Sports are feeling the chill of the financial crisis, according to this morning’s Wall Street Journal. That includes plans for the new Mets and Nets arenas in Queens and Brooklyn, respectively. Looks like their namesakes just beat the clock!
Within the past two years, Citigroup Inc. and Barclays (BCS) PLC have signed deals to spend more than $300 million over the next 20 years to put their names on sports venues in New York City — one of them under construction, the other on the drawing board.
Citigroup (C) will lend its name to Citi Field, the new home of baseball’s New York Mets. And the NBA’s Nets hope to occupy the as-yet-unstarted Barclays Center arena in Brooklyn, N.Y.
Both banks, which have been pummeled by a freeze in the markets they depend on for funding, would be hard-pressed to justify such an expenditure today…
