(The following story by Athena D. Merritt appeared on the Philadelphia Business Journal website on June 18, 2010.)
PHILADELPHIA, Penn. — SEPTA’s Pattison Avenue station in South Philadelphia could soon be renamed the AT&T station under a five-year, $5 million deal expected to receive approval by the transit agency’s board next week.
SEPTA would receive $3 million under the agreement with AT&T to rename the station on the Broad Street subway line. Titan Outdoor LLC, which handles SEPTA’s advertising, would receive $2 million, which includes the costs of installing it all, SEPTA spokesman Richard Maloney said.
The name change is tentatively scheduled for August, Maloney said. The proposal will go before SEPTA’s full board for approval on Thursday.
SEPTA is also pursuing selling naming rights to other stations, which are part of numerous efforts to ramp up advertising revenue being undertaken by SEPTA as well as PATCO, which installed four 52-inch monitors at the 8th and Market Street station this week as part of efforts to grow advertising revenue.