We paid the 75K, now where are the corporate tie-ins?

By John Katsilometes

Monday, March 23, 2009 | 8:16 p.m.

Remember The Active Network? About two years ago this outfit was awarded a $75,000 contract by the Las Vegas City Council to make sponsorship deals with major corporations on behalf of the city of Las Vegas.

Today I ask, whither the results?

At the time The Active Network wowed the City Council, we joked that we would stick a corporate title on many of the city’s landmarks – the General Electric Fremont Street Experience, the Bombay Sapphire/City of Las Vegas City Hall building, the American Signal Sirens/Metro Police department. We'd be so clever, relishing our ingenuity while figuring out whether to spend our millions on refurbished schools, a new homeless shelter or a museum celebrating organized crime. The Active Network had a nearly decade-long history of establishing similar partnerships in Santa Clara County in California and Nassau County in New York, along with the cities of Glendale, Calif., and Pittsburgh.

I wonder what sort of corporate partnership The Active Network would come up with for Hershey, Pa. Call a meeting!

An example of how The Active Network operates in Huntington Beach, Calif., which is also its corporate headquarters, is the deal it signed with Coca Cola. The city was the exclusive provider of beverages for all city-sponsored events (Dasani water kiosks at distance races was one component of the agreement). A portion of the money raised would go directly to the city, and the company also received a cut. In its agreement with Las Vegas, The Active Network would receive 12 percent of all money raised through these types of corporate payments. Let's do some quick math: Twelve percent of zero is ...

I’m wondering, about two years after I wrote this story about The Active Network and its contract with the city, what happened with that deal? The Active Network pocketed the 75K – which I can only hope was paid in El Cortez poker chips – in June of 2007. But we’re not seeing any corporate hookups that I can find, no Pepsi Cashman Field, no Master Lock Las Vegas Municipal Court. Earlier today I asked city of Las Vegas Public Information officer Jace Radke about the status of this contract, which wasn’t immediately available. He is checking on it, I am checking on it -- it’s the Bank of America Checking System, and maybe we can market that.