Shea goodbye.
Citigroup Inc. will put its name on the Mets’ new stadium in a deal reportedly worth $20 million a year, sources close to the negotiations said yesterday.
“CitiField” – as the new ballpark will be called – is scheduled to be ready by the 2009 season and will be located right next to the old Shea in Flushing.
The Mets plan a groundbreaking ceremony on Monday and sources told Bloomberg News they will officially reveal the new name then.
Asked about the new stadium’s name, a Mets spokesman refused to comment.
A Citigroup spokesman did not return calls for comment.
Bloomberg News reported that Citigroup – the nation’s biggest bank – may be paying as much as $20 million a year for the honor of gracing the 2006 National League Eastern Division champs’ new stomping grounds.
The length of the deal is not known.
The largest current namingrights deal is Reliant Energy Inc.’s 32-year, $300 million contract with the NFL’s Houston Texans.
“From Citigroup’s perspective it makes tremendous sense,” said Marc Ganis, president of SportsCorp Ltd., a Chicago-based consulting firm.
“Financial-services companies are among the best positioned to benefit from naming rights of sports facilities.” The stadium’s new name was first reported on the Internet blog hotfoot.com, where a reader wrote that his father was working on the new ballpark and noticed a sign at the construction site that read, “CitiField: Coming in 2009.” Citigroup may be on a naming tear.
On Thursday, the company announced it would put its moniker on Boston’s Wang Center for the Performing Arts in a 15-year deal.
Many sports fans with an eye for history had called on the Mets to name the new stadium after Hall of Famer Jackie Robinson.
The Post ran an editorial last April titled “Make It ‘The Jack,’ ” With Post Wire Services
FIELD OF DREAM$
* Construction: Started last summer
* Cost: $550 million (city and state will likely pay $165 million in infrastructure costs)
* Location: Next to current Shea Stadium
* First game: Opening Day 2009 (same time Yankees plan to open their own new stadium)
* Capacity: 45,000 seats (13,000 fewer than Shea); 58 luxury suites, 13 more than Shea