Too few facts confuse park naming rights

OPPORTUNITY: Masterton's Memorial Park is open for offers for a naming sponsor.

Confusion has arisen over the status of Masterton's Memorial Park naming rights, probably because of a gap in information given to the Masterton District Council.

It was reported last week that at a full council meeting support was given to Wairarapa Multi Sports Stadium Trust (WMSST) finding a naming sponsor for Memorial Park.

It was said a five-year contract that had been granted to Trust House had since expired. As long as the council, Memorial Park's owner, approved of a naming sponsor then permission was given "in principle".

Next day, stadium-trust trustee Tony Hargood challenged the statement that the naming rights had expired, saying Trust House continued to be the naming sponsor and expressed a wish that would continue.

However, minutes of a council committee meeting held in October 2008 clearly show the naming rights to what until that time had been Cameron and Soldiers Memorial Park were granted to Trust House for $25,000 a year for five years. That expired in October 2013.

Accepting that to be the case, the council's considerations for a naming sponsor were based on a letter sent to Masterton mayor Lyn Patterson by the stadium trust dated September 7 this year.

This stated the stadium trust wanted to market Memorial Park "and secure a long-term sponsor for the naming rights and all funds will go to WMSST. Therefore, an example of the naming rights if a sponsor was secured would read something like this, ABC Memorial Stadium".

Mrs Patterson said there had been no indication in the letter that the stadium trust had managed to secure Trust House for another term, if that was in fact the case. If that had been made known to councillors, it was likely confusion would not have arisen.

Memorial Park was council-owned and the council had the right to vet any naming sponsor, hence the "in principle" provision applied to last week's decision, Mrs Patterson said.