Northwest Sports Hub
The Northwest Sports Hub could soon be adding a corporate sponsorship to its name, a move that the Lewis County Public Facilities District is counting on to bring in revenue and increase the profile of the complex.
The PFD’s board voted unanimously Tuesday to seek a contract with St. Clair, Michigan-based Apex Marketing, a branding consultant that was among three companies that put out a bid to lead the PFD’s naming rights search. Todd Chaput, chair of the PFD board, said the Sports Hub’s success and planned expansion makes it a promising target for potential sponsorship.
“We’ve got an established product that has concrete numbers — this is what we’ve done,” he said. “Then we’ve got the expansion — this is what we could do. It’s an opportunity for someone who wants to put their name on this.”
If the PFD is able to finalize a contract with Apex, the group will commence a process to evaluate the facility’s marketing value and seek a partner. That process is expected to take about a year. The terms of the proposal submitted by Apex would charge the PFD $5,000 a month for the first six months of work and $3,000 per month after that.
The branding company would also receive a commission based on the sponsorship dollars it brings in. If the naming rights deal is below $175,000 annually, Apex would take 9 percent of the revenue. That number climbs to 12 percent for a deal between $175,000 and $200,000. If Apex secures a deal bringing in more than $200,000, it will claim a 15 percent commission.
Board members said they found the Apex proposal reasonable, and they were encouraged that the company did not overpromise before entering the research phase.
“Apex was middle ground on cost,” said board member Derrick Wojcik-Damers. “They didn’t make any overreaching comments.”
Apex has done naming rights and sponsorship work for several professional sports teams and civic venues, including the Seattle Seahawks and Sounders. Chaput said the PFD had not discussed what it is looking for in a naming rights partner, but expects those that emerge will meet certain criteria.
“We would want something that would be regionally specific, I would imagine,” he said. “The only expectation we’d have is that it would help us promote our building and generate some revenues.”
Meanwhile, the PFD finally received sign-off from Lewis County Wednesday on a construction agreement to move forward on expansion at the Sports Hub. Board members complained Tuesday that the county had delayed in handling the document, but county manager Erik Martin said Wednesday evening that it had been handled.
“I signed it, sent it off to Todd today,” he said. “That should get that hurdle out of the way. I reviewed it, the (prosecuting attorney’s) office reviewed it, the commissioners reviewed it. I think it’s what they wanted it to be. We’re gonna move forward on that.”
Chaput said Tuesday that the county had been reluctant to sign off on the construction agreement before a feasibility study was done, but that study could not take place until the agreement was in place.
The situation mirrored the scenario that played out this spring, when the county hesitated in signing off as the guarantor of the PFD’s refinanced bond, awaiting a Department of Commerce study that couldn’t happen until it backed the agreement. The county eventually agreed to sign off on the bond in June.
“Now we’re at a new chicken and the egg,” Chaput said. “They want the feasibility study to be completed before they sign off on the construction agreement. But (the state) can’t do the feasibility study if they don’t know what our construction is gonna be.”
The agreement outlines the expansion work that will be done at the facility, which will be funded by the re-worked bond that is backed by the county — hence the need for the county’s sign-off.
The proposed expansion covers two phases of a project at the Sports Hub, pegged at about $2 million. Phase 1 would complete the facility’s second floor mezzanine level, adding an elevator, flooring, seating, bleachers and bathrooms. Phase 2 would create the shell of a new, 20,000 square foot building, one that would eventually house three basketball courts.
Phase 3, for which the PFD does not yet have the funding, will finish the interior of the new building, perhaps in conjunction with the potential sponsor. For now, the PFD is waiting for the county’s sign-off to continue the process.
Chaput said that rising interest rates during the waiting period have already cut into the PFD’s bond revenues.
“They’ve had this for months,” he said. “By every quarter point (interest rates) go up, we lose $100,000.”
In addition, steel tariffs imposed during that time have caused construction costs to spike, Chaput said.
