So Citigroup takes Billions In Taxpayer $ and Will Pay $400mil for naming rights to a sports stadium

[Blackhatjack]

... what is wrong with this picture?

[AZBlue]

1. Which one? Enough pressure on the stadium and they won't be able to do it.

The offer will be "revoked."

[Raineyb]

21. That would be the new Mets stadium. I personally will be calling it the new Shea.

I have no use for Citigroup's name on the Stadium.

Regards

[MikeNearMcChord]

2. Madam Defarge, please call your office

and can you get the guillotine boys also?

[BlooInBloo]

3. Whoa. They're building a stadium by some method other than on the taxpayers' backs?

EDIT: Local taxpayers, I meant.

[Blackhatjack]

5. Not building.... Naming.... the stadium will bear their name for a cool $400mil

[BlooInBloo]

6. What will the 400mil be put to?

[RollWithIt]

13. Depends on the city and the sports team...

Some cities own the stadiums and some of the stadiums are owned by the teams owner. The practice of naming rights on a stadium is invariably beneficial tot he community as a whole. It's actually quite ironic, government to government money if Citigroup is buying the rights in the right city.

[BlooInBloo]

14. Ah. I thought we were talking about a specific city and specific stadium.

[Blackhatjack]

4. I don't doubt that some 'Naming Rights' have turned out to be beneficial to Companies...

... because they will argue it simply takes the place of $$ they would spend on advertising in other venues.

However, it does seem questionable for a corporation which is relying on taxpayers to keep it out of Bankruptcy Court to make such an expenditure --especially in light of those who have had their credit card interest rates raised and their homes foreclosed upon by the same corporate entity.

Where is their bailout?

[KakistocracyHater]

7. The health of a national economy is # of workers IN JOBS

as a % of total population, NOT the 'net worth' of a corp., which perhaps some of you are realizing how much of a mirage the value of a company can be, it can be almost anything on paper, .02/share McDonald's after the mad-cow scare, an impossibly low amount.

The proper end, the business end, of a recovery is in the number of people put into middle-class jobs, not playing paper tricks on Wall Street.

[Avalon6]

8. So you want Citi to fail?

People always complain about getting credit card offers from them. If they fail, people are going to be lucky to get ANY credit cards.

[mrreowwr_kittty]

10. My parents never bought a single thing on credit.

Nowadays, people need credit cards to make their basic expenses. That's a sign that wages have declined, not that credit is so awesome.

[zbdent]

11. I think the problem is that RWers get all huffy if a person buys

a candy bar if they're on welfare ... "naming rights" to a stadium seems a bit frivolous when a company is crying poor ...

as if they need to spend the $400M on mass mailings (which they're already doing)

[RoadRage]

17. Totally Disagree...

First of all - $400,000,000 is hardly a "candybar"... it's the whole friggin candy factory.

You can pay to put your name on everything on earth if you're doing it with YOUR OWN money. But you don't get to ask ME to give you money so that you can pay to put your name on a baseball stadium.. all while you're laying off 52,000 people.

It's sort of like showing up on your private jet and asking for money - although that was a $20,000 mistake.. and this is a $400,000,000 - much bigger, much worse.

Before you ask the government for a DIME - you cut every piece of fat first. You chop off any contract - and if you still have to pay $200,000,000 because of contractual obligations - so be it.. you have at least saved $200,000,000 more.

It's not the money that bothers me NEARLY as much as the idiotic mentality that got these companies here in the first place. And the mentality that they can continue to do business the same old way and expect a totally different result is absurd - yet these CEO's really don't want to change a damn thing.

[zbdent]

19. I'm not sure why you "totally disagree" with my point

when I'm in agreement with what you are saying ...

[RoadRage]

26. Sorry!

i misread your post.. I thought you were saying that $400,000,000 was "chump change" in this situation.. my bad! :hi:

[Raineyb]

22. Credit is not exactly a necessity.

And has been a huge part of the problem. I wouldn't cry any tears if the loan shark who issues a couple of my credit card fails. Although I will miss the cash back. I rather enjoyed sticking it to them with every purchase.

Regards

[grantcart]

9. I thought you must be exaggerating

http://mlb.fanhouse.com/2008/11/24/citigroup-prefers-naming-rights-of-mets-stadium-to-real-people/

I would assume that all of these high expense marketing efforts will be eliminated once government money is involved.


Tiger Woods was just cut from GM's marketing budget.

[Blackhatjack]

15. thanks for adding this link.... Rachel Maddow mentioned it tonight also n/t

[Metta]

12. The people who made that decision should be in jail.

nt.

[Ozma]

16. I suggest we name all stadiums either

for George W Bush's gift from American taxpayers to all no more "free market" conservative ideas.

OR

for Barack Obama, the man who took on Wall Street, all the banks, all the auto industry, and made all taxpayer supported failed capitalist models become accountable.

Let's make a law that you cannot make more than one million after tax dollars a year, (meaning all earnings over $1 after tax dollars are taxed at 99.9% or maybe even 100%

Let's make a law than you cannot control more than 40 million dollars in wealth, (giving you $2 Million tax free annual income from municipal bonds - who needs more than that in a year? ) and all other dollars in you portfolio go to a coI knownservative public investment fund aimed at paying off our national debt over 40 years.

[RoadRage]

18. Uhh. no.

Limiting the maximium a company can earn to 40 million of 40 billion doesn't matter... stifiling economic growth is the worst thing you can possibly do in a global econonmy. We need big companies - we just need them to be self supporting and successful.

And when it comes to complex organizations like AIG and others who's vitality is depended upon for the health of the economy overall - greater government oversight should be required.

[Skwmom]

20. Can you imagine if this was the auto industry?

[Blackhatjack]

23. $400mil for Naming Rights OR 52,000 Jobs ? (Not a tough call at all)

Citigroup expects to cut 52,000 jobs but they are going to maintain their commitment to spend $400mil for the naming rights.

I would put this in the category of immoral.

[mtnester]

24. Hubs and I think it ought to be renamed to

Taxpayer Stadium.

[Zodiak]

25. Let them waste their money naming it

Then, in 20 years when so few of us know what Citigroup was (because they insisted on failing anyways with these bad decisions), we can point to the name of that stadium as proof that greedy corporations do not last. It will be much like the statue of Ozymandius sitting in the desert.

We cannot stop these bail-outs....the rot in the core of our financial system has to die on its own because it is too entrenched for anyone to do anything about it. They want things the way they were....sure....you can have that because you are a huge lobbying force in Washington, but doing the things the way they were done before PROMISES failure.

so let them advertise themselves into oblivion....let their lack of care for the rest of our society serve as a monument to future generations as to how unregulated capitalism produced nothing more than a buch of names that sit on top of stadiums like an epitaph.

It sucks...it didn't have to be this way, and many will suffer. But in the end, they will get what they deserve, and life will go on without them.