Skip to main content

Featured Post

Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park infographics: what's built/what's coming/what's missing, who's responsible, + project FAQ/timeline (pinned post)

Mayoral candidate Allon: sell naming rights to MTA stations; after all, "nobody seems outraged" by "Barclays Center" (really?)

Longshot mayoral candidate Tom Allon writes, in a Daily News op-ed headlined The next station is Google 14th St.: Sell naming rights, MTA, that's it's an easy call to sell naming rights, "especially since our transit system is already covered in ads."

But shouldn't there be a real geographic connection?

He writes:
Moreover, we routinely sell naming rights in the private sector to stadiums (Citi Field in Queens, Barclays Center in Brooklyn), hospital wings (NYU’s Langone Medical Center), university buildings (the Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute, also at NYU) and other institutions.
Actually, the Barclays Center is a very clever hand-off: the arena is nominally owned by the state, for the purposes of issuing tax-exempt bonds, but naming rights were given away to the developer.

No objection to Barclays Center naming?

Allon writes:
For that matter, now that the Barclays Center is open, the subway station beneath it has been renamed “Atlantic Avenue – Barclays Center.” Nobody seems outraged by the change so far.
He hasn't done much research. What about Deb Goldstein's "I'm still calling it Pacific St." t-shirt, as reported widely, even in the Daily News?

What about Michael D.D. White's ongoing criticisms of the deal, especially in light of the association of Barclays with scandal?

Comments

  1. This is absurd; why would Allon stop there at the MTA? Why not sell naming rights for Central Park, City Hall, Brooklyn Bridge, 5th Avenue, Broadway etc etc, even sell naming rights for mayoral candidates, can't you see it now, Allon on the stump with Carvel emblazoned on his lapels?

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment