Field of Schemes
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November 11, 2006

Mets sell naming rights to Citigroup for record $20m/year

Baseball officials have confirmed that the New York Mets have sold the naming rights for their new stadium to Citigroup for at least $20 million a year, double the previous record for a naming-rights deal, the $10 million a year the Houston Texans get for Reliant Stadium. The agreement, which will result in the stadium being dubbed CitiField, will be officially announced at the stadium's groundbreaking ceremony on Monday.

Thirty years at $20 million a year is worth about $275 million in present value, meaning the Citigroup deal will cover about 80% of the Mets' construction costs. As for the city of New York, which is putting up about $200 million towards the project and will actually own the building, its take will be: bupkis. Under the lease deals cut with the Mets and Yankees, the teams keep all stadium revenues, including those from naming rights. (Though the Yankees have said they won't sell the name of their stadium, they almost certainly will sell rights to name major entrances, seating sections, etc.)

As for what Mets fans think of having a stadium that honors the corporation that killed the Glass-Steagall Act rather than a Mets figure like Gil Hodges, early indications are they aren't too thrilled...

COMMENTS

I guess the up-side is that CitiField almost has a Tick-like quality to it ("Spoon!"), which seems appropriate given the sponsoring bloodsuckers.

Posted by Christina on November 12, 2006 03:22 PM

Nobody is going to care what the name of the field is once the season is half over. I'm sure everyone thought "Shea" was a magical name when it was first announced.

Posted by Matt K on November 12, 2006 04:28 PM

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