That's one way to lower attendance....

Its official, the Mets have sold out. The new stadium will be named Citi Field, after Citibank. My 10 year old son heard this last night, paused for a moment, and then commented, "that stinks." A young boy gets it and all the suits in the Mets organization don't. I predict that whatever money the bank is forking over for the branding rights here will be lost many times over from the fans. Nobody is going to feel good about going to a ballpark named after a bank. Nobody. Shea Stadium was named after William Shea who, concerned about the loss of the Dodgers from Brooklyn, lobbied the league for a new NY team. Shea was successful and the Mets are the result. God forbid they should keep that name. There was even talk of naming the new park after Jackie Robinson, which also would have been a good call in my opinion. The Mets are sort of the spiritual successors to the fabled Dodgers,(the real Dodgers, not the joke out west), and honoring Jackie Robinson, the Dodger who broke the color barrier in baseball (to say nothing about being one of the true greats of the game) would have cemented that relationship in the public's mind. Instead, the Mets went the Walmart route. A fast buck at the expense of their reputation. Shame really. It will be a riot if Citibank merges with say Bank of Tokyo and the stadium has to be renamed Tokyo Park or some such nonsense. Then again, if it happens, the Mets will have only themselves to blame.