Emirates Spinnaker Tower It also features on ITV News. In June 2009, the tower's operators succeeded in gaining permission for a freefall ride to be attached. As of 2015 this remains only a plan. In 2006, the tower won the RICS Project of the Year award and the RICS Regeneration award. In May 2015, as part of a wider effort to "generate additional revenue by using the advertising potential of council-owned land and other assets", Portsmouth City Council proposed selling the tower's naming rights to a commercial sponsor. The proposed sponsorship deal would include the naming rights for the tower for at least
Emirates Spinnaker Tower Barry Smith, the project's legal advisor, also retired after being suspended on full pay, mostly because of controversy over the contract with the builders, which at one point would have cost the council more to cancel than to complete. The tower has suffered from a number of issues since opening, including a malfunctioning external glass lift. During the final construction phase a protester from the rights group Fathers 4 Justice scaled the tower wearing a high-visibility jacket and unfurling a banner in the process. Another incident happened a year later when a base jumper managed to get past site security