School board approves facility sponsorship opportunities

The Christian County School Board is moving ahead with sponsorship opportunities for businesses on athletic facilities owned by the school system.

The board approved invitations to bid at Thursday’s meeting, which includes language of the contracts for potential sponsors, which could be business or individuals, and would give them naming rights on the facility. The facilities currently up for sponsorship grabs are the Stadium of Champions, the soccer fields located adjacent to the stadium, Hopkinsville High School’s swimming pool and the two high school gymnasiums.

Chief Operations Officer Brad Hawkins says interested parties could even bid to sponsor all five facilities.

He says it comes with more than just naming rights—those parties could also put up signage in the facility and other perks.

Hawkins says sponsorship of facilities is common in other school districts, giving an example of McCracken County.

The contracts that come with the invitations to bid would be for five years and the board reserves the right to reject any or all bids. The money that comes from the sponsorship would go towards maintenance or improvements of the facility or possibly equipment for students.

The hope is that if this first round of bidding goes well, then the opportunities could expand to other school property, such as band rooms, libraries, classrooms and more.