Chicago Looks To Sell Naming Rights at O’Hare and Midway—Even for Restrooms, Trash Cans and Pet Relief Areas

by Gary Leff

Chicago is considering selling naming rights at O’Hare and Midway airports, according to a Request for Information issued on Wednesday.

They’re asking for input on what sponsorship opportunities they should consider – from terminals, concourses, people-mover systems, and roadway entries, to minor items like restrooms and pet relief areas. Here are some of the examples they offer:

  • Restrooms: cleaning, fixtures, products, baby changing stations, family restrooms, service animal relief areas

  • Children’s play areas: naming, equipment, maintenance

  • Parking: lots (levels or the whole structure), surface lots, cell phone lot, Uber/Lyft staging area

  • Elevators and EV charging areas

  • Passenger amenities: holiday decor, terminal entertainment program, device charging stations; water fountains, water refill stations

  • Airport Transit System: train cars, stations, shuttle buses

  • Infrastructure: terminals, concourses, multimodal facility, common areas, trash & recycling cans

Is it weird I want to name the ‘Gary Leff Memorial Trash Cans’ at O’Hare? I probably couldn’t afford it. The airport is looking for ways to offset some of the costs of satellite concourses and the future global terminal replacing Terminal 2. Since submissions for this will be subject to Illinois FOIA, I’m looking forward to seeing what ideas brands have!

There’s only one guardrail: reportedly, the names O’Hare and Midway are not available for sale and replacement.

Sponsorships at airports aren’t new. Dallas – Fort Worth had “Samsung Travel Lounges” that got rebranded to “DFW Airport Travel Lounges” when the Samsung sponsorship ended in December 2012. Detroit had Pepsi as its official beverage partner for several years.

Much more aggressively, Palm Springs International Airport did a three-year concourse naming deal with Agua Caliente Casinos, actually rebranding a concourse.

Wichita tried to do this and failed, concluding “we looked at terminal naming rights; it’s not worth much.”

Online discussion has been mostly derisive of a future “Barilla terminal” and “Modelo gate on the DraftKings concourse.” But I’d suggest offsetting airport costs attracts more service and lower fares.

Now, the binding constraint at O’Hare is gates not attracting airlines. But it’s tough to make money on sub-$100 one-way fares when half the fare goes to the airport. Keeping airport costs down matters, Chicago airports need real investment, and accomplishing anything there – let alone public infrastructure – gets expensive fast.

(HT: Enilria)

About Gary Leff

Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel - a topic he has covered since 2002. Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »

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Comments

  1. Is Trump buying the pet relief areas?

    They can be named Trumps Take a Dump and have a picture of him on the astro turf.

    There could be the golden shower fire hydrant

    National guard and patrol it so no foreigns use it

  2. I’d be honored and would go out of my way to throw away my takeout containers in a Gary Leff Memorial Trash Can

  4. I can see it now:

    The Malort Men’s Room
    The Lerner & Rowe Parking Experience
    The Urlacher Restore Hair Lounge
    Vienna Beef Food Court
    Duty Free by Binny’s
    Jewel Osco travel Shop

    Actually, most of these would be an improvement. Get Portillo’s in the food court and I’m in!

  5. I was in Memphis once (circa 2018, before the new terminal), and American Airlines had clearly labeled the trash cans by the gate as “Property of American Airlines.”

    I feel like there is an opportunity to get United and American in their battle of Chicago to sponsor things here. United sponsoring the American Airlines terminal would be quite a scene!

  6. In 2008 Chicago privatized their parking meters. They sold the collection rights for for 75 years for an upfront sum of $1.1 billion.

    The city quickly spent all that money to temporarily plug a hole in their budget. Parking prices have gone up and the city residents are on the hook for the next 60+ years.

    I doubt the city would do any better by selling the naming rights to the airport.

    I suspect any monies received by selling naming rights would be looked at as “new money” and would be quickly spent.

  8. Someone’s company name on a trashcan. That’s how low the MBA “leader” class has become.

  9. I dunno @George Nathan Romney seems perfectly in line with the airlines, the NFL, hospitals, the Satan and John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. Isn’t that what your folks do? Monetize anything and everything?

    Oh, that’s right, it’s being done in a city with a different worldview than you, so it must be wrong.

    Even the “free wi-fi” on most airlines is “presented by” or “sponsored by” a corporate partner. What’s the difference?

  10. For the vast majority of naming rights, the words “Taxpayer Financed” need to be included, i.e.:

    “Chicago Taxpayer Financed Airport”, “Chicago Taxpayer Financed Concussionball Stadium”, and so forth.

  12. @1990 – Very fancy! I’ll contribute to a GoFundMe

    @jns – Nice one!

    If only one could sponsor concessions too. At MDW we could have a Tim Dunkin’ Donuts near a MaxPower Home Run Inn

  13. Good to hear that O’Hare will remain O’Hare and Midway, too. Midway’s “International” part is plain weird.

    American Airlines should buy the rights to Terminal 1’s name. Call it the American Airlines Terminal 1. Or maybe the Chronically Late Terminal 1. United could fight back.

    The presidential names should stop. There are already a JFK, Ford, Carter, Reagan, Bush, Clinton airports. Biden, Obama, and Trump should be banned. If they want a terminal, maybe.

  15. I think it would be a great honor to own the naming rights to a mens room in Ohare…..

    are the rights just for the room – is each urinal and toilet separate

    is there a number to call and say “my toilet, yes – it is mine, is not working” – or can I just put a “Reserved” sign on?

    the problem is that I am not sure if I am serious or not……

  16. Cities and towns sell naming rights for sport facilities.
    In Europe, advertising is plastered on the exterior of jetways.
    I understand the 2026 deficit for the City of Chicago is $1.15 billion.
    In New Orleans, the city ended 2025 with a deficit of $125M and had to float temporary “Pay Day Bonds” to meet year end payroll!
    If Chicago O’Hare is successful, look for other city airports to do the same.

  17. @derek: Midway has Customs and Border Patrol facilities which make it an international airport, and it has nonstop flights to Canada, Mexico, and the Dominican Republic on Porter, Volaris, and Southwest.

  18. they’ll have plenty of good paying takers for selling naming rights on trash cans and pet relief areas.

    Sign me up to name trash cans or pet defecation areas for the so-called leaders who have made today’s Chicago what it now is: Lori Lightfoot, Jay Pritzker, Brandon Johnson, Joe Biden, Kamala Harris.

    Not sure about monetization prospects for the other naming rights, though

  19. If J.B. Pritzker, aka Governor Big Boy sponsors the toilets, will he disconnect them like he did in his second mansion? After all, as another in a long line of corrupt Chicago Democrats he got a 75% reduction in assessed valuation on that second mansion on the grounds that it didn’t have working toilets.

  20. this just simply highlights how expensive Chicago airports already are and how ORD will get even worse with the new terminal.

    UA desperately wants to get rid of AA as a hub carrier there and gain a monopoly but UA will only make its own finances worse fighting everyone – and costs will still go up.

    the suburbs of northern Illinois work but, unfortunately, the airports are controlled by the City of Chicago

  23. Start up a GoFundMe for Gary to get the trash cans by Tortas Fronteras. Be sure to get Terminal 1 and Terminal 3.

  24. My hometown, ATL, has airport named after two dead mayors…
    I think ORD should name the pet relief area after their deadbeat former mayor.

  26. @derek — Don’t you mean *plane* weird… (I’ll be here all weak.)

    @Ken A — I’d be peeing every 5 minutes after excessively hydrating from that fine establishment.

    @Not 1990 — We still like Hyatt here.

  30. @Tomri. I planned to post something like what you did. You beat me to it and did it better. Kudos. Now start the gofundme drive!

  31. O’Hare was long nothing more than a checkbook for the Dakey Crime Organization, mist notoriously with the moll of the family, Maggie. They’ve already sold their souls, why not recoup on the pet relief areas and changing tables?

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