Subway station naming rights, advertisements on vehicle ceilings and more buses and streetcars wrapped with vinyl ads are all possible under a new advertising contract approved by the TTC Wednesday.

The possible sale of station naming rights was a new element in the $27-million-per-year advertising deal with Pattison Outdoor Advertising, which won the bid to sell advertising on the transit system for the next 12 years, to the end of 2023.

In addition to naming rights Pattison will also be able to:

• Sell vinyl ads that cover the entire back of a bus on all of the TTC’s 1,800 buses. Previously, the limit was 50 buses.

• Increase the number of buses and streetcars that can be completely wrapped in vinyl advertising increases to 50 from 35. The number of subway cars that can be wrapped doubles to 24.

But naming rights are the perhaps the most controversial issue with some fears it will commercialize the transit system.

Ryerson University has already expressed interest in having its name placed on the Dundas subway station, but at this point no talks have been held with either the TTC or Pattison.

And any decision to sell naming rights will be made by the nine city councillors who sit on the TTC commission, said Vince Rodo, general secretary of the transit system.

“We’re not likely to take a name that has geographic significance and historical significance and throw it out,” Rodo said. “We might allow Dundas/Ryerson or Dundas, sponsored by Ryerson, But again, that would come to the commission for approval.”

A critic of the ad contract, Councillor Janet Davis, was comfortable with Ryerson coming on board as the campus is adjacent to Dundas station. She took a dim view of signing up commercial advertisers who have no connection to a station.

“I think there are probably some reasonable proposals that we could consider in partnership with other public institutions,” Davis said. “But I don’t think the residents of Toronto want a Coca-Cola station.”

Corporate demand for subway naming rights is unclear, although the city has been able to sell rights for other civic facilities such as BMO Field, Direct Energy Centre and the Sony Centre for the Performing Arts.

Naming rights is just one of several new revenue generating ideas the TTC wants to exploit. Others include subway car video-screens, and changeable ad messages on the sides of buses.

“Vancouver has it. As the bus passes The Bay, there’ll be a Bay ad,” Rodo said.

Rodo said wrapped vehicles are lucrative; one bus fully wrapped for six weeks produces $30,000 to $50,000 in ad revenue.

Under the deal, Pattison is to pay the TTC a minimum of $324 million over 12 years, or $27 million a year. The contract runs from Jan. 1, 2012 to Dec. 31, 2023.

Pattison beat out three other firms, whose bids ranged from $220 million to $283 million.

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“We love transit advertising,” said Bob Leroux, Pattison’s central region vice-president/general manager.

“We’re thrilled about this because we believe we can help bring better success to transit advertising and it will be to the benefit of the TTC,” Leroux said.