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February 03, 2009

No Bailout Moulah For The Mets

I'm thinking this is probably a wise move on ShCitigroup's part

Citigroup (C, news, msgs) is considering putting an end to its $400 million agreement for marketing the New York Mets, The Wall Street Journal reported today.

The Mets' new stadium was due to be named after the bank, but the club could have to find a new moniker.

The reason for the bank's pullout is reportedly because Citigroup doesn't want to be seen as using government bailout funds to sell a baseball team. Citigroup, which has had total net losses of $28.5 billion since 2007, received $45 billion in bailout aid from the Treasury's Troubled Assets Relief Program last fall. The government also agreed to guarantee bad loans for the bank up to $301 billion.

With Citigroup CEO Vikram Pandit due to appear before a House Committee next week to justify their use of the TARP funds, the bank's executives are reportedly not eager to explain the sponsorship deal with the Mets.

Although it must be said there are a lot of similarities between the Mets' collapse this Fall and the Banking Industry's...

Posted by Mr. Bingley at February 3, 2009 07:22 AM

Comments

So the Mets will now go hat-in-hand to the taxpayers or ticketholders looking for more money. Sucks to be billionaires, doesn't it?

Posted by: Rob at February 3, 2009 10:08 AM

They'll have to redo the horrible Citi Field commemorative patch... in fact, it looks so much like a certain pizza chain logo, maybe they WON'T have to redo the patch, just the name on the stadium.

Posted by: nightfly at February 3, 2009 03:33 PM