Two school board members have proposed a new way for Fairfax County Public Schools to add revenue: selling the naming rights to school athletic facilities.
Introduced as “new business” last week, a motion directing Superintendent Michelle Reid to develop a plan to accommodate such negotiations is set to be voted on by the full Fairfax County School Board at its meeting tomorrow (Thursday).
If the motion passes, Reid will have until July to present a formal plan to allow for the names of corporate and other business sponsors to adorn football fields, basketball gyms and more across the county.
At-large board member Kyle McDaniel, one of two policymakers leading the effort, cited the school system’s growing “$400 million maintenance backlog” as the driving factor.
“Pursuing naming rights is a very common approach for public school systems to generate revenue targeted to facility maintenance and improvement,” McDaniel said in a statement. “It’s important that we pursue all available resources to help ensure our students and community members are in facilities that meet our expectations.”
McDaniel is joined by Mount Vernon District Representative Mateo Dunne in championing the change.
“At a time when our infrastructure and renovation needs exceed available resources, I believe FCPS has the opportunity to partner with the private sector to invest in our school buildings and facilities,” Dunne said.
It is unclear exactly how much revenue such an initiative could generate for FCPS. A study released in November by SponsorUnited, a “sponsorship intelligence platform,” found that brands spend nearly $900 million annually on naming rights across seven major professional sports leagues in the U.S.
The home of the Washington Commanders, for example, awarded the naming rights for its stadium in Landover, Maryland, to Herndon-based Northwest Federal Credit Union in 2024 at the cost of $8 million annually. D.C.’s Audi Field, which hosts Major League Soccer franchise D.C. United, became adorned with the name of the automobile manufacturer in 2017 at a cost of $4 million annually.
Deals for high school, and potentially some middle school, facilities would presumably be much smaller in comparison, but Dunne and McDaniel argue they could help advance maintenance efforts regardless.
According to its latest capital improvement program (CIP), FCPS has allocated approximately $13.5 million in operating funds for major maintenance projects for each of the past four years. Including various other funds, the district has devoted $32.6 million total to maintenance, repair and infrastructure replacement projects this fiscal year, which began on July 1, 2025.
The fiscal year 2027 budget proposed by Reid earmarks $10.8 million for “maintenance supplies,” which is $1.5 million more than the current FY 2026 budget’s allocation “due to a contractual increase related to the fulfillment of essential repair and maintenance at schools and centers.”
The proposed budget also covers a $267.3 million school construction fund that includes $13.5 million for building maintenance.
