Neil deMause: The Website

The yammering about Citigroup’s naming-rights deal with the Mets has gotten so loud, I needed to take a crack at sifting through the remaining options:

Given that construction of the Mets’ new stadium began under a cloud of controversy about its name, it’s probably fitting that that’s all anyone can talk about as its first Opening Day approaches. So far, we’ve had Congressmen and newspaper columnists demanding that the Treasury Department force Citigroup to rescind its naming-rights deal for the Mets’ new home, fans wishing the Mets had named it “Shea Stadium” instead, and Wally Matthews (who’d previously called for the Mets’ new digs to be renamed “Field of Schemes” - ahem) demanding that the team “take that toxic contract with Citi and endorse it right over to Manny [Ramirez], 20 years at $20 million per.”

Which all makes for great tabloid fodder, but the odds of any of it happening are only slightly greater than prodigal walk machine Oliver Perez pitching a perfect game… [read more]

In which I learn from the comment thread that metric jokes don’t go over very well in the U.S.:

While CC (or as I prefer to think of him, mL) Sabathia was raising eyebrows with the figure $160 million, even larger numbers were being thrown around in the stadium department the last few days:

• The Yankees and Mets put in an official request to New York City for $342 million in new tax-free bonds, to help pay for additional stadium expenses (a new scoreboard and expanded concessions space for the Yanks, while the Mets haven’t itemized their list)…[read more]

The Florida Marlins put off their new stadium for a year, after previously saying that they couldn’t wait another second, as they were being evicted:

It’s hard to get too excited about given that the thing was originally supposed to open during the McKinley Administration, but the Florida Marlins have officially announced that their new stadium will open in 2012, not 2011 as previously reported. Marlins president and chief protester-too-much David Samson placed the blame squarely on former Philadelphia Eagles owner Norman Braman, whose lawsuit against the stadium funding plan - Braman was displeased that urban redevelopment money was being redirected to free up stadium funds without a public vote, among other things - took up most of 2008 before being dismissed last week: “This is because of Braman. It’s not because of the economy. It’s not because of any issues with the [final] documents. It’s not because of any of that.”… [read more]

My analysis of statements by the Oakland A’s owner that he plans to move ahead with a new stadium in Fremont, even though his financing plan has pretty much collapsed with the housing market:

Matt Holliday had better love Mount Davis: The San Jose Mercury News reports this morning that the ongoing economic cataclysm could put the kibosh on the Oakland A’s plans for a new stadium in Fremont, at least for now.

As I reported for BP last year, A’s owner Lew Wolff’s plan for a 30,000-seat stadium in the East Bay city of Fremont relied on a complicated land-for-stadium swap: Essentially, Wolff would get the right to develop land around the ballpark as condos, and use the proceeds to pay off his $400-million-or-so stadium bill… [read more]

The New York City comptroller’s office revealed today that the Yankees underpaid their rent by $11 million between 2003 and 2006, including taking the same “stadium planning” credits in 2006 that they took in 2005. The good news: They’re paying it back. Slowly.

City comptroller (and still possible 2009 mayoral candidate) William Thompson issued his long-awaited audit today of items the Yankees deducted from their city rent for “stadium planning” costs, as allowed under the lease they got from Rudy Giuliani as a going-away present in 2001. How long-awaited? The audit (PDF here) covers January 2003 through December 2006, which is so far back that Raul Mondesi and Sterling Hitchcock were still in pinstripes.

The comptroller’s conclusion, as Juan Gonzalez first reported in this morning’s News: The Yanks improperly underpaid the city by more than $11 million over that four-year span…

Is the sports bubble about to pop? It’s probably too soon to tell, but that won’t stop me from reading the tea leaves.

Sports are all about omens. All it takes is for a baseball player to get called out a few times in a row and sportscasters will declare him to be “slumping” and that his team has “lost momentum.” (Either that or he’s “due.” Omens are funny that way.)

In recent weeks, the portents that many sports-watchers have been keeping an eye out for are predictions of how one of our other national obsessions — the spectator sport that is the roller-coaster economy — will affect teams’ bottom lines… [read more]

Alex Belth of the excellent baseball blog Bronx Banter has been asking various writers for their favorite memories of Yankee Stadium, now that the big ballyard in the Bronx has a debt with the wrecking ball. (Metaphorically speaking - it will actually be dismantled sans balls.) My contribution appears today, skipping over some more historic options for a weekend in 1985 that sticks with me as why the Stadium was special:

Of the five hundred or so games I’ve seen at Yankee Stadium, a fair number would probably qualify as “historic”: The Pine Tar Game. The Jeffrey Maier Game. Don Mattingly’s first postseason appearance. Jimmy Leyritz’ game-winning 15th-inning homer in the 1995 ALDS, presaging his more famous game-winning 8th-inning homer in the World Series the following year. Game 6 of the 1996 World Series, which ended with Charlie Hayes’ catch in foul ground and Wade Boggs atop a police horse… [read more]

Once again, not my headline. (Mine was something about not giving it “a free pass” - baseball reference, get it?) In any case, though, even if we’re not really all at risk by shortstops rampaging across the land with bats in hand, the reality is pretty disturbing:

We’re used to horror stories about the Mets bullpen, but not like this. Last week, it was revealed that reliever Ambiorix Burgos had turned himself in to Dominican Republic police after being accused of a hit-and-run that killed two women; the mother of one of the victims charged that Burgos had intentionally run over her daughter after she refused to date him… [read more]

The issue of how the Yankees are funding their new stadium has exploded all over the newspapers in recent days, thanks in large part to state assemblymember Richard Brodsky issuing a 33-page report criticizing the deal, and U.S. Rep. Dennis Kucinich holding hearings (at which Brodsky was the main witness - neither the Yanks nor the city showed up) on the subject. With claims and counterclaims flying, I try to get to the bottom of the Brodsky report:

State assemblymember Richard Brodsky was largely silent during the debates over building the Yankees’ new $1.9 billion stadium — as the Yankees and Mayor Bloomberg have been quick to point out, he even voted for the project when it came up in the legislature. But with Yankee Stadium’s days dwindling, he’s been making up for lost time.

With Brodsky in D.C. today for his star turn before Rep. Dennis Kucinich’s subcommittee investigating the Yankees’ stadium deal (streaming video here), it’s a good time to examine some of the questions raised by the 33-page report on the House That George Built that Brodsky let drop on Tuesday…[read more]

You won’t find it in the paper (they ran out of trees), but it’s officially a Village Voice article, not a Village Voice blog item: My review, in advance of the final games for Yankee and Shea Stadiums, of other ballparks’ final days, and how they’ve changed over the years from poorly attended loot-fests to extravaganzas of nostalgia marketing:

If you’re hoping to attend the sold-out-since-the-Truman-administration final games at Yankee Stadium (this Sunday) or Shea Stadium (the Sunday after), you’d better be independently wealthy. At last check, final-game tickets for sale on StubHub started at $125 for the Mets and $250 for the Yanks. And that Yankees price is for a seat in the left-field bleachers—one enterprising speculator was seeking a mere $16,000 and change for each of four front-row Bronx ducats.

It was not always thus for stadium swan songs…