ShittyField, in Flushing (Citi Field ballpark, in Flushing, Queens)
Many New Yorkers wanted the new Mets ballpark (the one replacing Shea Stadium) to be named after baseball great Jackie Robinson. Citigroup offered to pay $20 million a year to name the stadium, and in November 2006, “Citi Field” was announced.
New Yorkers—even those who like the design—immediately dubbed the place “ShittyField,” noting that it’s in “Flushing,” Queens. A frequent nickname of Citibank has long been “Shittybank.” Also, the Citigroup-sponsored Citi Bike program was nicknamed “Shiti Bike” when began in 2013.
Wikipedia: Citi Field
Citi Field is a stadium located in Flushing Meadows–Corona Park in the New York City borough of Queens. Completed in 2009, it is the home baseball park of Major League Baseball’s New York Mets. Citi Field was built as a replacement for the adjacent Shea Stadium, which was constructed in 1964 next to the site of the 1964-1965 World’s Fair. Citi Field was designed by Populous (formerly HOK Sport), and is named after Citigroup, a financial services company based in New York that purchased the naming rights. The $850 million baseball park is being funded by the sale of New York City municipal bonds which are to be repaid by the Mets plus interest. The payments will offset property taxes for the lifetime of the park.
The first game at the ballpark took place on March 29, 2009, with a college baseball game between St. John’s and Georgetown. The Mets played their first two games at the ballpark on April 3 and April 4, 2009 against the Boston Red Sox as charity exhibition games. The first regular season home game was played on April 13, 2009, against the San Diego Padres. The Mets are considered likely to win the rights to host the 2013 Major League Baseball All-Star Game at Citi Field, which would bring the game to the Mets’ home field for only the second time; the first was at Shea in its 1964 inaugural season.
Live Journal blog
2006-11-11 18:26:00
you stupid mongorians!
the mets new stadium is going to be called citifield.
SHITTYFIELD?!!!!
dear god, what a stupid fucking idea.
Random Thoughts
New York Mets sell naming rights to new stadium
CitiCorp won the rights, meaning the stadium will be called CitiField.
Already many fans are calling the not-even-built-facility ShittyField.
Gotta love New York.
This entry was posted on Monday, November 13th, 2006 at 3:13 pm
Village Voice
New Yorkers Get Zip From New Mets Park
By Neil deMause | November 13, 2006
The Mets revealed the city’s worst-kept secret today (hint: if you want to keep something from leaking out, try not to put it on a giant sign) with the announcement that when the team’s new stadium opens in 2009, it will be known as CitiField. Under the terms of the naming-rights agreement, Citigroup will hand over $20 million a year to team owners Fred and Jeff Wilpon in exchange for the naming rights to the new edifice plus cable ad time and other sundries, shattering the old record of $10 million a year paid by California blackout-mongers Reliant Energy for the rights to the Houston Texans’ stadium.
Even aside from gripes from Mets fans who’d been hopeful of honoring a local great like Gil Hodges—the stadium will instead feature a “Jackie Robinson Rotunda”—and worries about the stadium’s obvious new nickname, there’s another issue that’s been largely overlooked: Though the city of New York will own CitiField and put up about $200 million toward its construction, city taxpayers shouldn’t expect to see a dime of revenue from the big CitiPayday.