Yankee Stadium And Citi Field Still Drawing Ire

Yankee Stadium may not have a corporate name, but the deed to the ballpark should be split up among the taxpayers. That goes for Citi Field out in Queens as well, along with a new name. Citibank may only be spending $20 million a year for twenty years for the naming rights, but with their bailout, that name needs to change. Perhaps we can make a deal and call it Irresponsible Corporate Banking Field....or just City Field for short. As Gothamist points out, both teams need to give back.

The Yankees have opened their wallets and committed $243.5 million to two players this week. That’s nothing new for the club, who routinely lead the league in payroll by a wide margin. Coincidentally, the team also went to New York City this week and asked for $259 million in tax-exempt bonds to finish their new Stadium in the Bronx. This is on top of original financing of the $1.3 billion deal, which was also done almost entirely with tax-exempt bonds.

Meanwhile in Queens, the Mets, whose payroll is modest in comparison to the Yankees but still among the highest in baseball, have also received plenty of tax-exempt financing for their new stadium. On top of that, they will receive $20 million a year from Citigroup, an entity that U.S. taxpayers had to bail out a few weeks ago, for the naming rights to the new building.

In this current economic climate, the actions of both teams are offensive. It is bad enough that they have raised ticket prices to levels that ordinary fans can’t afford. But with huge deficits on the federal, state and local levels, their use of tax-exempt financing deprives the public of desperately needed revenue.

Gothamist wants them to stop asking for more money out of city coffers and I whole-heartedly agree. Moreover, I think they should give back ALL the money they have taken since the thought of new ballparks in NYC began. Don't worry though, there is something in it for them as well. With the money returned, the Mets and Yankees can make it up by taking away the free luxury boxes for city officials and sell them at market price.

Gotta have some give and take here, right?