Category: CitiField

Citi Field Naming Rights A Black Eye For Mets And Citi Group

Citi Group’s announcement that they intend to move forward with their 20 year commitment at $20 million per year with the Mets came this past week. Only days later the company announced that it would lay off more than 50,000 employees.

To those of you that work at Citi, or those of us that have friends and family there these near simultaneous announcements came as a bit of a shock. But they shouldn’t. Citi Group gladly accepted a taxpayer bailout of $20 billion two weeks ago, and our tax money secured more than $300 billion in risky loans and securities owned by Citi.

I understand the Mets desire to keep the deal in place. But couldn’t Citi at least attempt to re-negotiate the deal given today’s economic climate and their own financial failures? That’s the part that really surprises me.

I never expected Citi to give up on their marketing efforts, of which naming Citi Field is a part. They’ve got to make a good faith effort to generate revenue despite their current disposition.

In my opinion the Mets squandered an opportunity to gain some good PR by not announcing their intention to negotiate the naming deal down when Citi accepted the government bailout package. Now the Mets are getting our money on tickets and the naming rights deal.

I want to see a championship product on the field as much as the next fan, but double-dipping us isn’t the way to do it.

Citi Field Luxury Boxes Sell Out

Apparently, things aren’t that bad on Wall Street yet. The Mets announced this week that they sold out their 2009 luxury suites for Citi Field.

The announcement was that 39 Empire Suites went for $275,000 each and 10 Sterling Suites got $500,000 each. That’s great news for the Mets and maybe for us too. The Mets can afford to bring in some big free agents on the backs of the corporations buying up these luxury suites.

Hopefully, we’ll have these same corporations to thank when Manny Ramirez and CC Sabathia arrive in Queens.

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Fan Banned From Citi Field

A fan plead guilty to losing his mind or whatever the charges were for a melee at a Mets game on May 31st. He swatted children out of his way while badgering Mr. Met. Subsequently, he fought with Shea Stadium security guards, spit in their faces, and ended up getting banned indefinitely from entering Citi Field.

Attacking Mr. Met? I might take a swing at the Philly Phanatic, but Mr. Met?

Flickr photo courtesy of tedkerwin

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A Braves Fan’s Ode To Shea Stadium

The Atlanta Braves have now played their last game ever at Shea Stadium. I’ve heard a lot of people talking about the great rivalry of the late 90’s and early 2000’s. And it really was a great one. It’s lost some luster in recent years but I have a feeling it’ll be back in the very near future.

I have to give a plug to my friend JB from the Braves Launching Pad. In my mind, it’s the best Braves site out there. I try to keep up with enemy blogs as part of my research.

JB put together a list of his five best Braves-Mets games at Shea and it’s certainly worth a read. Check it out here.

I’ve made no bones on this site about my feeling that Shea is the worst stadium in baseball and the fact that we deserve better. But now that the final regular season games are nearly over, I am getting a little sentimental about the end of Shea especially when I read about the great games this stadium has seen since 1964.

Mets Offices at Citi Field Set To Open

The Mets announced that the front office staff will be moving into their new offices at Citi Field on September 18th. It’s the start of the transition that the Mets are making away from Shea Stadium.

That’s really exciting news. I know there’s a lot of sentiment out there about the demise of Shea. But moving into Citi Field is going to be a fantastic experience for those of us that sit in the stands.

Flickr photo courtesy of Joe Shlabotnik