Yet Another Sports Arena Goes Corporate

Here in the New York region, much ado is being made about Citibank's recent purchase of the naming rights to the Mets’ new baseball stadium for a hefty price tag of more than $20 million a year for at least 20 years.

As I listened to a man-on-the-street spot on the radio this morning, I found out that New Yorkers opinions on the future Citi Field were mostly negative. I wondered whether the banking conglomerate wasn’t hurting its brand by offending diehard fans with forsaking the original Shea Stadium name.

Of course, stadium-naming rights are nothing new, and as much as sports fans have lamented the big-business home-field takeover, in time they’ve become accustomed to calling their arenas the Staples Center or Invesco Field (though I can’t imagine the Houston Astros feel very masculine playing at Minute Maid Park).