Update, 10:23 am:
According to a report on CNBC, the Mets say Citigroup has contacted them and will continue to honor their current marketing and naming rights agreement, contrary to the Wall Street Journal report from below.
Update, 8:56 am:
Michael Espo, a long-time and trusted reader of 
MetsBlog.com, just sent in the following e-mail:
“Moments ago on CNBC, Doug Kass, a noted investor and short seller, who is a member of the country club where Bernie Madoff solicited many of his investors, said, ‘scuttlebutt around town says that Fred Wilpon and Mets ownership may be forced to sell a minority interest in the team due to their exposure to the Madoff fraud.’”
Original Post, 8:38 am:
According to a report in the Wall Street Journal, “Citigroup is exploring the 
possibility of backing out of their marketing and naming rights deal with the Mets,” say people familiar with the matter.
Nevertheless, in a statement Monday, Citigroup said they would not use TARP money for the stadium deal.
Last week, U.S. House of Representatives Dennis Kucinich and Ted Poe wrote to Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner asking him to push Citigroup to dissolve the Mets deal.
“Citigroup is now dependent on the support of the federal government for its survival as an institution,” the Journal quoted Citigroup as saying in a letter. “As such, we do not believe Citigroup ought to spend $400 million to name a stadium at the same time that they accept over $350 billion in taxpayer support and guarantees.”
Meanwhile, the Mets continue to issue the following statement, whenever asked about the situation: “The Mets are fully committed to our contract with Citi.”
…sure, the Mets are committed, but is Citigroup…
…ok, Steve Jobs, step to the plate, bring me The Big Apple…
“Citigroup is exploring the possibility of backing out of a nearly $400 million marketing deal with the Mets.”
So, if Citi backs out, are they obligated to fullfill the contract or would the Mets loose out on 400 million?
I’m still sticking to Matts idea of Apple Computers stealing the naming rights so we can go watch games at “The Apple”, the first Tech Savy Stadium . Plus there can’t be a more fitting name… The Big Apple…… The HR Apple
Ralph Lauren could buy it. We could play at he Polo Grounds.
Mr. Wilpon, tear down that sign!
Let’s call it what it should be, Shea Stadium!
How about Mets Field?
Metropolitan Stadium or just Metropolis
The Metropolis would be the sickest name ever. Get it done Wilpon. And change that ******* patch!
The Metropolis would definitely be an awesome name… Maybe we can get the same people who rallied for Manny outside SNY to rally in front of the Wilpons house
The Metropolis? That is BRILLIANT!
Yea Metropolis is sick. They could have Mr. Met wearing a superman outfit.
Maybe they need to do a deal with MetLife.
lol…wait no Heimlich Stadium
I was thinking more along the lines of Madoff Field or Heilman Park…
Good thing we signed Ollie yesterday or we’d be dealing with Redding Niese 4/5
You better believe that.
ManRam Field!
3/90 with the provision he gives back 20 mil/per for stadium naming rights!
someone stole my idea from last week to call it ManRam Field……lol I love it!
Oops, sorry if this was less than original!
But I do like the idea of paying Manny and then he can recycle the money back to Fred and Jeff and name the field after himself.
Shea Stadium at ManRam Field?
I like the way you think. By the way this Thurs there is going to be a bigger and better Manny Rally at the SNY studio when the air Mets Hot Stove. Everyone should be there. All day I see comment after comment on how they want Manny. All those people should be at this Manny Rally.
Every post that you make about Manny between now and Thurs night, tell everyone about the Manny Rally.
Don’t forget your lightsabers.
LOL Razor
Flushing Flats?
I am sure that if they cancel then there will be a contract breaking fee. We would most likely get 2-3 years worth of the money.
How about back out of the deal with Citigroup, make the same deal with Metropolitan Insurance and call it “Metropolitan Park” which will tie in with the Mets actual name. “The Metropoiltans”.
I would be down with that. Their long time AAA affiliate in Norfolk used to play at Metropolitan Park (Met Park as it was known here)…funny enough, it too was right next to an airport
“Jackie Robinson Stadium” or field. It’s what it should of been in the first place. Hopefully there will be a better sleeve patch.
If this happens, don’t expect any more contracts signed this off season. That is a whole lotta money that the Mets will lose, and I doubt another corporation is going to put up close to that cash right now.
the stadium should not be named after jackie robinson… he had nothing to do with the mets… he didnt even play in queens… it just wouldnt be right for the mets to claim him
But the team does represent the geographic area for the NY Giants and Dodgers and it is a good thing to display the history from those 2 franchises.
Shea doesn’t work anymore, and honestly I’ll take anything that is not a corporate name.
If it has to be a corporate name then how about Corona Field. It is the name of the area and they could do free Corona offers.
Shea doesn’t work anymore? Why exactly is that?
the 20 million a year should come from executive compensation….
Maybe CitiBank can sponsor the TARP that gets rolled out on the field during a rain delay.
LMAO!!!
could be the funniest comment on metsblog to date.
Yikes… As much as we hate the name, losing the money from CitiGroup would really further impact the operations of this team…
That $0 Million per year was going to help defray the costs of the ballpark… Losing that would compound the Wilpons perceived financial problems.
I make MORE than $0 million a year and it doesn’t help me out any!
why does this nonsense only happen to the Mets??? my God…its stupid things like this that consstantly make us look bad around the league…obviously NOT OUR FAULT, but still
ps–3 years 60 mil MAX for manny, and u bet ur ars he signs a day after thats offered…cuz boras knows NO ONE is going 3 years for him
Hey, at least it wasn’t named Enron Field!
Or the MCI Center!
I agree…..but it shouldn’t….
Shouldn’t Ford be getting pressure to take their name off the Lions stadium? How about GM Place? All these smaller banks (Great American, PNC, Ctizens) are in good financial shape? Why is everyone harping on Citi and Citi only?
I know that there are a lot of fans that would like to keep the name Shea and I am in the middle on this one. I would love sell the name to someone that will actually pay the Mets this time as long as the Wilpons take some of that money and put it back into the team. If they won’t use any of the money to put back into the team than I would rather just keep the name Shea.
Dread lock stadium…
How can Citigroup just end it? Don’t they have a contract? Can someone explain this to me! It can’t be as easy as snapping your fingers to end a $400 mil contract.
Because it’s more important to keep the largest United States bank that holds the largest Credit Card portfolio a float then it is for the Mets to keep their stadium name. And frankly this should of been done months ago. As tax payers we are going to be paying a lot of money for this mess. I give enough money to the Mets and don’t need to contribute my tax dollars to them as well.
$20 Million a year is not going to break Citi. And 5 years from now, when recovery is well undreway, it will all be a blip.
Thanks janss and Dave for injecting some common sense into this discussion!
Please don’t talk about “taxpayer” money….you’re probably personally contributing about $0.25 to the bank bailout.
You guys with your fantasies on bringing back the name “Shea Stadium” need to get with the future. Don’t worry, the Mets will get someone else to pay for naming rights. This is something this team should have done years ago.
Jackie Robinson Field should be reserved for a new Dodgers ballpark. We’re the Mets with our own history & heritage.
If apple buys it, we could call it Apple Field (dubbed “the orchard”) of “i-stadium”
Dykstra is making a ton of dough. though not quite enough to buy the rights alone “Nails Park”?
For citi, this is nothign more than a marketing deal with the Mets. I mean you cant me that Citi wont spend 20 mil per year on advertising and marketing. Congress is so stupid, are these guys trying to earn their pay checks? If citi does not spend this money with the Mets they will spend it somewhere else.
Their not throwing away money here. Its smart marketing and advertising strategy.
But public perception is more important than the truth.
But the truth always comes out
you are supposed to be keeping politics off of the blog sir!
why is it ok for citi field to end the deal with us and us not with luis castillo?
UN-FAIR
Now that we have socialists running our government, they’re allowed to say stupid things and dictate to companies what should happen. Nice going, America!
Go away.
I guess that’s what you tell anyone who disagrees with you, right? Nice comeback!
Jesus.. this is a METS BLOG u know..
Yeah, cuz the “Socialists” crapped on the country. It was all those “Socialists” in the White House and all those “Socialists” CEO’s that ran their companies and the economy to the ground. Turd.
So what you’re saying is, i’m right? Thanks for the so-called counterargument.
yeah, those lousy socialists who begged the government for money to bail them out after running their companies into the ground and losing millions of people their jobs.
Also, I don’t think there is a financial crisis with the Wilpons. They just really don’t want to go over the luxury tax. As it was mentioned last night, the luxury tax salary is much more than just our current salary. In fact it is most likely around 148-150. That leaves about 12-16 million before we would go over the cap.
Not going to get Manny unless we trade some players.
This whole thing is crazy. It’s advertising!!!!!
Google ‘citigroup advertising expenses’. You’ll see a bunch of articles about how much Citigroup has spent on advertising, during various years.
The first one that comes up is an article from 2007 that compares big company’s expenses, while writing:
‘Citibank reported spending even more (than Ford) $2,577,000,000– on “advertising and marketing expenses” in the four quarters ending March 31, 2007.’
$2.5B in 1 year??
Really??
And the politicians are worried about them being stuck in a $20M per year advertising expense??
I don’t get it one bit. Citi Field’s naming rights is a TINY fraction of what they spend in advertising, yet this is what people are worried about??
Simply crazy!!
Exactly what i was saying above
And you’re are precisely correct (I posted, then read through the comments).
Politicians are making a big deal out of a nothing expense here. In my opinion.
According to their 10-K filing with the SEC they spent ~$2.9 billion on advertising and marketing in 2007. So the $20M/year would be about 0.7% of their annual marketing expenses.
It is crazy to me that none of these politicians understand this, or even worse, they do, but they just want to get their name out there and crusade against something like this because it makes for a good sound bite. And the “journalists” are even worse…it took me 5 minutes to find that document…why is no one in the media pointing this out???
It’s called political grandstanding.
The Mets are an easy target, they are a wealthy baseball team in goll darn New York City.
Kucinich and Poe just want to get their names out there and show that they are “for the people”. They know full well that “the people” are too dumb to comprehend that CitiGroup’s annual expenditure towards CitiField is less than 1% of CitiGroups annual advertising budget.
Use your brain and think for a second before swallowing the tripe politicians try to force feed you!
Taxpayer Field
Baseball Field
Mets Stadium
Ebbets Field
Corona Field
Vitamin Water Field
Vitamin Water Field”
LMAO.. vitamin water is OWN by coca cola, and that has turned out to be the worst deal coca cola has had in its history.
Not for David Wright.
They can likely break the deal and pay a penalty written into the contract. NYMETSFAN718 is 100% correct, they will almost certainly spend $20m/year on some other form of advertising. To have outrage of $400m out of $350bn is short sighted. We are talking about 1/10th of 1 percent spread over 20 years. Kucinich, while he has some good ideas, is trying to get on the front page, while Citi is trying to stay off the front page.
The bottom line is that paying for stadium naming rights–no matter how much money it actually costs–looks frivolous and tone-deaf in the current economy, for a company that’s getting billions of dollars in TARP money.
Especially since this is the same company that was stupid enough to order a brand new corporate jet after getting said TARP money.
shea,
whats the diff between stadium naming rights, and posting citi billboards around the city. Its marketing, either way the money is gonna go. If not via naming rights via other things.
Poeple are still gonna say “llok at citi buying all these billboards when they just got Bailout money”.
I agree–it’s 6 of one, half a dozen of the other. But paying to put your name on a stadium looks far far worse to average schmoe (and, to be honest, is probably far less effective as a marketing strategy).
I dont think thats true
How is it a bad marketing strategy? When millions of people are viewing the Mets game on ESPN, or Fox, and all everyone sees is the name CIti everywhere. And i can a-s-sure you that there will be tons if commercials during the games.
yup your right..there was a story yesterday about bank of america and the ads it did for the superbowl
If the deal falls through, does this mean new patches? :-) Sorry, I am trying to make light of the situation.
Probably not, since the patch does not even mention citi field to begin with.
i’m really curious how this can turn on..
and cerrone, no hat tip for the link??? come on man!
Even if Citi backs out of the deal, it’s too late to change the name this year. They would be obligated to pay for at least one year of sponsorship. Within that one year the Mets should have no problem finding another sponsor
interesting…the mets should have been getting paid because that name has been slapped up on the stadium for about a year, right?
i’m sure there is a termination clause in the contract with a corresponding termination fee.
damn, this is ugly.
can you imagine if Maddof costs the Mets Manny, all i can think of is
Jury of your peers pal
I am in shock at the amount of twists and turns and bad luck the organization is receiving. First Madoff stealing millions from the Wilpon’s then the pressure CitiGroup is receiving from lawmakers. This blows!
Maybe it means we won’t be ravaged by bad luck injuries this season… LOL
Damn you Bernie …. and what about strawberryfield
Cool and they could give away bags of coke to the first 15000 fans that enter.
The Diamondbacks took nearly a full year to change the name on everything when the BOB turned into Chase field.
I suspect Citi’s “review” of the stadium deal is exactly that.
They’ll come back and report that they are caontracturaly obligated and cannot back out of the deal.
The noise is being made for PR purposes, and is likely a lot of sound and fury signifying nothing.
I’m sure they didn’t sign a contract that gave them no termination rights. They are probably deciding the cost/benefit of terminating.
is it okay to want the wilpons to sell the team all together…. i think i ‘d rather have a new owner …. quick get mark cuban on the phone please
lmao i can see cuban running out on the field to argue with an ump and getting tossed out.
Cohen: “And the mets owner mark cuban gets ejected from the game….can they do that?”
Cohen: And Cuban is outttaa heerreeee!!!
omg i could totaly picture gary saying that ………..
According to today’s WSJ, if Citi backs out, it would not happen immediately, and Citi would likely have to pay a break-up fee. This news combined with Madoff, pretty much seals the deal that Manny ain’t coming here.
Sad but true! Great Calamities!
agree.. but then again, never expected him here since i read the wilpons are tight with john henry from the sox..
you needed this to sell the deal that manny isnt coming here….where have you been for the last few months…..
Why cant the Wilpons just say WE CANT AFFORD MANNY after all that is going on.
because just about everyone has been saying it for him….figures the fans would be smart enough to put two and two together…
thats NOT true
yea your right…..100 post at least on a daily basis about the mets getting manny…guess they cant put two and two together..
looks like we might become the new pirates if things continue like this ……….
Lol, the pirates haven’t spend 100 millions on a team.. we got 2 players making more than that.. stop.. we can’t call them cheap.. dumb yes.. but not cheap
lol…ok, we’ve reached common ground on “dumb” then.
jesus christ. who can tell me now the madoff scandal hasn’t affected this offseason. btw good call IronMan, Strawberry Field is the best name for anything ever.
Exactly! I love the earlier spin about how their losses with Madoff had nothing to do with the Mets.
Now today they are forced to sell part ownership of the team.
The other thing is that everything seems to be quiet around the Mets’ front office. Even camera hound Omar has been invisible this offseason.
maybe he has been spending his tiem working?
He made appearances back in December when they got K Rod and Putz. Don’t think the signings since (Redding, garcia, etc.) really required a photo op from Omar!
Once the rest of the moves are done I’m sure he will surface at some point.
Matt, this would be a great opportunity to leverage your connections to find out what the Mets REAL thoughts are on all of this. Obviously we know what they are going to say publicly (in regards to being committed to the contract), but what are they doing behind the scenes? Are they already scrambling with a contingency plan? Would they simply sell to the highest bidder, no matter how low the offer may be, or do they have a threshold where they will actually go with their own name (like the Yankees are)? How seriously does this potential loss impact payroll directly – or how about operational expenses planned? Will we see a reduction in quality of stadium food, a rise in parking fees, other?
It would not shock me if the Wilpons required additional funds. If possible, I would hope it is someone who is a rabid Mets fan who simply wants to win…
In addition, if Citi’s naming rights deal is so ‘terrible’ what about Bank of America Stadium? The Wachovia Center? Ford Field?
It’s all a PR stunt right now on behalf of kooks in Congress and that’s all…
Ford didn’t take any government money.
Fine but does the overall point get made?
Why single out Citi? Stupid, stupid, stupid.
Sell the team, Wilpon.
How ironic would it be if Madoff ends up saving the Mets franchise by forcing the Wilpons to sell it?
To someone that gets so stretched with debt service that they cut back on payroll?
it’s happened before. Look at AZ.
I think in this financial climate, and with the Mets being in a premier market, only a smart investor with deep pockets would be able to do it.
I think of the Red Sox as an example. John Henry did nothing with the Padres, but recognized the value of the RS franchise, and spent money to build it up.
The Mets need the same type of owner. Let’s be honest, Wilpon doesn’t know how to run a franchise. Or invest. Or secure naming rights.
Agreed. Giving Minaya an extension in the middle of the ’08 collapse was all I needed to know about Wilpon’s financial acumen. Wilpon got his monument to Ebbets, now ride off into the sunset with your son and take Minaya, Bernazard and the rest of the amateur hour clowns with you.
with all fairness, it also starts woththe GM, he felty he needed to be more shopping active and gave the GM the reign of an mini empire and that GM balloon the payroll all the way to 143 millions, the thing is it hasn’t worked out coz of the inefisienvy of the GM he’s got in charge..
ICEBERG RIGHT AHEAD!!!!
MetLife Ballpark has been my choice all along. Let’s go to the Met for a ballgame! Plus we can get clever and name is Mets Ballpark – sort of…
I agree. I have wanted “MetLife” since I found out a new stadium was being built. Spending a day, watching the Mets play baseball at Met Life field. Really, it sells itself….kinda like the ShamWow! lol
That’s quite a tough article on your blog. I just don’t understand it, though, especially for someone who’s been a fan for so long.
I think the team is good and needs to play well together. You can’t tell me the Phils are better.
CaseStreet – thanks for stopping by. I am not saying the Phils are better, not by a long shot. What I’ve been saying is to naysayers who are like – Chase Utley, Jimm Rollins, Shane Victorino, Cole Hamels, etc etc are better than Castillo (um that’s a given LOL), Jose, DW, etc is because Mets fans in general (OK ALL NY fans of any team) are impatient and don’t want to wait for a good product – Jimmy Rollins aint that young, Ryan Howard was a rook at 26 and I believe he’s 30 now (not old, but 5 years older than Jose and David), Cole Hamels took even a few years to get into his own…My point is – we have miles of runway ahead of us, and the Phils won the last two years because their team was BUILT that way. Their owner doesn’t like spending money – it won’t last.
okay, it just seemed that your article calling for the Wilpons to sell the team because they don’t care to win and are cheap, went a bit far.
I think of the Mets as the team for the regular guy so I don’t expect them to go out and sign every big FA. That’s for the corporate Yankees.
I want the Mets to sign good FA’s to good contracts like the Red Sox do and develop the farm system like the Twins do.
The Mets are looking like a financial mess. By mid season they will be dumping salaries just like the Marlins and Pirates.
i’ll believe all this stuff (including needing to take on a minority share) when it happens….
Ball clubs aren’t run out of the pocket of the owners (Pohlad sure proved that!) So hw the other Wilpon business ventures are doing shold not really impact the Mets. But, if they need to raise money personally, then yeah, they might have to sell some of their as-sets.
Reference the San Diego Padres. Look how far they have fallen and it’s all because of their Owner. Selling the team off a piece at a time to pay for his divorce…
she’s ripped that owner to the ground.. although they were competitve the last 4 out of 5 years..
Call it Corona Park @ Flushing Meadows if you can get Corona Beer to sponsor it.
I like it.
I will empty out my life savings to buy the Mets.
Okay…it’s not that much…how ’bout an IOU?
Met Life Stadium
People seem to be missing the effect Matt was trying to imply with combining these two news stories together in a single post:
The Mets are materially financially impacted by the Madoff scheme and they are about to lose $20m/year from Citi. In this economic environment, they are not going to get a naming rights deal anywhere the order of magnitude of the Citi deal.
This is bad news.
This explains a lot.
Pauper’s Field
“Potter’s Field”
Harry Potter?
How about this. Whatever money they get from a termination clause, i.e. 50-75 million dollars. Throw at Manny
The possibility of having legitimate owners for this franchise that care about winning makes me giddy.
“The possibility of having legitimate owners for this franchise that care about winning makes me giddy.”
Hahaha – You really think that the Wilpons don’t care about winning? Our payroll was $143M last year – we’ve brought in some of the biggest players via free agency/trades in each of the last 5 winters. What the hell do you want from an owner?
Hey Baltimore,
I see that Wiggy will be playing ball in your neck of the woods this season. Treat him good!!
cmon baltimore…its only obvious..MANNY..if we dont get manny the wilpons dont want to win…its that simple
It’s absurd to just look at overall dollars spent. In terms of percentage of revenue brought in put back into the team, I’d say they’re right near the bottom.
This team is swimming in cash the last few years with 50% ticket price hikes (before the 2x-3x bump to Citifield), starting their own TV network, and getting ridiculous amounts of tax breaks benefits and other credits to build their new luxury-box filled palace, so much so that with the naming rights deal the stadium would be more than free to build.
Yet they’ve intentionally left holes on the team year in and year out that have come back to bite them in two straight Septembers.
They don’t spend nearly enough on player development or pay over slot in the draft.
And they have only cared about meaningful games in September instead of winning.
I suppose being in Baltimore you’ve seen the worst in Angelos, but the Wilpons are planning no different – they also will use the stadium to sell tickets rather than the product on the field, and admitted as much on WFAN. They don’t even need meaningful games anymore. I mean outside of Putz for Heilman they gave up a #1 pick to bring back basically the same failed team from last year.
we should sell the naming rights to dicks sporting goods….so we can say we are going to the dick
SELL FRED SELL!!!!
“Jeffy get me that Nelson Doubleday fellow on the line.”
Fred; “hello Nelli, yes Fred Wilpon here, I have a crazy idea
but what would you think about being partners in the baseball business?”
The mystery of the patch begins to clear.
Let’s get Fred out of there before he tries to change the name of Roosevelt Avenue to Flatbush Avenue.
since the patch looks like a dominoes patch anyway dominoes field.
It’s been discussed ad nauseum (Sp?) Citi designed the patch to match their corporate brand NOT the Mets!
Wigginton and Every Day Eddie are both signed. Sorry guys!
Wiggy’s gone. Signed with the O’s.
Please god sell fred and change the name!
Does Wiggy signing mean that they are going to trade Huff, Roberts or Mora?
thank god i don’t have to hear of another OVERRATED gritty player coming here..
I would have rather have had him than the Tatis/Murphy platoon.
not me.. he’s tatis with a lil more power.. i’m sure u checked his home/away splits right..
Yes, however, considering that Wiggy can play 2B as well it would have been nice insurance. A Wiggy, Murphy platoon with Tatis on the bench makes the team a lot stronger.
well, with the signing of ALEX CORA we didn’t need another 2B.. don’t you agree.. now is to abreu or dunn..
I would rather have Abreu or Dunn but I would have settled for Wiggington over nothing.
let’s just hope that we don;t end up getting nothing.. coz if this is the team we’re going in to open the regular season with, mark it down, either 3 rd place or another CHOKE JOB is in the making..
I disagree Alex, and that’s ok. You can be a pessimist and I will be an optimist. That way we cancel out and are just mist in the wind. Or something else in the wind.
ok, i’m glad u optinmistic, yet you know we need more help.. i don’t understand that..
Alex, if you are comfortable in your job but there is a chance you could make more money would you not want more?
Why do you have car insurance? Is it because you think you WILL wreck or MIGHT wreck?
TRS;
valid points, but let me put it to you this eay, what does money have to do with anything i say?
we over bid and pay no one but ourselves… how is that smart..
This one is easy too. Ever paid more for a product just to get it a little earlier?
if is something worth it yes i have.. never for mediocricy..
In light of the current economic conditions and the determination of the Mets to have the design of the new field to resemble Ebbits Field. I thik they should rename it
“Debits Field”.
ZING!!
terrible news. this franchise can be in some serious trouble. i guess this finally puts the manny talk to rest.
Met Life insurance should buy the rights. Seems like a no-brainer to me…
Guys, the Mets were NOT using the Citimoney for contracts. They were NOT using the Madoff money for contracts. They are just not going to go over the luxury tax. Based on that they only have about 10-15 million left TOTAL.
could’ve been 12-17 if they didn’t overspent for olie p.. jeez
Alex, they were never getting Perez for 3/30. Most likely that was never even the offer. We MIGHT have been able to get 3/33. Still it was worth the extra million just to get it over with.
so if we were never gonna get him for 3/30 or even 3/33 the who was?? no ONE else was even in the mix, now i’m scare if he gets that i should’ve gotten more money attitude and that gets in his messed up head….
Not to mention, how would that extra 2 million really help us? It would not get Manny and is not needed to get Abreu, Dunn or Sheets.
well, so far we have given out at least 3 extra millions to players that had 0 market in cora and perez, not to mention the horrible contracts schneider and castillo got.. that’s 15 millions of extra money we could’ve used to sign someone actually good..
don’t forget all the light hitting lefty outfielders and Marlon Anderson
You can’t change the Castillo and Schnieder contracts so what’s your point?
As for the Cora market, there was one. We may have over paid him by 500,000 because we wanted him to be a backup player.
All the other signings of backup OF will either be the 25th man or in the minors no big deal.
Still change that to 15 million instead of 12 for this offseason. How does that make a difference?
It does becoz all of those are bad signings and a worse way to handle a backup player in may when pretty much there’s better options and cheaper.. the amount of bad contracts in the mets organitazion keep piling up..
Not true, besides Castillo we have no long term bad contracts.
trs, how did you get to the $10-15m figure?
Someone posted in the other thread that it’s more like 3 or 4 left after resigning Perez. Contract totals DOES NOT equal salary cap totals!
I’ve been running a spreadsheet and the figure is somewhere around $6-8 million as far as I can tell.
How about a minority fan ownership? Get enough fans together the Mets sell stock and then Donald Trump does a leveraged buyout.
How bout Exxon Field? They have tons of money.
OK, guys, instead of blaming the Wilpons for not getting Manny, blame Bernie Madoff!
I’m in for $100.
hey matt,
I think that’s citi’s old log. Travelers is no longer part of citi, and I believe they took the umbrella part of the logo with them.
That is true – Travelers paid a lot of money to get that Umbrella back.
Procede Stadium?
“I don’t own the Stadium…I don’t own anything about it”
You’re onto something here.
How about, Guisseppe Franco Stadium.?
I mean, he’s not putting his name on the line for something that doesn’t work.
Call it JACKIE ROBINSON FIELD.
It should have been called that from the beginning
Yea, because Robinson was such a great Met and all. Oh wait…
robinson had nothing to do with the mets…
can we give it a name that relates to this franchise?
Finally Fast…Finally Fast.com Field
RICK! Field
(if you’ve seen “The Soup” you’ll like this one)
Spaghetti Cat Field
Franchise Field in honor of #41..!!!!!!
SHAMWOW Field or Mighty Putty field
I like the idea of fans taking control of a minority share. But, how would it every happen?
Well it would never happen it was my pipedream. But it works in Green Bay. The majority of the team is owned by Green Bayeans. Is that how you say it?
Hopefully the Mets will do what the Yankees did in the early 1980′s when they sold a stake of the team for $100,00.00 per share to raise capital. Those shares are worth $10,000,000.00. in todays current value. What an investment! If the Mets do this I AM IN!!!!.
Good, I was beginning to think the place might be called “The Tar Pits”
Just the Mets, or would this include the sponsoring of the Rose Bowl as well?
So, stick that in your ear congress!
Selling minority stakes in a team to investors would be awesome. It would be a great way to raise money for small market teams. There will always be die hard fans looking to own a piece of their team. I don’t think it will happen though… Baseball owners are so old school and greedy.
While the temptation to say “TARP Bailout” Field exists, let’s put this in perspective.
Sure, it’s was an eye-popping $400 million deal when announced two years ago. But the money is spread over TWENTY years.
It’s $20 million per year. To splatter their name everywhere? The Mets cut a bad deal.
Perspective: the Mets will be giving (and I mean GIVING) Ollie Perez $12 million each of the next three years.
This may actually be a blessing, since this Citi deal is (in my opinion) a very bad deal for the Mets.
In two or three years they will be able to cut a significantly larger deal with another corporate sponsor — especially if they win something in the next few years. Maybe even a fee that escalates over time?
The Kucinich argument is kind of silly (redundant, I know), isn’t it? Citi’s directors have a fiduciary duty to avoid useless spending anyway. They wouldn’t have done the naming deal unless they thought it would be a money-making proposition long-term by communicating prestige, etc. Presumably, this wasn’t just an extravagance, but something they felt would enhance the value of the business. Restricting the advertising of a troubled bank because it is receiving Federal as_sistance could be cutting off your nose to spite your face. Money is fungible (by definition.)
There is a reasonable argument to be made for yanking the name, however. Of course, they end up with a lot of (irrational) BAD publicity from the naming deal as it stands. And, much of the credit crisis is about perception, and you don’t want to be conceived as profilgate and undercapitalized. So, maybe it’s a good business decision to pull out.
perceived, not “conceived”
Why not just brand the new park Shea Stadium.I mean honestly,I’ll still refer to that new monstrosity as Shea anyway.