The TTC could be facing a $100-million budget hole next year and is scouring for new ways to fill the gap.
The cash-strapped TTC has increased the amount of space available for advertising on its subway trains, buses and streetcars. It has awarded advertising rights throughout its system to Pattison Outdoor, with a new contract for 12 years effective January 1, 2012. The new contract covers all advertising opportunities on and in subway stations, trains, buses and streetcars. The stations will be updated with new poster frames featuring local business improvement area (BIA) names. Pattison will also be able to wrap more buses and trains than were previously permitted. The minimum guaranteed payment to the TTC over the first 12 years is $324 million.
The Toronto Public Space Initiative has raised voice against this contract. According to TPSI Project Manager Rami Tabello, “a large increase in high-tech, flashy, all pervasive, and intrusive ads will make the TTC less enjoyable to use. It could even irritate customers. Toronto’s identity and public spaces have a value. We should manage them more like the Swiss bank and less like the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe.”
Jayme Turney, Executive Director of TPSI opines that our public spaces reflect the vibrant history and diversity of the City and they should not be for sale.
“How are these buses going to fit in with the city’s street beautification program?” enquires a concerned citizen. “The city has spent many millions of dollars putting in flower boxes, shrubbery, and trees on some streets. All the plants have been colour coordinated and placed into a pattern designed by some landscape architect. Now into this harmonious picture we see twenty colour clashing billboards on a moving bus. Does the left hand know what the right hand is doing?”
“If the money can actually be directed towards improvements and expansions, I don’t mind. I think the TTC is in a desperate state, which calls for this desperate measure.” Another Torontonian reflects perhaps the majority view.
Corporate sponsorship is also in the cards – and companies could re-name entire lines as well as individual stations. Dundas would be used as a pilot project that other stations could copy; Ryerson University president Sheldon Levy confirmed the university’s interest in attaching its name to Dundas Station in order to help pay for station improvements.
TTC assured critics the commission will have the final say on any serious sponsorship proposal, and the public will have an opportunity to express its views.
The terms of the contract stipulate that the TTC has “sole discretion” over the sale of naming rights on its property. However, Councillor Janet Davis raised concerns about a clause that says proposals “may” come back to the commission for approval. Councilors Davis (Beaches-East York) and Augimeri (York Centre) unsuccessfully tried to stop this deal from going through.
The new advertising contract increases the number of buses or streetcars that can be “wrapped” in ads from 35 to 50 (out of about 1,800 buses and 245 streetcars) and doubles the number of subway cars to 24 (out of about 700 cars).
Station domination — an advertiser covering a station from top to bottom in a single theme — remains limited to four stations: Finch, Union, Eglinton and St. George, but an unlimited number of bus backs are available for ads, up from 50 now.
What are your thoughts? It is your city. Voice your opinion. Selected opinions will be published in the next issue.
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