Citi Field Name Debate Goes To Treasury Department

Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio) and Rep. Ted Poe (R-Texas) have written a letter to new Treasury Secratary Timothy Geithner asking that the Treasury Department step in and end the naming rights deal with the Mets.

The Cleveland Plain Dealer  has the phrasing in Kucinich’s press statement as:

“The Treasury Department, which forced Citigroup corporate executives to give up their private jet, should also demand that Citigroup cancel its $400 million advertisement at the Mets field and instead being to repay their debt to the taxpayers”

Huffington Post has similar but different wording, presumably from the actual letter.

We request that you intervene and demand that Citigroup dissolve the agreement they have with the New York Mets.  Absent this outcome, we feel strongly that you should compel Citigroup to return immediately all federal monies received to date, as well as cancel all loan guarantees.

This has been and continues to be an avoidable storm for the Mets.  All they have to do is redo the deal with Citi and issue some statement along the lines of, “We understand our partner is going through a tough time, and we want this to be a lasting partnership, so we have worked together to restructure the deal so (insert financial doubletalk)….”

The Mets are messing around with a President who wasn’t shy today about Wall Street bonuses, and is already mad at Citi for trying to spend $50 million on a plane.

The Mets need to get in front of this before we find ourselves at “Mets Stadium” with a lot of outdated signage on April 13th.

Why not “Jackie Robinson Stadium?” – the Mets will want a corporate stadium name whether it’s Citi Field or Eskimo Pie Stadium.   Can you imagine the backlash if they ever tried to rename “Jackie Robinson Stadium?”

Mets Field here we come.   Get in front of this one boys.

www.metspolice.com