If I give money to an orphanage to keep it open but instead they put it all into landscaping, I would be very unhappy… Same with the stadium…
But how about this:
Let them do it – at our (taxpayer) expense – and think of it as a monument to those corporate institutions that have complete lost the sense of integrity…
The Berlin wall was destroyed but now parts of it that remained are a museum to the madness of history.
Maybe the stadium’s name could serve the same purpose? Lest we forget the madness of financial speculations.
I cannot believe what I am reading in these blogs. Do you people have any idea what you are talking about? Citibank has abused the system. As many with many banks, they have continued to give their CEOs more money than any of us will see in our lifetimes times 10. They have committed criminal acts, cooked the books, boosted stocks, sold high and the floor drops our because the market it flooded, leaving others holding worthless paper. They have shortened credit lines without warning causing small businesses who employ people to go out of business because they depend upon their credit lines to buy materials and make payroll. They have cut back personal credit lines for no reason, which affects credits scores that essentially have no meaning anymore. They have, hoarded money instead of doing what banks should do-lend it at a reasonable rate since the Fed has dropped interest rates, causing a ripple effect. Car companies can’t get loans for normally qualified buyers. Therefore, they can’t move their inventory. The same is true with existing houses and building houses causing an even greater housing glut, so realtors cannot make a living. With no businesses being started and those in existing hanging by a thread, not hiring, no one is buying. Hence, more layoffs. Even here in Palm Beach we have been touched by these problems. So wake up you fools and stop blaming the government, stop talking about a stupid sign. It’s time to realize that if something is not done soon we’ll be just like Iceland. By the way, the government did not Nationalize the Banks. If it did, it would have complete control over everything and would have taken the money from the banks to do with as it pleased. Get a dictionary. Oh, that’s right, you probably cannot afford one because your credit line has been cut and you are surviving paycheck to paycheck. Time to start hoarding your cash. The credit card rates have gone up for no reason as well-before the lobbyists had their way 29.99% used to be called usurious.
If ANY organization requires help from the people (via the government), then that organization obviously is not capable of making well-informed, logical business decisions on its own.
At the point that such a failing organization accepts government infusion, it should be relegated to spending money on critical expenses (payroll, building maintenance, basic operations) ONLY. Items without proven return on investment (such as stadium naming rights, corporate jets, executive bonuses, fat cat junkets, etc.) should be eliminated, until such time that the business returns to profitability such that it repays all sums owed to the government, plus interest.
This is common sense, but as we can see, the government does not work under such principles. (See also: Welfare system)
Yes, and then president Obama will reach another historical feat of being the first communist president of the Peoples Republic of America. Get real. Citi is only hurting themselves by destroying their image as they choose to publically spend $20 million dollars a year on a sign.
Delegating a companies expenses is crossing into unmarked territory of dangerous precedence setting.
Contract Schmontract.
Don’t you people remember the business law courses you took as sophomores. Contracts that run contrary to the public interest can be nullified by the government. Usually this would happen in a court of law, but congress is just doing their job if they step in and prevent this waste of our tax dollars.
The same was true for the Wachovia deal. It was not in the public interest for Citi to buy Wachovia for a small fraction of what another willing buyer was offering.
I am sorry but Citi had entered a binding contract for long term advertising. Now, just like the contract Citi had to buy Wachovia…the government should have stayed out. The courts should have forced Wachovia to follow thru with the buyout.
The extensive branch network and deposit base would have made a much more stable bank and either the massive Wachovia “back office” operation or even the Citi “back office” operations department could have been folded one into to the other and the savings would have been huge for an operation that large.
Now we have the bailout. It is the law of the land, good or bad. No matter how outlandish it may look (naming a stadium) it was also a contract that was legal and binding and it should be protected by the law. Citi should also have been forced to buy the jet, no matter how over the top it looked.
If it is not in the “law” then no government, no matter how much incentive they give you, should be able to dictate which contracts an entity must breach!
That is where this whole debacle started.
Remember, Obama was the leader of an community action group who lobbied the gevernment to lower credit standards for certain potential homeowners.
The government then forced banks to comply. Once they had developed new credit standards, the banks were then in compliance with the governments new “CRA” law. Well, the bird was out of the cage at that point because mortgage brokers suddendly relealized there was easy money to be had for anyone with a heartbeat who a realtor could help place in a home.
This only meant the first time the new non-qualifying homeowners, of all races, decided they did not want to make their mortgage payment they would simply walk away and go back to renting, without a worry in the world. Hell, their credit was bad to begin with and they did not care.
Once, 10 million buyers walked away from their mortgages it hurt the market. Lots of those sub-prime mortgages were bundled with some decent mortagages and sold to Fannie and Freddie. Guess what happened when they went bad?
So, haveing homebuyers walk away from their contracts is almost just like the government now making Citi walk away from their jet contract and now wanting them to walk away from the ballpark contract.
Why punish the aircraft manufactorer and all of their employees and shareholders? Why punish the ballpark investors?
If everyone would have just kept their word and paid their bills this would have never happened and it would have never happened had people like Obama not tried to twist the government’s arm and make banks lend to people who would never had qualified for any loan under the generally accepted, industry wide, mortgage lending parameters.
As long as we walk away from our obligations people will suffer. As long as the goevrnment is involved in ANY business then ALL will suffer
No one should tell citigroup how to spend “our” bailout funds, really? So we should let them keep on keeping on with their smart decisions? Just an fyi for anyone who doesn’t hold a citi credit card…. finance rates on those cards reguardless of your fico score or your time with them are being raised! Several of my friends have had theirs raised from 4.99% to 24.99%!They are holders in smith barney with large assets. This is going on all over their card division, so we should just let them decide considering they are helping their customers with that bailout money. Right.
Naming rights to stadiums are luxury items – there is absolutely NO benefit derived – other than pumping up the inflated egos of the corporate executives – for the corporation or the general public. Taxpayer money is always used to build these stadiums, so it would be more appropriate to name them for the municipalities they represent.
OK… If what you are really saying here is that “this would be too difficult and might make things even more difficult down the road” then I agree. I agree that all of this is indeed too difficult to think about and that the only solution would be to have everyone that accepted so much a nickel of TARP money, ought to give it back. Let them continue on using their own money and their own sound judgment to guide them.
LET CITI FAIL ALREADY!!!!!!!!
As a shareholder (which the Federal Governemnt is) they have the same influences as a common stockholder. With that said they should be able to vote via proxy and that is it. Just because our elected officials decided to freely give taxpayer money, they have nor more rights to the business than the common stockholder
The Senator who used the term idiots, has it right. For these financial firms, to be supported by tax dollars, when they are laying off their own employees, and they still feel the need to give hundreds of milllions for naming rights?
That’s more than idiotic. It’s arrogance, and greed at it’s finest. I feel the money used for these naming rights, should be kept to keep workers employed so they can support their families.
Pesonally, I’d like a chance o see these idiots first hand, since I have some words even they might be surprised to hear. I’m even sure they won’t like it.
No company has any right to spend taxpayers money for a bunch of overpaid BUFFOONS ballpark. That is the publics money to be spent wisely. So far I do not see it. Why don’t they jail some of these crooks anyway who got us into this mess.
Our Congress needs to stop focusing on line item “Perks” and start focusing on the bigger picture. We need to quickly enact and more importantly enforce, permanent legislation to stop Business abuses. For Banks it should be the creditcard holders bill of rights and a 12% cap on credit card interest. When Banks are faced with
the permanent loss of revenue which was
generated largely from abuse, the line
item “Perks” will quickly start to
disappear.
Ah. . . The “Stadium Curse” is alive and well 10 years later.
TARP should have been run as a quasi-bankruptcy proceeding from the beginning. TARP should be a just a slow motion bankruptcy to allow the orderly liquidation and reorganization of these troubled banks.
The government invalidates contracts all the time in bankruptcy, so I don’t see any reason why this one can’t be invalidated. Citi needs to lower costs and a stadium is an extravagance.
Call it force if you want–but it is rather simple-400 mil to name a ballpark, you’re on your own-the hell with the mets and every other sports franchise in this country–and by the way, I am about as big a fan as you can find in sports-love them all-time for everyone of us to pull our head out and start using some common sense!!
OF COURSE Citi should be forced to do the bidding of the government. These turds belong to ME now. Can’t you get that through your thick thick skull, Paul? Oh heaven help us that a “precedent has been set” and a “private company is being forced”. I didn’t get any say on their idiot credi market nonsense. Paul, you make me so angry I can’t even see. Social mood will not be kind to you.
Why is it that the same republican jerks who say it is absolutely essential for GM, Ford and Chrysler to be forced to break of a legally binding, written contract with their unions now say it is bad for government to interfere in something as frivolous and stupid as stadium naming rights. I would go further, government has no business at all financially supporting private business by building these stadiums in the first place. Sports are huge money making enterprises. They should support themselves and not ask me to pay tax dollars to build their palaces. Same goes for the banks and financial con artists. If they want the money they can get told what to do.
Ouch, the naming rights help pay for the exorbitant salaries, which in turn raise the price of my visit to the ballpark. I cannot afford it anymore. This vicious circle will end. Ballplayers are not going to be immune to this economic downturn. How about 9/11 stadium to commemorate all the individuals that have given their life to protect ours?
Govt needs to stop lending so much of MY money. I work hard, make good personal spending decisions and pay a ton in taxes. These companies will make bad decisions as long as they know their rich Uncle Sam will step in if they need a raise in their allowance.
As for naming the field, let them do it. They had a contract and this would hurt the Mets- not their fault. But, cut off the govt financial lifeline that affords them (banks, GM, et al) the luxury of being morons.
I agree that this is a bad move. It is more government intervention in the business practices of a company. The sponsorship is an advertising move, and comes out of the annual advertising budget. So should the Gov be able to say, Television ads are expensive, so Banks should not be able to advertise on Television, if they accept the bailout.
And how many people will the mets have to lay off if they lose that money? If the Gov is willing to set money asside to sod a mall lawn to creat jobs, they should be willing to let Citi advertise they way they think is the best return on investment, and creat jobs.
Citi needs to do what is best for it’s business!!!
If the goverment does not like what they are doing, then they need to quit loaning them money. Which they should do anyways!!!!!
To Nationalize or not Nationalize is the question. The banking system in the US is bankrupt and is dragging us down. Yet, the same morons that run these instutions keep making mistakes. Allow them to go bankrupt, get rid of all of these naming rights and have the government take them over until we get this thing settled. Baseball or Football has no room to complain because of the special privilages they have been given by our government. In the end maybe we will stop seeing $100 million contract for players, this is horrible.
If you take the TARP, rule no 1, you must cut all luxury good (planes/ cars/ spa treatments)and stupid advertising expenses before laying off employees.
Can you imagine if the middle class staged a French Revolution today, we are on that path now.
Are you joking? Of course they should being selling off this right to the highest bidder. If Citigroup cannot even bear to part with ‘dumb’ assets like this, we need to FIRE their board and re-elect their officers. Why has all this taxpayer money gone to preferred shares? Why does the government need a tax benefit? The shares, if convertible, should be converted and these boards threatened with extinction if the Executive branch of the government has to continue to be the catalyst to identify and rectify these obvious PR gaffs. Someone tell the BOARD. The party is OVER.
Who will cover the expense to remove all of the Citi branding from the new stadium? Anyone who has seen the stadium recently will tell you how visible the Citibank logo is all over the stadium…It goes as the Citi logo on the end of each row of seats. The Mets have been advertising CitiField for a long time. It would essentially be punishing the Mets to force Citi to pull out.
My apologies, sometimes I get so mad, I make a typo.. I left out a key word.
Paul how come whenever you pose a question, and make a stand on an issue, your on the wrong side? How come your always in favor of the rich fat cats, giving your opinions that support so the rich fat cat can keep their perks, and bonuses, and wasting taxpayer money?
Paul why is it you are never of the opinion of helping the average American citizens? Your question brings to mind so many questions I would like to have answered. Like.. Why are PACs raising millions and billions of dollars to elect or re-elect Government officials, when food banks can not find funding to feed the ever increasing hungry, or why does my public school need to have bake sales for every little thing to help educate my children and grandchildren?
I tell you I’m one of the biggest capitalist ever, I believe in capitalism working for the better of everyone who is willing to work. But when irresponsible management puts profits and bonuses ahead of operating a value added business, you end up with what we have here a depression.
So I ask you Paul instead of wasting all of our taxpayer money to shore up the same failed management of this economy, why are we NOT investing into the investigation, prosecution, and incarceration of the criminals that made this happen?
Paul how come whenever you pose a question, and make a stand on an issue, your on the wrong side? How come your always in favor of the rich fat cats, giving your opinions that support so the rich fat cat can keep their perks, and bonuses, and wasting taxpayer money?
Paul why is it you are never of the opinion of helping the average American citizens? Your question brings to mind so many questions I would like to have answered. Like.. Why are PACs raising millions and billions of dollars to elect or re-elect Government officials, when food banks can not find funding to feed the ever increasing hungry, or why does my public school need to have bake sales for every little thing to help educate my children and grandchildren?
I tell you I’m one of the biggest capitalist ever, I believe in capitalism working for the better of everyone who is willing to work. But when irresponsible management puts profits and bonuses ahead of operating a value added business, you end up with what we have here a depression.
So I ask you Paul instead of wasting all of our taxpayer money to shore up the same failed management of this economy, why are we investing into the investigation, prosecution, and incarceration of the criminals that made this happen?
Although CITI FIELD is a fitting name for the home of a glorious team like the METS, much needed taxpayer dollars shouldn’t go to non-essential failures anyway.
Taking taxpayer bailout money to keep from going out of business, means they should walk away from the ballpark.
The other companies mentioned in the article already had the stadium contracts executed before they went under or applied for TARP funds.
It is unfair to the taxpayer to take tax money that won’t be replenished for years into the future, and use it for as frivolous a notion as having a company name on a sign.
Your article highlights the ugly issue of bailing out the financial industry. You ask “where does it end?” Every large company has many sweet heart deals with vendors, consultants, landlords and the like. Only through failure and an organized bankruptcy can they be brought into the light of day. If agreements don’t bring value to the reorganized company they are eliminated or renegotiated. That’s the American way. We have to come to grips with the fact that these financial entities failed and deal with them accordingly. No one should be exempt.
I can’t believe that question would even be posed.
Of course Citi should have to back out. They’d have backed out of it had they gone under, and without government assistance, they would most certainly have gone under.
The excesses like this are the primary indicator of what is wrong with the economy.
The next bubble to burst is that of athletics. Coaches salaries, player salaries, ticket prices – they’re coming down, mark my words. After this economic catastrophe, people are going to be more like earlier generations, those that endured the Great Depression, and people are going to be more judicious with their assets. That means fewer extravagances, and spending $100/ticket to go to an MLB game is definitely extravagent.
So, our lawmakers are trying to force a company to break a legally binding contract with another party? Do they intend for CitiBank to reneg on all their agreements? Should Citibank eliminate their entire advertising budget? I wonder if these representatives are just ignorant of the law or if they called for this knowing that it would never happen, so that they could point to this and say,”See I was trying to cut spending.” Either way, I think less of them.
What I am struggling to understand is why should the consumer spend money when the US Govt is stopping the banks from spending? While economic activities are needed to restore our economy, cutting back spending won’t be much helpful. That’s ECO 101.
If we had a real government the Wall Street bankers would have already been arrested for stealing 20 billion dollars of tax payer money and giving it to themselves as a bonus for losing 40 percent of everyone’s 401k pension plan money.
I say throw the Wall Street bankers in jail and seize their money like we do to all terrorists. After all this financial terrorism is worse than what Bin Laden has done. Already 50,000 Americans have died due to losing their health care and more to follow Bin laden only murdered 3,000.
Had CitiBank not received the funds from TARP it would have been bankrupt and the question of it honoring its contract and spending $400 Million would not arise.
I’d like to cop a feel of the TARP teat: I’ve got some education loans I wish would go away.
Vikram Pandit will be slinging ballpark dogs this time next year, unless he slinks away with a golden parachute paid for by you and me.
If these institutions are too big and important to the economy to fail and require government assistance to survive, then, yes, absolutely they should be compelled to tighten their budgets and eliminate questionable spending – it’s not ‘government’ interference or socialism; any party investing in a failing business would require the company to do the same thing.
Stadium naming rights deals are emblematic of excesses of business practices that are dead, or should be dead – much like excessive bonuses. There’s nothing wrong with a return to a more fundamentality sound business/capitalism model in this country, and indeed, we should embrace it for the long-term health of the country.
Whether or not govt plays any role here, common sense says there is a potential for saving at least 200 jobs (100K each)
I hate the idea that Citi would not consider pulling out of the deal themselves during this time in their company. I also hate the idea of government continually telling business what to do. We are left in a quandary what to do, business cannot be trusted to make moral decisions, maybe it isn’t their place, and the more we allow government to tell us what we can and cannot do (although, when you accept/need as much money as Citi does to stay afloat maybe your new owner should be able to tell you how to use your money,) we risk losing even more freedom. We are the 10 year old baby who is still suckleing on the teet of it’s government, unable to grow and prosper in healthy and appropriate fashion. If Citi were not so large and weeved so intimately with our economy they would have been allowed to fail, as true capatalist society would demand. As an individual struggling in this economy I will be allowed to fail, and I will be forced to pick up the pieces and start over.
If the Fed had not loaned money to Citi, this would not be an issue. That being said, since they have taken billions in Fed (read:our) money they should work to find another sponsor for the stadium, or back out of the contract and pay the penalty for doing so. As a Met fan, I hate the thought of a poorly managed, money-sucking conglomerate that is the poster child for the economic crisis having their name associated with the stadium my favorite baseball team plays in. I would rather see the Wilpon’s cancel the agreement themselves, although I’m certain some money has already changed hands. I never understood the attraction of having your name on a ballpark anyway. It’s not like I’m going to open an account with a Citi owned company because their name is on the stadium. Citi should use the $20 mil they’re going to save to pay back their TARP money. The American taxpayer bailing out your A$$ needs it!!
Congress failed by bailing out Citi in the first place, now they want to criticize their business dealings from 2 years ago? Congress is the biggest money-wasting “business” in the U.S. They should clean up their own mess before bailing out anyone else, or telling some other business how to spend OUR money.
First, let me say that it was an honor to be quoted by The Great LaMonica on CNN video yesterday; we, the little people, appreciate the chance to be heard.
Citi needs to drop the naming rights because it should be counting every dollar now to try to survive. And, there’s no point advertising for more borrowers when Citi is not lending.
The Mets should let Citi drop out gracefully; in a year or less, they’ll probably need a new sponsor anyway.
Otherwise, they should call it ‘TARP Park’, or ‘US Taxpayers Park’ or such.
the government is entitled to have control over spending decisions with corporations that have financially failed to operate successfully on their own. i understand the fear of nationalizing our private sector, but in these extreme cases of HUGE money mismanagement by our financial institutions, they have simply put themselves in this situation. and secondly, Major League Baseball and all their Teams have been absolutely hammering us fans for the past ten years with absorbinant ticket prices, concessions prices, etc.. they are severely overpaying players and rake in an enourmous profit(MLB), taking advantage of our national obsession with baseball. so this could be the first step in reducing profits for an inflated industry that has taken advantage of its popularity and stuck it to its loyal fans. so even as a loyal mets fan, lets deny the $400 million!
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If I gave money to an orphanage to keep it open (buy food, pay utility bills, etc.) but instead they put it all into landscaping, I would be very unhappy… To follow this analogy, I don’t see a good business case behind the CITI investment into the stadium name.
However, if CITI gets away with it, it will be a monument to all extreme cases of corporate lack of integrity. And hopefully it will serve as a reminder for years to come.