BRIDGING THE CHICAGO BUDGET GAP PART 2

On July 28, 2010, I wrote a blog, “Bridging the Budget Gap”, where I talked about an ordinance the Chicago City Council had passed hiring Fresh Pickle Media (FPM) “to sell corporations the right to decorate, through a sponsorship agreement, one of 14 (those with the highest traffic usage) Chicago River bridge houses for $1 million-a-year-per-bridge. The sponsoring company would be allowed to hang the decorations for the month-long period preceding four major holidays --- Halloween, Christmas, Easter and 4th of July. “

At that time, Phillip Lynch, president of FPM said, “We’re looking at a projection of $250,000-per-month per [holiday] or $1 million on an annual basis for a sponsor…Based on the 14 bridges at 100 percent occupancy, that’s $14 million in gross revenue and $10.5 million to the city.” Fresh Media will keep 25% of the sponsor fee as their commission.”

When Ald. Eugene Schulter (47th) expressed concerned about the size of the corporate logos, he was told by John Yonan, deputy commissioner of engineering for the city’s Department of Transportation, that corporate logos would be the "smallest dimension possible,” adding, “We’ll try to scale it down as much as possible.”

Now, seven months later, FPM has started distributing a brochure with the pricing for the sponsorship and pictures of how they envision the ads would be placed.

(1) LIE NUMBER ONE! -- REVENUE
We were told back in July that the city could expect to net $10.5 million dollars because each bridge would gross $1 million for the four-month-period at each of the 14 decorated bridges. WRONG! According to the Sun-Times, the brochure lists the most expensive bridge at $140,000/month or a total cost of $560,000.

 Wait! We were told $1 million per location. Wabash and State Street bridges are going for $280,000 each. So if the most expensive bridge costs $560,000 and the other 13 bridges cost $280,000 each that is a gross of $4,200,000 or a net to the city of $3,150,000. The last time I checked $3,150,000 is not $10,500,000! Where will the net difference of $7,350,000  that the ad agency promised when they got the deal come from?  I guess they are in a bit of a pickle!


(2) LIE NUMBER TWO!—SIZE OF LOGO


Adams Street Bridgehouse

 Remember how the Deputy Commissioner of Engineering for the city’s Department of Transportation said that corporate logos would be the "smallest dimension possible”? Look at the renderings of sample bridges that FPM has in its brochure using their own logo. Are they small?

State Street Bridgehouse

 Well, we know men always lie when it comes to size.