By shopping for a license plate, California motorists already can present their love for Lake Tahoe, Yosemite and the state’s seashores, together with firefighters, museums and different applications.
Now one other trigger could also be coming to bumpers throughout the state — NFL groups. On Monday, California’s Pure Sources Company, which runs the state parks division, introduced it's sponsoring a specialty license plate with the San Francisco 49ers Basis to lift cash for state parks applications.
The proposed plate has the 49ers brand on it, with the phrases “Devoted to State Parks.”
General, 75% of the proceeds from gross sales would go to the state’s “Open air for All” program, which goals to increase entry to parks to underserved communities, together with different state parks tasks.
“It’s vital that Californians have equitable entry to parks,” stated Lisa Lien-Mager, a spokeswoman for the state Pure Sources Company. “It shouldn’t rely in your zip code. Plenty of Californians don’t have parks of their neighborhoods. We try to spend money on parks-poor locations and increase entry.”
The 49ers Basis additionally would obtain 25% the proceeds for the group’s youth and science teaching programs.
The specialty NFL plates will price $50 initially after which $40 per yr to resume. A customized plate charge is $103 and $83 to resume. They're eligible for autos, vehicles, bikes or trailers, and just for California automobiles. Extra info is at 49ersplates.com
However similar to an additional level on a wet day, the way forward for the license plate is not any positive factor. Underneath state regulation, 7,500 individuals should pre-purchase orders earlier than the Division of Motor Autos will produce any new specialty plate.
Justin Prettyman, govt director of the 49ers Basis, stated that the group will promote the plate at its video games this fall, and is planning to have group legend Jerry Rice assist in the hassle.
“We're very intentional in encouraging college students and youngsters to play,” Prettyman stated. “It’s not an emphasis on soccer as a lot as being lively. It’s a no brainer for us.”
In February, the Los Angeles Rams introduced an analogous specialty plate marketing campaign, with funding additionally going to increase parks entry.
Such plates might be main cash makers.
California has roughly a dozen specialty license plates. Greater than $200 million has been raised through the years, from the Yosemite plate which funds tasks in Yosemite Nationwide Park; a Snoopy plate that raises cash for California museums; a whale-tail plate that has generated cash for seashore cleanups and coastal applications; a veterans plate for navy veterans applications and different specialty plates.
However they don’t at all times succeed.
Lately, different tried plates to lift cash for environmental causes, together with a redwoods plate in 2017 to assist fund redwood safety in parks and a Salton Sea plate to fund restoration of that beleaguered physique of water in Imperial County, have died after not with the ability to attain the 7,500 mark.
In 2010, a plate with a picture of the Golden Gate Bridge — whose backers hoped it might elevate $1 million a yr for the California Coastal Conservancy — didn't safe sufficient consumers, as did a plate that includes a picture of bear and a mountain, that will have funded tasks of the Sierra Nevada Conservancy, a state company.
Like the opposite plates, if the 49ers plate doesn’t safe 7,500 pre-orders, refunds might be given to individuals who signed as much as buy it.
California’s hottest commemorative plates first got here out within the Nineties, with large splashy paintings.
However complicating the pattern is a state regulation, signed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger in 2006, that restricted the dimensions of the artwork work on the plates. Prompted by issues from the California Freeway Patrol that officers have been having a tough time studying the license plate numbers, the regulation required that any brand be no bigger than 2 inches by 3 inches — concerning the measurement of a enterprise card.
So 49ers followers wanting a giant picture of 5 Tremendous Bowl trophies on the 49ers plate, or Dwight Clark pulling in “The Catch” should wait. The group says it feels good, however, about hitting the 7,500 plate objective.
“We’re assured we’ll get there,” stated Prettyman. “There are lots of people who're 49ers followers, and lots of people who're followers of state parks.”