Let's have some fun. How much would you pay to get up close and personal with San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge? The organization that maintains the span wants to know, because it's running a deficit and is looking for innovative ways to, er, bridge the gap.
Mary Currie, spokeswoman for the Golden Gate Bridge, Highway and Transportation District, recently commented in an article in the Los Angeles Times about the proposal: "People get pretty nuts about this bridge, and if you have a behind-the-scenes tour -- albeit on a catwalk -- people would be jazzed."
That got me thinking: Don't you think public companies could rake in some pocket change this way? Here are a few thoughts:
- Pay to create your own perfume, as Britney Spears has done at Elizabeth Arden (NASDAQ:RDEN). Or maybe go to Estee Lauder (NYSE:EL), where Gwyneth Paltrow is top model. If you can do better than the name given to Britney's latest fragrance, Circus Fantasy, you get your money back.
- Toot! Toot! Hand over some bills and be engineer-for-a-day for a railroad like Norfolk Southern (NYSE:NSC) or Burlington Northern Santa Fe (NYSE:BNI).
- Write a check and operate one of the really, really big pieces of machinery produced by Caterpillar (NYSE:CAT) or Bucyrus (NASDAQ:BUCY). I hear Deere's (NYSE:DE) got a high-speed dozer that can travel at up to 16 mph!
OK, here's the fun part: Fill up the comments section below with your ideas! If you don't chime in, it'll be like playing Yahtzee alone.
