency has a $340 million maintenance backlog, and has committed to spend $250 million sprucing up the parks for the system’s 100th anniversary in 2013.

The proposal would not mean a glut of corporate logos and neon billboards in the woods, parks officials say. It could mean a plaque on a building crediting a company that helped pay for construction, said Tom Oliva, the commission’s enterprise coordinator.

“It would be more like the underwriting that you see on public radio, public television. It’s going to be pretty targeted,” Oliva said.

Other commissioners and state-parks boosters say the idea could help make up for what the state Legislature won’t spend – if the accreditation is done tastefully.

Under proposed guidelines, deals of more than $100,000 would need commission approval, and sponsors promoting alcohol, tobacco, birth control, guns or political issues or candidates would not be allowed.