Sioux Falls council approves $160,000 consultant contract to value parks naming-rights and sponsorship assets

The Sioux Falls City Council on Tuesday approved a contract authorizing Parks and Recreation to hire Maximizing Excellence LLC to develop valuation and sponsorship strategy for the city’s large recreation assets.

The contract, not to exceed $160,000 and lasting about 11 months, will produce asset valuations and solicitation strategies to guide potential naming-rights and interior-sponsorship sales for major recreation projects such as Frank Olson Recreation Center, the Keene Park aquatic center and the recently acquired Westside Rec Center.

City Director of Parks and Recreation Don Kearney told the council the consultants will help determine appropriate price points and donor alignment for interior and title naming opportunities. “We’re really going into a time of fundraising and sponsorships at a level that we’ve really not seen before,” Kearney said, adding that the firm can help with targeted major-ask calls if requested.

The vote was 5 in favor and 3 opposed. Councilor Spellerberg moved the contract’s approval and Councilor Sighetty seconded. Councilors McCuris, Spellerberg, Thomason, Barranco and Sighetty voted yes; Councilors Bassey, Cole and Sale voted no.

Why it mattered: Kearney said the city is preparing to market naming-rights on projects with substantially higher construction values than past efforts. He told the council the city has previously raised private contributions without a consultant—“$68,000,000,” he said as an aggregate example—but argued these upcoming assets are larger: he cited approximate project valuations of $15 million (Westside), $18 million (Keene) and “up to potentially 50, close to $50,000,000” for Frank Olson, and said the city lacks full-time philanthropic valuation expertise.

Council debate focused on whether the city already had sufficient fundraising capacity in-house and whether the fee was justified by expected returns. Councilor Sale said he could not support the contract because the city had raised large private gifts without outside consultants and because “there’s no quantified value to this at this time.” Councilor Spellerberg said hiring experts is akin to hiring a realtor to sell a house and argued the city will net more by paying for specialist help. Kearney said the consultant will both identify prospective investors and recommend solicitation parameters and negotiation approaches.

Scope and deliverables: The agreement would analyze both title naming rights and interior sponsorships, align asset opportunities with prospective investors’ priorities, determine giving capacity, and recommend negotiating parameters. Kearney said Maximizing Excellence would “align asset opportunities with prospective investors’ priorities, develop solicitation lists and determination of giving capacity, recommend negotiating parameters, create mutually beneficial outcomes.” He also noted the firm could participate in targeted major-ask calls.

Past precedent and cost examples: Kearney referenced the Midco Aquatic Center naming-rights sale as a prior example in which the city hired a third party. He said the city paid Legends Marketing and Sales about $295,000 to help sell a $2.2 million, 10‑year title sponsorship, and that “12½ percent of that” continued to go to the agency as part of that arrangement.

Next steps: The contract is an 11‑month engagement; Kearney said staff expect to learn from the work and do not anticipate repeating consultant contracts for every new project unless another very large asset is proposed.

Ending: With the contract approved, Parks and Recreation said staff will begin work with Maximizing Excellence to value the named facilities and return with implementation plans for sale and negotiation strategies.