Dubai Metro Lines and Stations Naming Rights Advertising Project
I have not seen this elsewhere in transportation (though obviously with stadia, the University of Phoenix was brilliant in this regard, implying they are a real university whose stadium the Arizona Cardinal happen to play in). The Dubai Metro is an investment of 15.5 billion AED (=4.2 billion USD). Some stations are already taken.
I can just see budget strapped cities doing this. No more 3rd street and Washington Avenue, we can now have Denny Hecker ‘Nobody Walks’ Street at Washington Mutual Avenue. And when the Twin Cities marathon goes by, we can say there is a ‘run on WaMu.’, or maybe there will be a 3 vehicle crash on ‘Denny Hecker’.