Thursday, January 17, 2008

Your-Name-Here-Field

Mets Refugees makes a good point about the new ballpark in Queens:

In a country with sports venues with names like Jobing.com Arena and Monster Park, and with telecommunication and financial company mergers causing venues to change names seemingly every year, New Yorkers lucked out when it was announced that Citigroup was paying $20 million a year over 20 years for naming rights to the Mets new ballpark. Not only is Citi Field an inoffensive name for a ballpark in New York City, but the Citi name has been in use since the mid-1970’s.

But with yesterday’s news that Citigroup lost almost $10 billion in the fourth quarter of 2007, it is looking more likely that unless Citigroup turns things around in the near future, the Mets’ new ballpark might eventually fall victim to the name-changing plague that has been seen around the country.

I suppose if the Astros could survive "Enron Field" the Mets can survive this, but I think ballclubs have underestimated the hassle and possible embarrassment that can come with hitching your nominal fortunes to a corporate star.

No comments: