Nov 26, 2008 9:05 am US/Eastern
Lawmakers: Name It 'Citi Taxpayers' Field'
NYC Councilmen Want Bailed Out Citigroup To Do Right Thing And Share New Mets Stadium's Naming Rights
NEW YORK (CBS) ―
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Citi Field, or whatever it ends up being called, will open in April 2009.
AP
Since Citigroup is being bailed out by the government, some New York City lawmakers are crying foul over the name of the new Mets stadium.
Instead of Citi Field, they want something with you, the taxpayer, in mind.
There's definitely a battle brewing over the naming rights of the new baseball stadium in Queens. A couple of City Councilmen want to change the name to Citi Taxpayers Field.
What do taxpayers think?
"That's pretty stupid. It doesn't make any sense to me," one man said.
"That's silly," added West Side resident Carolyn Huggins. "I can understand why they'd want to do that, bring the taxpayers' role to the fore given what's going on at the moment."
City Councilman Vincent Ignizio, R-Staten Island, and Minority Leader James Oddo, R-Staten Island, are calling on the Mets, Citigroup and the city to change the name to show gratitude to the taxpayers, who, through no fault of their own, are contributing to the federal government's $351 billion bailout for the troubled bank.
"There are involuntary investors here who have to dig into their own pockets here and rescue Citi Field, so I believe it's an homage to the people to say thank you on behalf of the Mets organization and the Citibank organization to make it City Taxpayers Field."
Citigroup is paying $400 million over the next 20 years for the naming rights to the stadium, a deal cut in 2006 when the corporate giant was flourishing.
Some fans say corporate naming rights never seem right.
"They shouldn't have named it Citi Field anyway," one man said. "It should have been named Jackie Robinson Stadium."
CBS 2 HD reached out to the Mets to get their take on this proposed name change. They would only say they "politely decline to comment."
Citigroup and Mets chief operating officer Jeff Wilpon have been saying that they have no plan to alter the naming-rights deal for the ballpark, which hosts its regular-season opener April 13.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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