Laura Berman

What's in a name? Money for Wayne County

Let the purists sneer at Wayne County's consideration of selling naming rights to county sites.

Maybe once, in those bountiful years when Comerica Park seemed a crude and commercial follow-up to the elegant simplicity of plain old "Tiger Stadium," old names were good names.

Time to get with it.

The Wayne County Commission decided to look into selling naming rights last week after a commissioner touted a Melvindale marketing firm's proposal to sell naming rights for county sites.

Given the marketing firm's bland name (PTN-NRS) suggestion for a 25 percent cut of naming revenues, this proposal screams for an open-bid contract.

But the idea itself? Right now, many of the county's parks and sites are named for bureaucrats nobody remembers. Many memorialize U.S. General Anthony Wayne -- a revolutionary war hero who was born in Pennsylvania, and whose underlings routed the British from Detroit. Wayne, who was court-martialed but not convicted, nicknamed both "mad" and "dandy," deserves recognition but isn't a Michigan county, university and city enough?

Mark me in favor of the Science Diet Dog Park at Hawthorne Ridge Park, or the Yonex Nanospeed 3i Golf Course, where the county's Inkster Valley links now stands.

Let Shamu reign at the Family Aquatic Center at Chandler Park in Detroit. The Swanson Hungry-Man Correctional Facility sounds livelier than the county jail.

And please, consider replacing Edward Hines Park with the Heinz 57 County Park. Sure, Edward Hines was the county's first road commissioner, a transportation innovator who conceived the highway centerline, built the first concrete mile of Woodward Avenue, and earned his place in the state's transportation hall of fame.

But why be a stickler for spelling when cash is involved?

From the Max Factor Rouge Park to the Centrum Silver Senior Center, creatively sold naming rights could help recast the whole area into a beacon of entrepreneurial derring-do. So powerful is this idea that two candidates for Detroit City Council are touting the idea of selling off city naming rights. The mayor and Microsoft's Bing can work on synergy, while Belle Tire Isle beckons.

Alas, pure Michigan. Why not Purell?

lberman@detnews.com (313) 222-2032