Memorandum
City of Lawrence
City Manager’s Office
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TO: |
City Commissioners David Corliss, City Manager Ernie Shaw, Interim Director of Parks and Recreation |
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FROM: |
Megan Gilliland, Communications Manager |
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DATE: |
May 1, 2014 |
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RE: |
Recreation center naming information |
Background:
As per City Commission direction, city staff developed a web-based comment system for the public to submit possible naming ideas for the city’s new recreation center at Rock Chalk Park.
The following is a listing of potential naming ideas received via the city from the web commenting tool and/or in writing. 107 web entries were received as part of the public comment period. The city used social media, the city website, a press release, and word-of-mouth to encourage responses from citizens about the naming process.
This list is in alphabetical order. If the naming generated multiple affirmative or positive comments, then staff calculated the number of occurrences to the right of the naming. Naming utilizing trademarks of Kansas Athletics is denoted with an asterisk. This listing provides just the name suggestions. In the full comments, some people gave recommendations as to why they thought it was a good name. Staff edited this data only to remove respondent names and irrelevant information not related to the naming of the recreation center. Negative or improper name ideas were removed as well since they did not fit the unified and positive direction the City Commission has set for the facility.
2K Center
Ad Astra Center (23)
Ad Astra Athletic Center
Ad Astra Sports Center
Ad Astra Sports and Recreation Center
Amos Adams Recreation Center
Athletic Lawrence
Azure Sports Center
Beginning of Basketball Center
Big Dreams Center
Bill Mayer Center
Bill Self Center/The Self Center (3)
Call to Greatness Center
The Center at the Park
Chamberlain Center
Don “Red Dog” Gardner Pavilion
DreamTown Sports or DreamTown Sports Park
Elkins Prairie Community Athletic Center
Exalted Basketball Dominance Center of the Western Plains
The Fieldhouse
Freedom Center (5)
Freedom SportQuest
Free State Center or Free State Park (5)
iFit Lawrence Community Rec Center
The Hawk Center
IKE Center (In Kansas Exercising and for presidential reference)
Jayhawk Compound*
Jayhawk Center* (3)
The Jayhawker*
Jayhawk Sports Center*
John Brown Center
The Kansas Dome
Kansa Center
Kanza Center (16)
Kanza Pioneer Center of Health and Fitness
Kanza Rec Center (2)
Kanza SportQuest
Kanza Center for Sports
Larryville Center
Lawrence Achievement Center
Lawrence Activity Center
Lawrence 1863
Lawrence Action
Lawrence Arena
Lawrence Athletic Recreation Center (LARC) or Lark (meadowlark reference) or Sprint LARC Center
Lawrence Campus Rec Center
The Lawrence Center
Lawrence City Sports Complex
Lawrence Fieldhouse
Lawrence Freedom Center
Lawrence Hawks Center
Lawrence Park
Lawrence Park Center
Lawrence Recreation (2)
Lawrence Rock Chalk Center
LRC
Lawrence Sports Center or Lawrence Recreation Center (7)
Lawrence Sports Mecca
Lawrence SportsPlex
Lexie Engelman Center
Liberty Park
Multi Activity Center of Lawrence
Naismith Center (2)
OneLawrence (10)
The Park
Park Center
Park Recreation Center
Phoenix City Fitness Center
The Rec Center
The R.C. Center
RecreateLawrence
River City Sports
The Rock (2)
The Roc
Rock Chalk Freedom Park*
Rock Chalk Park or Rock Chalk Recreation Center* (11)
Spirit of Lawrence Center
Sprint FreeState Park
Sporting Ace Park
SportingLawrence
SportQuest (5)
Sunflower Center
Sunflower Sports Center or Sunflower Sports Arena (3)
Sunflower Sport Hub
Wakarusa Sports Complex
West Lawrence Activity Center or West Lawrence Rec Center (3)
Withey’s World
It is recommended that the City Commission select a name for the facility to help define it as a community resource available to help residents achieve their fitness and wellness goals and as premier sporting complex which provides a dynamic setting for tournaments. Once a name is selected, city staff will continue to work on developing graphic standards needed for marketing and branding efforts (logo, style guidelines, website development, social media strategy, etc.) for the facility.
City Commissioner Jeremy Farmer requested staff provide a visual representation of how the naming could be utilized to explain a broader theme of Lawrence’s history, culture and community values. Staff took the top three naming choices referenced by the public in the web comments (except for ones that were trademarked by Kansas Athletics) and designed some very basic signage to show how the naming could be used develop a theme. This is not recommended for final use, just to help visualize.
Recommendation:
Direct staff as appropriate.