Lincoln Center paying Fisher family $15 million to rename Avery Fisher Hall

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When Avery Fisher, founder of the Fisher electronics company, made a $10.5 million donation in 1973, Lincoln Center agreed to name the New York Philharmonic's performance hall after Fisher "in perpetuity." Perpetuity is now coming to an end: Lincoln Center has struck an agreement with the Fisher family that will allow them to seek a new naming donor for the hall after essentially returning Fisher's donation, with interest.

The hall, originally built in 1962, is set for a $500 million renovation, and Lincoln Center needs to attract the kind of heavy-hitting donor that steps up to bat only when naming rights are involved. Since that would require breaking its promise to Fisher, Lincoln Center — the New York Times reports — has reached an agreement with the Fisher family that will forestall threatened legal action, "essentially paying the family $15 million for permission to drop the name."

To avoid precisely this kind of bind, most naming agreements made between organizations and donors today include what are known as "sunset clauses," stipulating that the name will expire after, say, 50 years. "While the ability to raise money through naming opportunities has become a staple tool for arts organizations," notes the Times, "perhaps no event speaks louder to its utility as a fund-raising mechanism than Lincoln Center's willingness to pay a veteran donor to step away so it can court a new benefactor in his stead."

Publicly, the Fisher family are now saying that Avery Fisher, who died in 1994, would have accepted this agreement as being for the good of the orchestra. Who will be Fisher's successor? It could be you — but only if you're able to write a check for the amount of Fisher's original contribution and then add a zero to the end.

Photo via Avery Fisher Hall on Facebook