Taxpayer Field?
Citi Financial Group has received over $45 billion in government loans this year, yet the company still plans to shell out $400 million over the next 20 years to name the New York Mets’ new baseball stadium.
Worst still, the company and the Mets’ tone-deaf ownership don’t see anything wrong with that picture.
Two New York City Councilmen, Staten Island Republicans Vincent Ignizio and James Oddo, are pushing to have the word “Taxpayer” inserted somewhere in the new stadium’s name, but Citi officials and Mets’ owner Jeff Wilpon are having none of it.
In related New York news, StreetsBlog has a great recap of another baseball-political scam brewing in the Big Apple, one in which Mayor Michael Bloomberg traded 250 city-owned parking spaces at the new Yankee Stadium in exchange for a luxury suite for his personal use.
So, while the U.S. economy grinds to a halt and millions of people are losing their jobs, taxpayers are paying for corporate naming rights at one of New York’s two new major league ballparks and a mayor’s luxury box at the other.
Comments
By Sean on December 10th, 2008 at 7:32 pm
As a Mets fan, Citi field is fine. I don’t want the word taxpayer near my stadium. For the love of god let it go.
By Grant Young on December 11th, 2008 at 12:23 pm
Yea… kind of agree with Sean… does this mean I gotta slap “taxpayer” sticker the next time I buy a Buick?
By Gen. Longstreet on December 11th, 2008 at 4:51 pm
How about all that green the Mets owners paid for that strappin’ young buck named K-Rod? Hell, the boy’s strikeout to batters-faced ratio has dropped from 1:3 to 1:4 in the past year. There’s a reason those slickers in Los Angeles didn’t make a move to keep that boy.
By Sean on December 11th, 2008 at 4:58 pm
Actually I think Putz should be the closer and K-Rod the set up man.