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TTC tries to spin controversial scheme to sell subway station names like Dundas

Are any public spaces too sacred to carry the name of a sponsor?

The question has recently been pondered in Toronto, where the cash-strapped transit system has announced plans to incorporate the names of corporate brands into subway stops, starting with the one most popular with those who go downtown.

Dundas station, which is adjacent to the Toronto Eaton Centre, has been long overdue for a facelift. Selling its identity to a corporation is considered the most realistic way for renovations to be underwritten.

Buffering criticism the identity will be sold off to the highest bidder, though, Toronto Transit Commission chair Karen Stintz has mentioned another potential partner for the project would be the school right above the subway station: Ryerson University.

Ryerson started construction of a new student centre on the former site of Sam the Record Man, which it purchased in 2008, along with other efforts to integrate academia into the surrounding Yonge-Dundas neighbourhood.

But those who visit the area are more likely to notice the dominant digital advertisements, and large-scale retailers and restaurants, in an effort to give Toronto its own equivalent to Times Square in New York City.

A subway station with a sponsorship attached would hardly be out of character for the neighbourhood.

Nonetheless, the TTC has faced criticism from a vocal contingent of transit purists opposed to the idea of handing over one more element of the advertising-deluged system.

Previous transit chair Adam Giambrone countered that any revenue a long-term subway naming rights deal would likely provide for the system could cancel out the gains from shorter-term sponsorships. Popular stations and streetcar routes are regularly blanketed with advertiser plugs.

Yet few sponsors would likely be interested in a subway stop that isn't attached to a mall.

(CBC Photo)