I kinda like Bailout Park. It's a shiny steel and concrete reminder of a time in which people had the money to do things other than cry on their couches and obsessively monitor their 401k or stuff whatever little money they have left inside their mattress.

"Spend its own money rebranding a stadium?"

Do people understand that the top 9 banks were forced to take TARP money? That they can't give it back even if they want to? That banks are rushing to the Fed to have their TARP applications pulled out of cue? Or are we just collectively ignoring that in the name of being sensational?

HIV 2 Elway Resurrected: I think you misread. The subway authority didn't want to spend its own money rebranding a station. The MTA didn't want to spend its own money changing the name on the map for every train and station map when it was already clear that X station is the location of the Mets' stadium, no matter what its name was. It was hoping for some help on that front, but no dice.

Yet this is the same MTA that spends $4 million on needlessly renaming a bridge after some dead Kennedy - and not the good kind of Dead Kennedy.

@ pecan 3.14159265:
I like Bailout Park, too! It has a certain cotemporary ring to it, doesn't it?

Yoko Broke Up The Beatles: Alternative names:

Stimulus Stadium
401k Memorial Park
Bad Loan Dome

pecan 3.14159265 : Well damn, you're right, and here I am getting myself all pissed off. Its time for a drink.

I wish Bank One Ballpark (aka BOB) wasn't Chase Field now. Pff. It'll always be BOB to me, man.

The MTA is still changing all of the signage. The old station name read Willets Point/Shea Stadium. Since good ole Shea doesn't exist anymore, they have to redo everything regardless. Instead of Citi Field/Willets Point, they chose to say Mets/Willets Point because Citi did not give any money to the MTA.

@HIV 2 Elway Resurrected: Dunno if the banks were forced to take the money or not, but if they didn't what kind of trouble would they be in. I mean, jeez, Citigroup was trading at $1.00 a share last week!

Also, the only reason banks want to be pulled from the queue for bailout money is because they are starting to see that taxpayers are UPSET that they are continuing to spend money irresponsibly.

The only reason they applied for the money in the first place was because they thought they weren't going to justify how they were spending it. Now that they know... they don't' want it because they don't want to become financially responsible.

REMEMBER, these are the people who 'work hard and make the money' and the rest of us who don't get bailout money are just trying to get our grubby hands on their money.

@idip: As a sidenote to these companies and people who think they deserve all the money in the world, just because i don't make 6 figures a year does not mean I dont' work HARD for my money, the little that i get paid, and i don't work hard at school.

If we're giving you (the hard workers) then you're sure as hell going to account for every dime you spend.

@Yoko Broke Up The Beatles: It also has a temporary ring to it :-)

From the New York Times article, I got the feeling that the MTA was more like: If Citibank won't pay us for naming rights too, then we won't replace our signs accordingly.

@ dave: "Instead of Citi Field/Willets Point, they chose to say Mets/Willets Point because Citi did not give any money to the MTA."

No, they chose Mets/Willets because that way they won't need to re-name it AGAIN when the name of the stadium inevitably changes to something else. This is good policy, not only to save the cost of changing signage, etc., but to avoid confusing people by changing the name of a station every few years.

Kinda reminds me of my moniker for Enron Field in Houston after they cratered - Felony Field.

@N.RobertMoses: I'd go see a game at Jello Biafra Park

@pecan 3.14159265:

I prefer the Obamadrome.

@HIV 2 Elway Resurrected: I donno if combining AM Talk Radio talking points with a stiff drink will help, exactly...

Sorta like how the Miami Herald wouldn't say the nickname of the Arena Football team - the Hooters.

@Yoko Broke Up The Beatles: If nothing else, it'd make a cool band name.

Ahhhh!!!! Fix the reply button already.

DWalk. I'm there too. They can play "Too Drunk to F*ck" during the Seventh inning stretch.

Reminds me of when the DC Metro refused to pay for renaming the National Airport station and redo all the maps to Reagan Airport due to the cost. Congress eventually passed a bill forcing them to do it, unfunded of course.

[en.wikipedia.org])