Board hears naming‑rights, digital‑advertising plan; asks staff to draft policy before launch

Tebow Partnerships presented draft valuations and a two‑track marketing plan Friday, recommending that the district begin stadium naming‑rights negotiations at Martin County High School while launching a districtwide digital advertising program that would sell ad placements on school web pages.

The presentation, given by Brian Sikowski of Tebow Partnerships and introduced by district staffer Jennifer DeChazo, said staff toured the three high schools, produced valuations based on facility traffic, school size and event counts, and prepared a standard contract template for long‑term agreements (typically five to 10 years). Sikowski said the market approach pairs one large ‘‘home‑run’’ naming‑rights sale with lower‑entry digital ad inventory (sidebar and IAB standard sizes) to create earlier revenue and funnel smaller local advertisers to school‑level banner opportunities.

Board members pressed the consultant and staff on how proceeds would be distributed, how local businesses would be vetted, conflicts with existing sponsorships and whether short‑term or transient booster banners would be affected. Sikowski outlined common distribution models he has seen: (1) 50% of digital revenue distributed monthly to all schools and 50% retained by the district, (2) all revenue held by the district general fund, or (3) other splits chosen by the district. He said district communications had prepared a sample social‑media message and that Tebow had begun informal outreach to local categories such as health providers, realtors, credit unions and banks.

Board members asked whether existing scoreboard signage and booster banners were governed by written contracts; staff and members said they were not aware of consistent districtwide agreements and described a largely volunteer‑driven banner practice at many schools. Several trustees — including Mrs. Powers and others — said they were reluctant to begin naming‑rights sales without formal policy language to define acceptable sponsors, vetting criteria and administrative procedures for installations and maintenance. Superintendent Main and legal/staff said the district already has advertising and naming‑rights policies on the books but agreed to bring back more detailed, recommended policy language and administrative procedures that would address vendor vetting, contract templates, maintenance responsibilities and fund distribution options.

Rather than giving immediate approval to start marketing, the board directed staff to draft and return recommended naming‑rights policy and related administrative procedures for board review before the district proceeds with formal solicitations.

Quotes used with permission: "We'd like to have conversations with the public on this one," Sikowski said, describing the staged market approach. Superintendent Main told the board, "We can certainly bring that forward for you all to review," when asked to return policy language.

The presentation also noted that naming‑rights and digital advertising use different pricing and decision‑maker processes; Tebow recommended a phased, one‑property‑at‑a‑time rollout to avoid saturating the market. Staff said they would document existing scoreboard agreements and draft consistent templates and procedures for facilities work and sign maintenance.