Unsuck DC Metro: Metro Considering Selling Station Naming Rights

Thursday, January 13, 2011

Metro Considering Selling Station Naming Rights

During this morning's budget meeting, it was revealed that Metro is considering selling naming rights for stations.

What would some likely sponsors be?

Here are some from Twitter:

lukerosiak Verizon Place? RT @unsuckdcmetro: Metro considering selling station naming rights. What would be some likely companies? #wmata
chrisatyoursix @unsuckdcmetro Insurance companies, law firms, hospitals, and therapists. #wmata
vnangia @unsuckdcmetro Lockheed Martin, Boeing, Booz-Allen Hamilton, SAIC ..
annedougherty @unsuckdcmetro Charmin presents Metro Center, FTW.
amphotography21 @unsuckdcmetro waste management
mikebijou2 @unsuckdcmetro Gallery Place-Chinatown/Verizon Center makes sense. Maybe Capitol South-Insert Lobbyist Group Here
brianmcentee @unsuckdcmetro Dyson for the entire system. "Only thing that sucks more than Metro is a Dyson"
joshuadelung @unsuckdcmetro I bet Cox, AT&T, Comcast and several other bastions of poor customer service would love buying #wmata stations for the irony.
castlecraver @unsuckdcmetro the Capital One Bank Capital South Station. Because that wouldn't be confusing at all.
bmfc1 @unsuckdcmetro The WWE for L'Enfant Plaza
marctomik @unsuckdcmetro Judging by recent pics and reports from your blog... Clorox.
kevin_reiss @unsuckdcmetro Northrop Grumman Navy Yard. Quinn Gillespie Capitol South.
rayschillinger @unsuckdcmetro Comcast. "In partnership with WMATA, we will give new meaning to service outages, wait times, and lousy customer service."
Sassycatz @unsuckdcmetro Elevator and escalator repair companies. Maybe they could post 800 numbers for the passengers to call.
ARLnowDOTcom @unsuckdcmetro Clarendon Metro = Brown Flip Flop Center, brought to you by the Cheesecake Factory?
ericvpi @unsuckdcmetro double down (dunn) loring. Clarendon now sponsored by red bull
LAmeetsDC @unsuckdcmetro Nike: It's faster to walk. Toyota: I'll bet you wish you drove today. TASER: Making L'Enfant safer...for you.
aawayne Can't wait to live @ Eastern Motors Market. RT @unsuckdcmetro Metro considering selling station naming rights. #wmata
hurricanedc @unsuckdcmetro Metro Center would become Starbucks Center. And every station would be captioned with "Sponsored by American Express."
chenenko @unsuckdcmetro hopefully don's john's or jiffy john sponsors some port-a-potties in the system.
DanielPacker @unsuckdcmetro Pepco: you thought we had bad service?
HokiESQ @unsuckdcmetro the usuals Lockheed, Northrop, Verizon, Citi. But I'd love to see Hooters, Cash4Gold, Trojan. FAVE: Unsuck DC Metro Center.
ssoper @unsuckdcmetro Under Armour, the best way to combat the lack of air conditioning in summer
klassman

Re: Naming Rights. Beano because the trains never have the gas to get you where you want to go...

Comments (53)

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+3 Vote up Vote down

DKB · 741 weeks ago

Joon Rhee L'Enfant Plaza.

6 replies · active less than 1 minute ago

+4 Vote up Vote down

bet · 741 weeks ago

Uhhhhh. Why? How about just sell space for advertising?

Then make a bid to lower all salaries across the board by 2%. Salaried and hourly.

This will rally quite a bit of revenue to balance the budget!

-1 Vote up Vote down

Guest · 741 weeks ago

Sure, considering Metro is just a choo choo train going around your xmas tree. There isn't any need for competent techs and mechanics, and God knows Metro is the only place in the world that has escalators and elevators.
Why do you think the Washington Times exposed a GED diploma engineer working there?

0 Vote up Vote down

guest · 741 weeks ago

BTW, Joon Rhee ROTFL

0 Vote up Vote down

anonymous · 741 weeks ago

There are others with no qualifications, poor examples, dependency issues. Do you want it all exposed, come on!

0 Vote up Vote down

F'n JD · 741 weeks ago

L'enfant MMA Center

0 Vote up Vote down

Guest · 716 weeks ago

Unfortunately, people DO bother you at L'Enfant! http://youtu.be/n7PEMGuA6tw

+2 Vote up Vote down

· 741 weeks ago

Waste Management +1

+2 Vote up Vote down

What? · 741 weeks ago

So will stations be back down to one name or would this be an add on?

Archives-Navy Memorial-Penn Quarter-Coca-Cola

1 reply · active less than 1 minute ago

+4 Vote up Vote down

@kara_h · 741 weeks ago

Archives-Navy Memorial-Penn Quarter-Coca-Cola-Pepsi-Ford-Microsoft ?

+9 Vote up Vote down

Guest · 741 weeks ago

"What Metro stop do you live by?"

"I'm by the U St.- African American Civil War Memorial- Cardozo- Lays Potato Chips stop".

+4 Vote up Vote down

Guest · 741 weeks ago

Libby's Vienna Sausages

+7 Vote up Vote down

· 741 weeks ago

Takoma Bell

+5 Vote up Vote down

grldc · 741 weeks ago

Hyatt's West Hyattsville

+11 Vote up Vote down

hrh king friday 13 · 741 weeks ago

Oh my God, Idiocracy is coming true. Oh... BROUGHT TO YOU BY CARL'S JR.

+4 Vote up Vote down

· 741 weeks ago

Adobe Archives Navy Memorial

1 reply · active less than 1 minute ago

0 Vote up Vote down

Ever Anon · 741 weeks ago

Now that's a good one! LOL!

+5 Vote up Vote down

Clarendon Cruiser · 741 weeks ago

DuPont Circle sponsored by "Trojan Man"!

+15 Vote up Vote down

andy k · 741 weeks ago

Burger King Street

+5 Vote up Vote down

dan · 741 weeks ago

College Park - University of Maryland/Devry University/Keller School of Business Management/Bud Light

0 Vote up Vote down

dan · 741 weeks ago

Friendship Heights/Blackwater, Inc/Xi Systems

+4 Vote up Vote down

dan · 741 weeks ago

Ronald McDonald National Airport (Think how awesome those Golden Arches would look - we could even make them visible from 35,000 feet)

1 reply · active less than 1 minute ago

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VeggieTart · 741 weeks ago

As long as they took the name of the 40th president off the Metro station, I would be fine.

Wow, did I just say I wouldn't mind seeing McDeathburger's name on the station?

+7 Vote up Vote down

Shari · 741 weeks ago

SLIM SHADY GROVE STATION

+3 Vote up Vote down

bet · 741 weeks ago

"Hello Metro Riders, The next stop is Charmin Tissue-Crystal City, Virgina stop."

" Please save trees and preserve sheets". " Doors opening on the right." "As a reminder there are bathrooms close by somewhere".

+2 Vote up Vote down

anon · 741 weeks ago

Should the car companies all buy a station?

+7 Vote up Vote down

rtert · 741 weeks ago

Jimmy Deanwood

+8 Vote up Vote down

Jerry · 741 weeks ago

Big and Tall Suitland

+5 Vote up Vote down

Guest · 741 weeks ago

Wheatieston

+6 Vote up Vote down

· 741 weeks ago

Addidason Road

+12 Vote up Vote down

· 741 weeks ago

Landrover

+2 Vote up Vote down

guest · 741 weeks ago

Pentagon sponsored by Lockhead__
L'Enfant sponsored by Remington Rifle or TAZER
Union Station sponsored by an airline
National Airport sponosred by Amtrack

+10 Vote up Vote down

· 741 weeks ago

Farragut North Face

+6 Vote up Vote down

null · 741 weeks ago

East Falls Church's Fried Chicken

+4 Vote up Vote down

J D C · 741 weeks ago

Eastern Boston Market

+4 Vote up Vote down

TakomaPete · 741 weeks ago

Judiciary FourSquare

+6 Vote up Vote down

gibberish · 741 weeks ago

ATU 689 Union Station

0 Vote up Vote down

null · 741 weeks ago

UFC L'Enfant Plaza

+6 Vote up Vote down

· 741 weeks ago

Captain Morgan Blvd.

0 Vote up Vote down

RWC · 741 weeks ago

How about the Hanes Foggy Bottom station or Dupont Chemical Center?

+1 Vote up Vote down

F'n JD · 741 weeks ago

Johnson and Johnson Medical Center

-1 Vote up Vote down

Anon · 741 weeks ago

L'Enfant Plaza Brought to you by Schlitz Malt Liquor and Bonquisha's Weaves Salon

+1 Vote up Vote down

Jackie jeter · 741 weeks ago

Braddock road Atu local 689 station

Since Gen. Braddock fought on the pro-slavery side

+1 Vote up Vote down

GlenmontGirl · 741 weeks ago

A couple of my favorites from twitter today (some showed up multiple times, so I didn't include the twitter handles b/c I don't know who to credit them to):

Cream of Wheaton
Burger King Street
Stadium Under Armoury
Suitland, brought to you by Men's Warehouse
Court Waffle House - Aerowaz
Ballstonian - Teddc202
White Castle While Flint - pergam
London Foggy Bottom - pergam
Tyson's Corner Chicken - asomyak
Don't Get in the Van Ness-UDC - hawtbeans
Clarendon, brought to you by Valtrex

+1 Vote up Vote down

Sue · 741 weeks ago

Seriously, aren't the compound station names long enough already? I like the elegance of "Archives" and "Gallery Place" and "Woodley Park," and as wonderful as the Navy Memorial, Chinatown, and the National Zoo are, not every important place has to be added to the stop names. I don't want to hear "Next stop, Vienna/Fairfax/George Mason University, sponsored by Olive Garden. When you're here, you're family! Ask about our soup of the day!" when just "Vienna" will suffice. Enough with the noise pollution already.

1 reply · active less than 1 minute ago

+1 Vote up Vote down

@kara_h · 741 weeks ago

Yes, unfortunately nobody seems to have realised that in downtown DC you are always near several destinations of note. Like little kids, they always are screaming 'mine!'.

Of course, then metro facilitates that nonsense by being more than glad to tack on names if they pony up the cash. Which is why we end up with ridiculously long names (seriously who says the full name of U St every time they are talking about it), grammatical annoyances like not being consistent with '/' and '-', and names of places that no longer exist (like SEU).

Makes you wonder what they will draw the line at for a station name if someone is willing to pay. Although I am sure the cabin-jockeys would LOVE to say "Next stop: '**** You'."

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Anon and Ever · 741 weeks ago

Gecko Gallery Place - you sure need the insurance if you dare ride this thing!

West Falls Church Facebook!

New Carrollton Giant. (Sounds like a football team)

Why stop with stations? Go for it all, Metro! How about Red Cross Red Line to Rockville? (and watch the train operators stumble over that one)

Considering no one is buying signs on the station walls lately and fewer trains seen with the sold wraps advertising, how do they think they will convince anyone to buy a naming right? Dear God, to have your name permanently linked to something like Metro? I can see the stocks plummeting now...

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Gus · 741 weeks ago

Vans Dorn Street Metro

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VeggieTart · 741 weeks ago

Columbia (Sportswear) Heights.

Cleveland Parker Brothers (would also work with Woodley).

+2 Vote up Vote down

Guest · 740 weeks ago

Old Navy Yard

0 Vote up Vote down

Guest · 740 weeks ago

Phillips Waterfront SEU
Waterford Crystal CIty

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Derek · 740 weeks ago

I am against giving naming rights to stations, but I have no problems with more advertisements within the stations. Yet, the way adverts are being displayed is very sloppy and shows poor management. I know, duh. But it is stupid to have one station plastered with only ONE type of ad. Or, even one train car.

The stations are named based upon the neighborhood or street, right? Changing that will only add more confusion.

+1 Vote up Vote down

LoxyBrown · 716 weeks ago

I'm kind of tired of America turning into America (tm). Call me a Communist, but I am not in favor of more subliminal messaging, telling me to buy crappy unhealthy food, bank at a certain establishment, suckle at the teat of a cell phone company, and buy foreign cars. In the long run, I don't think it alleviates the money woes or other pains that Metro suffers from. And if WMATA thinks I'm going to start referring to stations as things like International Court House of Pancakes, they are seriously deluded.