First Snapple makes a mess of Union Square and now it's not even living up to its side of its "historic" deal with City Hall (you remember, it made Snapple the city of New York's official beverage).
When the deal between the city and the drink was announced way back in 2003 a lot of rosy projections were made. For instance, this year the city was supposed to get $5.4 million in commissions (we got $405,000). The city was supposed to be guaranteed the equivalent of $106 million over five years (that has now been revised to $60 million). The only part of the deal that has come close to living up to expectations is Snapple's separate deal with the school system (projected to be worth $13.6 million it has so far brought in $11.7).
Gothamist understands that a lot of issues have mucked up this deal, from not enough vending machines to meddling Comptrollers, but we still wonder if maybe the city could learn an important lesson from all of this. Namely, corporate sponsorship for cities is probably not a great idea. Or at least that's our take, what's yours?
