Dating Website Offers Sugar Hill $3.75M to Change Name

Sugar Hill, Ga. - Is $3.75 million a fair price to pay for temporarily changing a city's name? That is how much a dating website has offered the City of Sugar Hill if they will rename the city SugarDaddie.com.

Darren Shuster, SugarDaddie.com spokesman and founder of Pop Culture PR, said Sugar Hill is the fourth city the company has approached with the unique offer. 

"We've received one counteroffer, one 'Get out of town,' one 'Interesting, we don't have a counteroffer, but we'll allow you to speak at the city hall meeting and plead your case' and now this is the fourth city," Shuster said.

Sugar Hill, he explained, was selected due to Mayor Gary Pirkle's reputation for trying to do more with less.

Shuster plans to visit Sugar Hill in the near future in hopes of making his case in person, but has already received a counteroffer from Mayor Pirkle:

Mr. Shuster, 

While we appreciate the offer of $3.75 million to rename the city of Sugar Hill, GA as Sugar Daddy for the next 10 years, we are unable to accept. We will be celebrating our city's 75th anniversary next year, so we are already committed to keeping the name Sugar Hill. 

As a counter offer, we would be willing to name Sugar Daddy as our official city candy bar for the next 10 years for only $2 million. 

Sincerely,
Gary Pirkle
Mayor, Sugar Hill

The original offer, made on March 17, would give the city $3.75 million in return for meeting following conditions:

• A 10-year commitment to officially change the name of Sugar Hill, Ga. to SugarDaddie.com, U.S.A. 
• All official government correspondence, institutions and street signs must be changed to reflect the new name of SugarDaddie.com, U.S.A. This includes renaming the Sugar Hill Golf Course to SugarDaddie Greens.  
• Replace the current logo (there is already a public logo design competition taking place to celebrate the city’s 75th Anniversary).
• The CEO of SugarDaddie.com must receive a key to the city in a formal ceremony presented by local government officials (open to the media and the public). The company also proposes building a Hugh Hefner statue near the new City Hall, or another public figure that best represents the sugar daddy lifestyle.
• Replace the name of E.E. Robinson Park with SugarDaddie.com Park.
• SugarDaddie City Hall will replace Sugar Hill City Hall for 10 years.
• To rename Gary Pirkle Park for a period of 5 years, along with the post office and local street signage upon entering or exiting the city. 
• All city marketing resources must be made to reflect the city’s official new name and must be fully implemented within six months.

Shuster said the idea for the unusual branding attempt came to him in a dream.

"I woke up in the morning and wrote it down on my whiteboard and here we are actually doing it," Shuster said.

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Shuster is hopeful SugarDaddie.com will be able to find a city willing to accept the unique proposal.

"My clients like it and they do have the checkbook to back it up," he said.

The offers extended to date have ranged from $3.75 million to $12 million. Shuster said SugarDaddie.com CEO Steven Pasternack is willing to entertain counteroffers from Sugar Hill.

“We are very serious about branding the city and giving birth to the first dating site-sponsored city in America,” Pasternack said in a press release. “We thought it would be a great way to get the word out about our 10-year anniversary, and to be a permanent part of the rich history of the Greater Atlanta area.”

Pasternack added, "If we can’t get a favorable outcome with the folks in Sugar Hill, Ga. we’re looking into other cities like Sugar City, Colorado and others. We are hell bent on creating the first dating site-sponsored city in America.”

In February, Sugar Land, Texas rejected a $500,000 offer to change its name for a period of 10 years. According to Fox News, SugarDaddie.com's offer -- like the one extended to Sugar Hill -- would have required the name be reflected on city hall and on "official government correspondence and institutions." Plus, the offer also included a provision requiring that Pasternack be given a key to the city.

The website, which bills itself as a place where the "classy, attractive and affluent" meet, also struck out earlier this month when the town of Woodside, Calif. rejected an $11.65 million offer to change its name. The Contra Costa Times reports the city would have been required to change the name of its town hall and library, hand over a key to the city to Pasternack and erect a statue of Hugh Hefner or "some other public figure that best represents the sugar daddy lifestyle."

As of article publication time, the City of Sugar Hill has not responded to a request for comment.

How much money would a company need to offer to make changing the name of a city worthwhile? Is rewarding a publicity stunt worth it if the taxpayers benefit? Let us know in the comments.

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