Letting Citi keep their sponsorship of the Mets new stadium may be a good idea after all:
Bednar response: “Whatever generates great profits back to help us repay those TARP funds, is a smart business for us to be in to.”
In fact, Bednar says for every one dollar the bank spends on sports, it generates three in income. Paul Swangard is a sports marketing professor at the University of Oregon.
“I can’t see why you ‘d have strong criticism because that’s what will get these banks out of the situation they’re in,” Swangard says. “By engaging the right customers, those who will deliver economic value to the long term. And if it happens to be that it’s their loyalty to a sports brand that gets you the opportunity to have that conversation, I see nothing wrong with that.”
Maybe Baseball Musings should buy ad space at Citi Field, too.
Better yet, maybe Baseball Musing should become Citi Baseball Musings.
Once the Mets refused to let them out of the contract I do not know that C had a choice. If Citi’s covenants are written in similar fashion to those of AIG, canceling the deal would trigger a large scale, global default. Given the Madoff rip the Wilpons had no choice. I expect their decision sealed the deal.