Great Park Vision Now For Sale?
The Great Park Board of Directors will consider hiring a consultant to develop and implement a Sponsorship Program for the Great Park to attract sponsors and advertisers. However, based on the timeline of events, it appears that this decision was made long ago.
The request for proposals to select a firm for implementation was released on October 14, 2019 with a due date of October 25, 2019 — a very brief window for a contract of such importance.
The City received three proposals:
- The Berkshire Group
- CMC Inc. Marketing Agency
- The Superlative Group, Inc.
The Superlative group was previously awarded a City contract in August 2018 to do a comprehensive asset inventory and evaluation report for city-owned assets within the Orange County Great Park, with an emphasis on sponsorship opportunities. Their report was submitted to the City on October 10, 2019, 14 months after receiving the work and only four days before the Sponsorship Program request for proposals was released for bid. The Superlative Group report can be found below and is linked here. The cost of the report is unknown, nor is how they were chosen to do the work.
SuperlativeGroup
Page 103 of the above report provides a breakdown of naming rights values: 
The Superlative Group will be paid a $10,000 monthly retainer and is committed to delivering at least one beverage pouring contract to the City within six months of the contract commencement, and a naming rights agreement or other corporate sponsorship agreement within twelve months of the contract start. A pouring rights contract ensures that a beverage corporation has the exclusive rights to promote, market, advertise, and merchandise its beverages throughout the Great Park.
The total contract is $260,000 for the initial term of two years, but also includes up to 10% commission for all sponsorship sales, so the actual value of the contract is much higher.
If the contract is awarded on Tuesday, The Superlative Group, Inc. will begin work by March 2, 2020. The staff report for this agenda item can be found here.
1 Comments
Susan Sayre
February 24, 2020 at 11:08 amThis item is a consent item on the Great Park Board meeting agenda which means it can be automatically approved by the board without a public presentation, discussion or approval during the meeting and therefore bypasses public scrutiny. New contract agreements should always be an agenda decision item with staff reports, clarification and discussion by the Great Park Board members and subject to comment by members of the public who are in attendance. There is a substantial amount of public interest with regards to the development of the Great Park. The Great Park Board meeting decision making process must be transparent.
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