So Citigroup, the huge New York bank, is being pressured into reneging on its $400 million deal with the Mets to plaster its name on the team's new stadium.
That's right, $20 mil per year for 20 years to call this baseball pleasure dome, which is arising beside the defunct Shea Stadium, "Citi Field.
" The agreement has brought outrage because Citigroup received $45 billion in bailout aid from the federal government.
The bank denies that any of this money has gone toward the stadium, but this is a facile deception: if it hadn't allocated the marketing funds so lavishly and foolishly, it would have needed $400 million less from Uncle Sam.
Giving federal aid indirectly to a bunch of smug, grossly overpaid athletes is more than we can stand.
Here's what we would do if we were NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg.
First, we would declare a state of fiscal emergency.
Then we would force the Mets ...
not ask them, not beg them, force them to give the money back to the bank so it could be loaned out for more business-worthy activities to help get this country out of its terrible economic mess.
Then we would take a look at the bankrolls of the pro teams in town, declare a salary limit of $100,000 per athlete, and use the oodles of extra money to pay off the city's debts ...
thus relieving the taxpayers of a municipality that's dead broke.
Yankees third baseman Alex Rodriguez, already a very wealthy individual, would have no problem donating $27.
9 million of his annual $28 million salary to the city.
We're sure he'd be glad to do it, to help out his fellow urban dwellers.
Maybe girlfriend Madonna could show how civic- minded she is by chipping in with a few of her spare millions, too.
Mets outfielder Carlos Beltran certainly wouldn't miss parting with $18,522,809 of the $18,622,809 he received for hitting .
284 last year.
New York Rangers hockey players Scott Gomez and Wade Redden could probably scrape by minus $7.
9 million from the $8 million they (incredibly) receive.
And the Knicks? Where do we start? Let's take a player whom few outside of Madison Square Garden have ever heard of: Jerome James.
While we're sure Mr.
James toils hard in his chosen profession, he is given what would seem to be an overly generous $6.
2 million.
Ka-ching! Another $6.
1 million for Gotham.
Unfortunately, the football Giants and Jets play in northern Jersey, outside Mayor Bloomberg's grasp.
But baseball commissioner Bud Selig isn't, his office being in Manhattan.
Bud is 74 years old and we don't think he's quite up to spending every cent of the $18.
35 million he was (incredibly) granted (in 2007) for his services.
So $18.
25 million goes back to the city fathers.
On and on we could go, but we're easily generating hundreds of millions of dollars from athletes who don't need or deserve this money to taxpayers who do.
So where would it go? We would begin by paying the city back $75 million it (incredibly) spent for building parking garages to service the new $1.
3 billion Yankee Stadium and another $135 million spent to create parkland around it.
We're not accountants but we're sure there were other public subsidies for this edifice, not to mention the Mets', that need to be returned.
Anything left over, well, we're confident Mr.
Bloomberg can think of a proper use for it.
Other needy metropolises could follow suit.
Why should people be starving in Detroit when Red Wings hockey player Henrik Zetterberg is raking in $73 million over a 12-year period? Why should Chicagoans shiver in the brutal cold while Cubs pitcher Ted Lilly, who had a good year (17-9) but certainly not great, enjoys a reward of $12 million? Why should Houstonians still struggle to recover from last year's hurricane when oft-injured Rockets guard Tracy McGrady, who can barely move around the court anymore, nevertheless hauls in $20.
37 million? Athletes often say, for public consumption, that they would gladly play for free.
It's time to take their word for it.