Saturday, November 11, 2006
The New York Mets baseball team has agreed to a 20-year sponsorship deal with financial house Citigroup for the team’s new ballpark, now called CitiField. The deal, which includes stadium naming rights, is worth more than $20 million annually, according to a baseball official.
This tops the approximately ten million annually the NFL’s Houston Texans receive from Reliant Energy to call their home Reliant Stadium.
The agreement between the Mets and the financial services company includes options for both the team and Citigroup that could extend the deal to up to 35-years. Other commercial arrangements are part of the contract, the official said.
Construction on the ballpark, next to the current stadium in Queens, New York, began last summer and is scheduled to be ready for the 2009 season. The Mets have played at Shea Stadium since 1964, the team’s third year in the league. The ballpark is named for William A. Shea, a lawyer who helped bring National League baseball back to New York.
The announcement will be made Monday at a special ceremony that will be attended by New York Govener, George Pataki and New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg.
Citigroup is one of the world’s largest full-service banks, with two hundred million customers in more than 100 countries.