CitiField

[Guest OlerudOwned]

The story was in the Post as well, and they too screwed up the URL for hotfoot.metsblog.com.

No love for the blogosphere.

[Guest KC]

Was it necessary to work in Billie Jean King and the USTA Center? What
does that have to do with anything? I'm sure everyone interested in the new
Mets stadium name is reading that saying, "WOW, has it been three months
already?".

[Valadius]

Stupid, stupid, stupid name.

[Guest KC]

What's stupid stupid stupid about it? They're going to get record setting revenue
from it and everyone knows full well it was going to be named after some corporation
anyway so it sounds like they hit a home run.

[Benjamin Grimm]

My objection is to the cutesy spelling.

It's the 21st Century though. I guess I have to get with the program.

[Guest KC]

I think whatever they got is gravy, and I like to bust Valad's chops. He wants
to run for congress one day but can't express himself better than it's stupid
stupid stupid? Comes off sounding like an entitled eight year old to me.

[Valadius]

CitiField? Come on now. CitiBank Field? Citigroup Field? Fine. But CitiField just doesn't cut the mustard.

[metirish]

There could be worse names of course,I agree that MetLife would have been cooler, I just hope the name doesn't change every few years like Pac Bell or whatever it's called these days.

[Guest iramets]

Adam Rubin of the Daily News has a blog, and here are his comments. Do you agree with his ranking? i don't really see why orange juice is more offensive than beer:

Mets' New Ballpark: CitiField
Here's the Daily News' account of the new stadium's name: CitiField. It will be officially unveiled Monday, at a "ground-breaking ceremony" -- which is an interesting way to bill the event, since all I heard were posts being banged into the ground at Shea for a couple of months.

Short of MetLife sponsoring the ballpark, I think this is about as good as it can be with a corporate name.

Here are other corporate-named stadiums around baseball. I'll rank them from least offensive to most offense. Tell me what you think.

Chase Field - Diamondbacks
Miller Park - Brewers
Rogers Centre - Blue Jays
Coors Field- Rockies
Safeco Field - Mariners
Great American Ball Park - Reds
Tropicana Field - Devil Rays
Comerica Park - Tigers
PNC Park -Pirates
PETCO Park - Padres
McAfee Stadium - A's
Minute Maid Park - Astros (It's better than former name: Enron)
U.S. Cellular Field - White Sox
AT&T Park - Giants
Citizens Bank Park - Phillies
Ameriquest Field in Arlington - Rangers

[metirish]

I would say Minute Maid Park is the worst...

[stevejrogers]

iramets wrote: i don't really see why orange juice is more offensive than beer:

I think it's just that beer and venues go together (not just sports) and while you'd want your kids to go to sporting events the atmosphere is a grown-up place, and like it or not Tropicana and Minute Maid conjure up images of adolecences and pre-teen years.

It be like naming a venue Disney (after the company, not the person) or Seasme Workshop (producers of Seasme Street) its more of something that is appropriate for a little league park or a community rec center, not a place for professional/collegitate athletics and such

[Guest OlerudOwned]

Miller and Coors also have connections to their areas, so those names seem to fit better.

Enron was a nice fit in Houston...

[metirish]

Bloomberg News reports that's it's a 20 year deal worth $20 million a year to the Mets, a record for naming rights,the previous record was $10 million that Reliant Energy paid the Houston Texans,that's a lot of cabbage.

[nymr83]

that sounds like a great deal, the Mets wouldn't be getting a dime out of "Shea II."

[metirish]

Yeah really, and there are mutal options to extend it for 35 years...nice bit of biz by Fred.

I bet in the next few days we'll be seeing articles about how the Mets made a mistake by not naming the Stadium after Jackie Robinson.

[nymr83]

is someone going to pay them $20 million a year to do so?
this is a great business decision, the name they get "stuck" with isn't really bad (you can say it easily, it doesnt scream "this is just dumb" like minute made or us cellular) and htats 20 mil a year they can spend on providing a better product.

[metirish]

Of course not,but those articles will probably fail to mention waht a great deal this is,instead they will focus on how the Mets could have made a statement against capatilism and "done the right thing" by Jackie,even though he never played for the Mets....

[Guest old original jb]

Next is naming rights for the players.
We'll be seeing "Citibank" Reyes, "Microsoft" Wright, and "Google" Beltran in seasons to come.

[nymr83]

do you actually have a problem with corporate sponsorship of stadiums?

[metirish]

If you are talking to me nymr83 then the answer is no.

[nymr83]

i was talking to the cynical post above mine, you seem to have the right attitude that its good for the team, who the heck cares what a building is called, i wish someone would pay me to name my house

[stevejrogers]

Nymr83 wrote: i was talking to the cynical post above mine, you seem to have the right attitude that its good for the team, who the heck cares what a building is called, i wish someone would pay me to name my house

Whats more, you know that if the Mets actually went ahead and DID name it after Jackie Robinson, people would actually not stop there.

Name the mound after Sandy Koufax, name the CF Wall after Willie Mays, ect

I think though, alot of the "Mets ought to do right by Jackie" comes more from the Mets pre-Wilpon ties to the Dodgers/Giants rather than the fact that Wilpon was a Dodger fan, friend of Sandy Koufax and designed CitiField to echo Ebbetts.

I mean look through old Yearbooks from the 60's and 70's, seems like the Mets OTG were yearly reunions of mostly old Dodger "Boys of Summer" era teams

There was certaintly a time where the Mets thought of themselves as the caretaker of the Dodger-Giant legacy and I think thats where the nostalgic sentiment comes from rather than an anti-capitalism/pro-honoring a pioneer stance

[Benjamin Grimm]

I can't imagine that anyone would suggest that the pitcher's mound be named after Sandy Koufax.

[Elster88]

[stevejrogers]

Yancy Street Gang wrote: I can't imagine that anyone would suggest that the pitcher's mound be named after Sandy Koufax.

Well if you name the ballpark "Jackie Robinson" to honor a pioneer and to quell that opinion that shames you into doing it, I'm sure other groups would try to do the same.

Like with the small movement to retire 21 in perpetuity in honor of Roberto Clemente the way 42 is for Jackie (I've also seen 3 for Ruth mentioned along the time the NHL retired 99 in perpetuity for Gretzky)

I could see if they actually went along with naming the ballpark for Jackie Robinson, and if Koufax passed away (God forbid) that there would be a small movement suggesting that Koufax be memorialized in some fashion for the same reasons the Mets stuck Jackie's name on the ballpark. Maybe the mound would be a huge extreme, but there would be a movement to suggest naming something (maybe changing the stretch of Rosevelt Ave that Shea is on to Koufax Lane)

[Benjamin Grimm]

I don't think we need to worry about Sandy Koufax dying. I've heard him described as "immortal."

[RealityChuck]

There's no reason it can't be "Jackie Robinson Citifield" or "Shea Citifield." The nice thing about "Citifield" as the name is that it's short and allows for adding a name to it.

[Benjamin Grimm]

Except that CitiBank is paying $20 million per year, and they probably don't want Jackie Robinson freeloading on their name.

[Guest Edgy DC]

I care.

That's why we have this thread.

[Benjamin Grimm]

I care too.

Here's what we should do: Pronounce it as two words, not one. City Field, not CitiField.

As I mentioned earlier, it sounds much better that way. I could imagine the 1887 Metropolitans playing at a park called City Field.