Ad Age: Cash-Strapped Cities Turn to Marketers for Help

From Ad Age: 

There's the TECO Line Streetcar System in Tampa, sponsored by Tampa Electric. The HealthLine bus line in Cleveland, sponsored by the Cleveland Clinic and University Hospitals. And if all goes as planned, there will be a Barclays Center subway stop in Brooklyn by 2012.  Municipalities facing shrinking budgets are turning increasingly to the private sector to fund public services, offering up naming rights in exchange for cash. Last week New York's Metropolitan Transit Authority approved a 20-year deal worth $4 million with real-estate developer Forest City Ratner to rename a Brooklyn subway station. The developer is opening a sports arena named the Barclays Center near the heavily trafficked subway stop, which will share the Barclays name.  What's next? Will iconic American locales such as Route 66 or treasured public institutions such as the Smithsonian be up for grabs?