Metro

Corporate sponsors could buy subway station naming rights under MTA proposal

Your local subway stop could be renamed after a corporate sponsor – if they cough up enough dough and have an existing connection to the facility, according to a transit source.

The cash-strapped MTA has proposed a set of rules to rename its stations, which board members will vote on next week at a meeting.

The proposal states that it’s been challenging for the MTA to fund its five-year capital program – and that the agency is looking for ways to secure money to fund additional capital projects.

The guidelines are meant to help the agency get a fair value for any facility renamed– as well as respect the stations’ histories.

Subway naming rights

Sponsors have to have a unique geographic or historic connection to the facility that would be obvious to riders, such as The Barclays Center in Brooklyn.

The Barclays Center stop on Atlantic Avenue was named in 2009 after Barclays agreed to pay $200,000 a year for 20 years for the naming right.

According to the new proposal, the company renaming the station will also have to pay any cost of replacing any signs or tiles.

An independent firm will be asked to value the naming rights so that the agency gets a fair bang for its buck.

Earlier this year, US Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-NY) proposed renaming the 77th street subway station after Mayor Koch – but the MTA said the agency doesn’t rename stations after people.