More Naming Rights for Barclay's
All you Atlantic Yards fans out there in the blogosphere are gonna love this one. Now, not only will you get to (maybe) have an arena with the name Barclay’s plastered all over it, you’re also going to have a subway station with the name Barclay’s plastered all over it. The Times reports that the…
All you Atlantic Yards fans out there in the blogosphere are gonna love this one. Now, not only will you get to (maybe) have an arena with the name Barclay’s plastered all over it, you’re also going to have a subway station with the name Barclay’s plastered all over it. The Times reports that the MTA has reached a deal (finally—they’ve been looking to do this kind of thing for five years) to sell the naming rights to the Atlantic Avenue station right next to where the arena would be to Barclay’s for $4 million. No word on whether Barclay’s will be able to pay $800,000 upfront and then take 15 years to pay the rest. Like Ratner, Barclays was able to stretch its payments out over 20 years, making the present value far less than $4 million. Hey, we hear McCarren Park is up for sale too—though the bank will have to get past NAG, Poolaid and its petition first.
They’ve already got ads on the interiors and exteriors of all the subway cars… if it helps keep the fares down, I’m cool with whatever they want to sell in a train station.
Sadly, I doubt this will stem fare increases. At least they haven’t sold off the Brooklyn Bridge yet to private financiers like Patterson said they would.
“pay millions to rename the Triboro Bridge the RFK, when no one will ever call it that either.”
Good point.
Who CARES?????
It is found money for the MTA, and no one will call it the “Barclays Station” anyway…..
It seems to me it makes ALLOT more sense to collect 4M to symbolically change the name to Barclays, then it does to pay millions to rename the Triboro Bridge the RFK, when no one will ever call it that either.
No one really cares what the name of the station is or will be. Now getting the MTA to run its trains in a timely fashion….
so, what exactly are we complaining about here? bad business deal? guess not, because the article says both that interest was low, and that the actual value to a company is debatable. do you all have some secret information that someone was clambering for naming rights to this station? if the MTA has been looking, and failed, to do this kind of deal for 5 years, during most of which time AY appeared to be a much grander project with a much higher likelihood of coming to fruition, than it now appears, “far less than $4 million” seems like about the right value for these rights.
is it an unprecedented favor for a business interest or an individual? guess not, because we’ve given honorary street names and station names and stadium names before, and the MTA has tried to do this before in relation to other sports facilities and has said it would do so again, and is probably actively trying to do so.
is it going to cost us more than it brings in? guess not, because FCR is going to pay for the new signage, and the MTA isn’t going to revise it’s schedules and timetables until after the arena is built – at which time, they’d have to revise them for accuracy anyway.
so, anti-AYers, save your frothing outrage for things that matter, and for which you have at least a plausible argument. complaining about this makes you look kinda silly.
ah….and what a sweet deal that will be, snark 🙂
AZ + JAZZ = Jay Z = Gay Z
> Why isn’t Bloomberg screaming at how crappy a business deal this is…
Because he is too busy planning the city-wide banning of high fructose corn syrup, scheduled for his richly deserved third term. Emphasis on rich.
So why do I have the feeling that even I, a completely ignorant boob in the area of business and finance, could do a better job making money deals than the people who head the MTA? Why isn’t Bloomberg screaming at how crappy a business deal this is, even for a public agency so dedicated to complete incompetence.