June 2021 - Parks & Recreation - 19

reation center membership a separate section, describing the programs and services ENH was providing. If
members were interested, they checked a box to receive
further information from ENH.

Other Partnership Examples
Hospital partnerships with school districts similarly
demonstrate the potential of these types of arrangements with public fitness facilities. In Mason, Ohio,
Atrium Medical Center built a two-story health and
wellness center adjacent to the district's stadium, and
a 10,000-square-foot weight room on the high school
campus. The facility belonged to the school district,
but it leased the second floor and gave naming rights to
the medical center, whose contribution financed most
of the cost of the center. The medical center offered
sports medicine, physical therapy and family medicine
services on the second floor.
The town of Brownsburg, a suburb of Indianapolis,
planned a new 80,000-square-foot community recreation
center costing between $20 million and $25 million. It sent
out a request for proposals (RFP) to interested parties requesting proposals from " Capital Contribution Partners "
for (i) naming rights of the center and (ii) leasing rights to
operate a health and wellness facility in the center.
This RFP specified similar terms to those used at
Glenview: A 10,000-square-foot facility; a minimum
10-year commitment with possible renewal options;
" a minimum of one staff member who is a physician
(or equivalent), along with an agreed number of staff...
who would assume the management responsibilities
for all health-related activities. "
At a basic level, a partnership may be limited to
sponsorship of a center. An early arrangement of this
type was in Scottsdale, Arizona. In return for a commitment of $150,000, which the city needed to pay
for equipment in the 4,000-square-foot fitness center
component of a recreation center, Scottsdale Healthcare received the right to hold medical wellness programs - such as health risk assessments and health
education seminars in the fitness center and the right
to name that component of the center, " The Scottsdale Healthcare Fitness Center at McDowell Mountain Ranch Park and Aquatic Center. "
More recently, The Epic at Grand Prairie, Texas, one
of the finest public recreation complexes in the United
States, signed a five-year sponsorship agreement with
Texas Health Arlington Memorial Hospital (THAM).
	

The Epic integrates a number of private-sector commercial revenue flows into the city's $140 million investment in recreation facilities on the site to ensure it
is operationally self-supporting and requires no subsidy
from the city's general fund.
The sponsorship is one of the complex's revenue
flows. In return for an annual payment of $30,000,
THAM receives multiple recognitions relating to external signage at the complex; social media recognitions
and access; recognition on the home page of The Epic's website; ads in its print publications; and broadcast
visibility on The Epic's radio internet station.
Thank you to Leon Younger, CEO of PROS Consulting, for
contributing to this month's column. His company has been involved in facilitating a number of contemporary partnerships
between recreation agencies and hospital providers.
John L. Crompton, Ph.D., is a University Distinguished Professor,
Regents Professor and Presidential Professor for Teaching Excellence in
the Department of Recreation, Park and Tourism Sciences at Texas A&M
University and an elected Councilmember for the City of College Station
(jcrompton@tamu.edu).

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