Dear Answer Man: The Mayo Clinic announces that the first “Bold. Forward. Unbound. In Rochester” building will be named after longtime benefactors Edith Waterman and her late husband Bernard Waterman. How much did the Watermans pay for it, and what do the Watermans get out of it other than their names on a building? – No Name Inquirer.
Dear No Name,
Frankly, I’m shocked that no one decided to honor my genius with a building named after me. The Answer Man Edifice: sounds good, right?
While we wait for this injustice to be righted, I would like to answer your question.
First, let’s look at what the Mayo Clinic has to say about this honor bestowed upon the Watermans. The couple has been patients at the Mayo Clinic for about 30 years and has often supported Mayo Clinic projects, including capital expansion, personalized medicine, and cancer genetics research, but the Watermans simply wanted other patients to receive the same medical care they received at Mayo.
Edith Waterman added, “Mayo Clinic’s care teams strive for excellence. We want to support that commitment so they can continue to provide better solutions for patients.”
Nice, right? That and a little money over the years sounds like it’s enough to name a building after you.
How much money? Well, the Watermans don’t like to brag, so the bequests were kept secret at their request.
But do they get anything out of it? Well, I guess it’s an honor to see your name on a building that supports a mission you believe in.
Otherwise it is unlikely.
To learn a little more about putting your name on a building, my helpers turned to George John, a professor of marketing at the University of Minnesota’s Carlson School of Management.
A published researcher with an MBA from the University of Illinois and a Ph.D. from Northwestern University, John is something of an expert when it comes to seeing your name—or the name of your company—on the side of a building.
John said we’re talking about two different things here: naming rights and honorifics. The first is paying a single amount to put your name, or more likely the name of a company, on a building.
Consider Target Field. While Target and the Minnesota Twins have not disclosed the amount the retail giant pays the Twins annually, various sources estimate that Target pays between $4 million and $6 million per year for a 25-year contract.
The second is when a building is named after you to honor your work or other efforts. An example of this would be the Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome. Humphrey didn’t write a big check to the Minnesota Vikings or the city of Minneapolis to have his name on the football/baseball stadium. Instead, he simply became a beloved leader in the state of Minnesota.
Going back to the first case, Target gets something out of this deal, which is brand recognition. Every time you hear a game on the radio or see the Twins on TV, the commentators say, “Welcome to Target Field, where the Twins host the (insert name of a less popular baseball team here).”
The idea is that people hear this and think, “I need chips and beer to watch this game. Hmm, which shop should I drive to?”
Then it dawns on them: goal!
But nobody thought, “Hey, if I’m watching this Vikings game, I might as well go out and vote for Hubert Humphrey.” And that was a good thing, because Humphrey died in 1978 and the Metrodome didn’t open until 1982.
“In the first case, money changes hands,” John said. “But in the second case, it may not have been money. It’s the difference between an honorable transaction and a commercial one.”
Sometimes it all gets a little muddled. John pointed to the 3M Arena in Mariucci. The hockey arena is named after John Mariucci, who played and coached hockey at the University of Minnesota, but it bears the name of Minnesota-based 3M Corp., which pays to share the arena’s name with the coach.
Mariucci’s name is on the arena because the university wants to honor him for his contributions to Gopher hockey. At the same time, 3M is on the arena because they want hockey fans to buy 3M products.
Not that there isn’t a financial benefit for the Watermans. John says they’ve probably claimed tax deductions for donations to the Mayo Clinic over the years, since Mayo is a nonprofit organization. The same isn’t necessarily true for 3M or Target, although their work does bring other financial benefits.
Some institutions impose a time limit on honorary titles, as to how long the name of the donor or distinguished alumni will remain on the building. John said UM recently grappled with the question of whether to name a building after someone who had become, say, politically and historically problematic. Now names are limited to 75 years and then either reviewed for renewal or removed and replaced with a new name.
And it’s nothing new for hospitals to name a building, a nursing wing, or just about anything else after a donor. Go to any hospital—try Saint Mary’s, for example—and look at the names of all the different parts of the building.
But even the Mayo Clinic is in the naming rights business. The Mayo Clinic’s Orthopedics and Sports Medicine building is located across the street from the Target Center. The WNBA Lynx even wear a Mayo Clinic logo on their jerseys.
However, Waterman Broadcasting, the company that made Bernard Waterman his money, is not exactly profiting when his patients say, “Hey, let’s turn on your TV channels while I get an MRI.”
In doing so, we honor someone who has been a friend and partner of the Mayo Clinic for decades. And there is nothing wrong with that.
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