County parks go commercial

Many of the 50 miles of new trails built by San Diego County Parks and Recreation shall remain nameless — both at the trailheads and on the maps — unless and until someone buys the naming rights.

According to marketing materials recently produced by the county parks department, for between $1000 and $200,000, people and businesses can buy five-year naming rights to skate parks, splash pools, community gardens, playgrounds, and many of the 400 miles of trails the county has built and maintains.

Trails in 36 county parks are in the naming-rights program, according to the county's list. Projects in development now — 8 miles of trails in the Otay Valley Regional Park, 20 miles in the San Luis Rey River Park, and 22 miles in the Tijuana River Valley Regional Park — will show on park maps but won’t have names, deputy parks director Jason Hemmens confirmed.

"We haven't named any yet, but we're hoping people are interested in naming our trails," Hemmens said. "The trails will not be named otherwise unless the board of supervisors approves the names."

Brands looking to promote themselves can also take a swing at five-year naming rights to 31 ballfields for between $2000 and $10,000. Also, opportunities to name 3 community gardens, 5 equestrian staging areas, 11 playgrounds, and other county park amenities.

So far, ballfields have been most in demand for naming rights. Three ballfields at 4S Ranch and a tennis court sold five-year rights at $10,000 each in the first few months.

The county hopes to raise up to $2 million from naming rights, according to county parks marketing manager Shannon Singler. The money will go for capital improvements, not for operations and maintenance.

The fundraising strategy arose from a 2012 report by Colorado-based consultant firm Greenplay, which looked at funding alternatives for the county parks. The naming-rights program was approved by the board of supervisors and put in place in January 2014.

Sponsors have to be compatible with the “family-friendly, healthy lifestyle orientation of the county government,” Singler noted.

"If the board of supervisors has already adopted the trail names, they will remain the same," Singler said. "Not all the trails in the county are available for the program." She said trailhead signs won't go up on trails where the naming rights are available.

"Trails could be listed as trail number one, two, or three until the rights are sold," she said.

Sgt. Don Parker of the San Diego County Sheriff's Department Search and Rescue Team had this advice: keep your cell phone with you.

"We're generally looking for people who are lost already, so trail names aren't that important," he said. "Depending on your carrier, the frequency of the pings, and proximity of the tower, we can pinpoint to within a few meters to a quarter mile circle of where the missing person is."