Spokane Pavilion naming rights deal worth $2.6 million with unnamed financial services organization slated for approval Thursday

The day will soon come when Spokane residents learn which company is planning to spend $2.6 million over the next 10 years to have its name attached to the U.S. Pavilion.

But it is not this day.

The city’s Riverfront Park Committee on Monday recommended approval of a contract with a “financial services” company for the title sponsor rights to the pavilion, the final step before the Spokane Park Board votes yea or nay on Thursday. Only after that final vote will the buyer’s name be revealed, which city officials say is necessary while negotiations continue.

“It would be premature to name a potential partner because the terms are being negotiated,” parks spokeswoman Fianna Dickson wrote in an email. “The terms won’t be final until the full Park Board approves them.”

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 amid 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.

Not everyone is supportive of selling naming rights to the pavilion, which was originally built with taxpayer funds; one notable detractor is Mayor Lisa Brown.

“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 in a January letter to the Spokane Park Board.

But the Park Board’s independence from the rest of City Hall is enshrined in the voter-approved city charter, and the decision is the board’s alone.

Supporters argue that the deal will help ensure top-notch maintenance of the city’s marquee park and a continued emphasis on free public events and programming.

A naming rights deal would infuse the park with cash for maintenance that otherwise needs to be pulled from elsewhere. In addition to the rights fee, the sponsor has agreed to spend an extra $50,000 per year for “marketing and promotional activities” at the Pavilion – the unnamed buyer has suggested a free concert that celebrates health care workers, first responders, veterans, teachers and other groups, for instance.

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, Dickson wrote in January. 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.

Included in the $2.6 million deal up for consideration is the right to updated signage on the Pavilion and on areas visible to traffic on Washington Street, four branded social media posts per year, promotional booths 10 times a year, the right to install one permanent ATM at the Pavilion, and complimentary tickets to events and park attractions, among many others.

Riverfront Park Committee member Jennifer Ogden stressed that the park has “very controlled” rules about signage, which “doesn’t mean we won’t have some flavor now and then,” but that it’s not “going to go off the rails.”