What did you fix? “Fuck You, Citibank!” or “And The Horse Upon In Which You Rode”?
If the latter, I’ll send ten bucks for the entertainment value. 
I’m not American,so I don’t really have a horse in this race, but this strikes me as outrageous. Is there a way that the government can set conditions on helping Citi - such as freezing interest rates?
And interfere with the operation of the free market!?! What are you, mad?
This would be my choice. Except I’d switch the order and make it Taxpayer/Citi Field.
I’m sorry, but there is no justification for spending the money this way. I think Philster’s argument is sooooo off the mark in this case. Yes, advertising is important. But it’s not like Citibank is a new company, with a zero track record. And any advertising they receive as a result of the stadium deal will just remind people who actually pay attention to things like this what a mismanaged, bullshit company it is. I heard on the radio that Citibank is laying off 52,000 employees (sorry, don’t have a cite). If that figure is even remotely close, I don’t thiink Citibank is in position to blow money on naming rights to a stadium. 20 million would pay for quite a few salaries. Or a number of other things.
Finally, to Philster, who is the only one who seems to have little trouble with this, can you tell us if naming a stadium actually brings any kind of a positive ROI? I think spending money on a stadium name is the dumbest way to spend advertising dollars. The owners benefit, for sure… but the local flavor of a team is lost forever when you allow anyone to bid for stadium naming rights. Off the top of my head, I can think of M&T Stadium, Heinz Field and Lincoln Financial Field. Not one of these names makes me want to put money into M&T Bank, eat more pickles and ketchup, or seek financial advice from Lincoln Financial. But that’s just me. But when I heard the names of Memorial Stadium, Three Rivers Stadium, and Veterans Stadium, I knew instantly where they were talking about. And since taxpayer money goes into the building the stadium, I like the local names.
Taxpayer-Sucker Stadium can’t be too far off.
God, this pisses me off. I don’t care if Citibank signed off on the naming rights deal 2 years ago or not. When they ask for and receive a $300 Billion bailout, all bets are off and all advertising committments are off the table. That’s our money, people! If they went under, Citibank would not have the naming rights to the Mets’ new stadium. Why should they get to keep it now? They also wouldn’t be running television ads or sending out millions of credit card applications through the mail.
Fuck you, Citibank, indeed! And another F.U. to the government for not putting conditions on the bailout money.
Just a question I’ve been wondering about… if Citibank went Chapter 11, I’m guessing someone would still come after the balance of my credit card. And I’m thinking that I wouldn’t get a nice government bailout to make it all better.
This is a bloody nightmare… and it’s going to get worse. Much worse.
Remember when we used to name our stadia after war heros and veterans? I guess they are not so important to us any more.
Thank your for the correction upon in which you did.
I’m not a big fan of taxpayer-subsidized sports stadiums, but at least this was a baseball stadium, given that there are 80+ home games in baseball, as opposed to eight(?) home football games.
They could always do what some of their own customers have had to do of late - stop making payments and steel themselves for the consequences.
Seems to me the title shoud read “. . . the Horse In Upon Which You Rode”.
[Gaudere’s Law] And how should “shoud” be spelled? [/GL]
o-u-t-t-a
Oh, so other Citi credit card holders got the same Scrooge letter that I did!
I’m going to relegate my AT&T Universal Card to the junk drawer, taking it out only when I’m going out of town. It is useful for charging phone calls at payphones when one can’t get cell signal,but now useless for anything else.
Even in its wounded state, at least Citibank is a recognized consumer brand name in the NYC area. What I find stupid is when stadiums are named for companies that no consumer is likely to know. Gillette Stadium, the home field of the New England Patriots, was originally known as CMGI Field, and which consumers knew what CMGI was?
Yeah. Ours went from, I shit you not, 6.99% to 14.99%. Same thing - no lates, no overspending. We have our largest balance on that card because it had the nice low interest rate. Fuckers.
We called to “opt-out”, so they’ll close our account when the card expires in 2010, but at least we’ll keep the lower interest rate, even on stuff we charge now. Fuck 'em. We’ll find a company who knows how to keep good customers as customers.
I started to write something about how businesses that find themselves in a position where they need public funds to survive should also probably question the practices that got them there, but then I realized your post summed up my feelings much more accurately.
+1
Selling naming rights to public facilities is fraught with the peril that the company will go away in considerably less than 20 years.
Houston got egg on its face over Enron Field.
Omaha’s Qwest Center Arena is probably next, since most people I know are going, or have already gone, to either Cox Cable landline or cellphone-only. The Qwest phone book is considerably slimmer than it was 5 years ago.
Allowing Corporate America 20 interest-free years to pay for naming rights is an abomination anyway. Get the money up-front and make it non-refundable.
And subject to a Morals Clause. If they damage the good name of a team by their actions they lose the stadium name and the money.
Well, he had to do it; it was a situation up with which he could not put.
Cabela’s offers a Visa card, and I just got a letter from them telling me they were lowering my interest rate because I’m such a good customer.
The stuff they sell is good quality, too; I’ve bought tee shirts and sweat shirts from them, among other clothing items. Just be warned; once you buy from them you’ll receive regular shipments of dead trees disguised as massive catalogs.
This pitting should focus on the numbnuts who ignored good business models and not on the things that built and will maintain Citi.
This is a pathetic attempt to attack something visible instead of dealing with the internal business issues that are the cause of the problem.
Please pit these bastards…PLEASE! I see bad business around me, but I can’t focus on things that made my company (which isn’t Citi) great and then complain when we keep doing them. None of us are in a position to criticize the image and brand builders at Citi! Really, get a grip. That side of their business model is not broken, but something else is so fucked up that despite the great brand they built, it was so bad as to run the company into the ground. What brought Citi down? What brought the Big Three autos down?
Please complain and pit around those things.
I’m going out now to spit on Citi Field. (Also to pick up some fresh bean sprouts.)