1962: Lincoln Center, New York.
2003: Disney Hall, Los Angeles.
2009: AT&T Performing Arts Center, Dallas.
What a progression, from a president to an entertainment executive to a phone company.
Yesterday, the country’s newest and self-described “most significant” new performing arts complex to be built since Lincoln Center, nee the Dallas Performing Arts Center, announced that it would henceforth bear the name of AT&T. It will open on schedule on October 12, and the website URL has already been changed to www.attpac.org.
The “naming sponsorship” with AT&T does not involve a gift to the capital campaign for the $354 million complex, which is still short more than $30 million, according to The Dallas Morning News. The city contributed just $18 million to the huge project, though, and the PAC has done well to raise what it has. AT&T is contributing operating funds for the complex.
This is a tough fundraising climate, and it’s understandable that the Dallas center would take the money it needs wherever it can get it, even if it means a corporate name. (I regret it, but I understand it.) What I do not understand is why the center will not say how much money is involved, according to the News. And neither will the company.
How are people going to judge whether this is a fair deal or whether AT&T bargained too hard? And how are AT&T shareholders going to know whether they’re getting their money’s worth?
Eventually, the numbers usually out. Why hide in the meantime? It looks suspicious.
And here’s another thing we don’t know: how long does this deal last? AT&T did say that it would offer free WiFi throughout the 10-acre complex.
The center’s hierarchy has lined up plenty of other naming gifts:
· The Margot and Bill Winspear Opera House (pictured above)
· The Dee and Charles Wyly Theatre
· The Annette Strauss Artist Square
· The City Performance Hall (no doubt seeking a name…)
· The Elaine D. and Charles A. Sammons Park
The News article quoted William Chipps, a senior editor of the IEG Sponsorship Report, saying “This organization has taken a proactive approach to sponsorship” and adding that “up to now such action has been almost entirely ‘a sports marketing approach or strategy.’ “
It also said:
Chipps…said officials for Dallas’ performing arts center had already established themselves as being unique among arts organizations in aggressively exploiting corporate sponsorships, a connection that he says is prevalent in sports but rare in the arts.
Before the AT&T announcement, the center, he noted, had already aligned itself with Lexus in promoting the Lexus Broadway Series and with Dallas-based Brinker International Inc. in sponsoring a speakers’ series called the Brinker International Forum.
Here’s a link to the article. The News also has an excellent guide to the center here.
Photo: Courtesy of AT&T Performing Arts Center