SEPTA renames station for $3.4M

While cash-strapped public-transit systems in Connecticut, Miami and Chicago have talked about selling their stations' naming rights to private corporations, the SEPTA board went ahead and did it yesterday.

The board unanimously approved a $5.4 million deal with AT&T to rename Pattison Avenue Station after the telecommunications giant.

AT&T Station is scheduled to debut in August as the South Philly sports-complex gateway formerly known as Pattison Avenue Station.

The board's approval was no surprise, given SEPTA's need for operating cash and the willingness of AT&T - the only wireless carrier that provides underground service in the subway system - to pay $3.4 million to the transit agency and $2 million to its ad agency, Titan Outdoor LLC, over the next five years.

Titan Outdoor, which negotiated the deal, will pay all costs of replacing "Pattison Avenue" with "AT&T Station" on SEPTA signage and maps.

Can "Nutter Butter Presents City Hall!" be far behind?

"We are hoping to expand [selling naming rights] to other stations," SEPTA spokesman Richard Maloney said yesterday. "The supposition is that, now that this deal has gone through, other companies will be interested."