Million Dollar Name Change Forever Erases TRAC From TC Vernacular

HAPO Community Credit Union is reportedly buying the naming rights, 10 years - a million bucks, to rebrand the TRAC facility, "The HAPO Center"...and that building is within shouting distance of another credit union named establishment where minor league baseball is contested.

Your move, Gesa.

Or STCU.

Or TCCU.

HAPO has upped the ante in the credit union marketing/naming/branding wars by offering to call the old (since 1995 - Trade Recreation and Agriculture Center) TRAC facility their own, The HAPO Center, for a million bucks. One hundred thousand dollars a year beginning March 1, and running through May 31, 2030, the proposal is headed for a hearing by the Franklin County Commission on Tuesday.

In late 2018, when Franklin County solicited potential partner proposals, HAPO was the only business that stepped up to even make an offer.

Franklin County and the city of Pasco have split the losses the building has incurred since 2015, with that number reaching over a half-a-million dollars total. However the 2018 numbers are expected to show a break-even year.

The deal will give HAPO exclusive naming rights to all TRAC facilities, and prevent its competitors from advertising within the property, including the parking lot, event space, ice pavilion, buildings and grounds, with the exception of the Franklin County RV Park at the property.

Franklin County first broached the naming rights idea in 2016 and a similar offer to the one accepted was floated in 2017 by West Coast Auto Dealers, but apparently that deal lost steam.

Gesa has the naming rights to Kennewick's Carousel of Dreams and the Pasco's Dust Devils baseball stadium, HAPO now pays for a naming rights claim to TRAC, with their logo on the outdoor community amphitheater on John Dam Plaza in Richland too.

Here's the agreement.

More here.