If You Were to Make a Monopoly Board For Sun Prairie, What Would You Put On It? (City of Sun Prairie Office of Economic Development)

I was actually saving this for a strategic planning exercise with the City Council, but I don't think we're going to have time to work on it this fall. So I'll throw it out to you folks. Imagine the folks at Hasbro decided to do a Sun Prairie based version of their game "Monopoly." You have been hired by the company as a consultant to help create the board by researching and answering the following questions...

1) What developments, buildings, subdivisions, neighborhoods, or stores should go with which colors and why? What balance of commercial, residential, industrial, mixed use, etc. would you recommend for the board?

2) What would you put on the board in place of the railroads? (We'll just skip the utilities, since Sun Prairie Utilities already runs the Water Works and Electric Company for us.)

3) Instead of "Community Chest" and "Chance" cards, what would you call the cards in this game?

4) Instead of "Jail" and "Free Parking," what would put on these squares?

5) Instead of "Luxury Tax" and "Income Tax" what would you place on these spaces?

6) What game pieces would you use that would be good representatives of Sun Prairie?

7) Would you change the pricing of the game to better represent a Sun Prairie version of the game? If so, how?

8) Is there anything specific about Sun Prairie's development community that you couldn't fit on the game board, or just weren't sure what to do with?

9) If you did a board for Sun Prairie in 2003, 2011, and 2020...would they look differently? If yes, explain how?

10) If you were to add a new wrinkle to the game to make it more reflective of Sun Prairie, what would you add or change to the traditional Monopoly rules?

Some things to keep in mind....

1) Remember there is an inherent value associated with each color block that increases as you go around the board, so choose and place your properties accordingly.

2) Remember that your replacement for Chance and Community Chest should present opportunities and rewards, as well as risks and penalties.

3) Remember that certain properties will have an existing value in Sun Prairie's existing real estate market, and a potential future value depending on the types of development that may occur there, and when it might occur--much like building houses and hotels on the less expensive properties potentially bringing a faster pay off, but not as much as other properties that are more expensive. Make sure to explain if you place something on the board for its current value or its projected value.

Send me your ideas, and I'll post the best ones back on this blog.

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