Bailed-out companies AIG, Citibank have no plans to cancel expensive sports sponsorships.
Bailed-out companies AIG, Citibank have no plans to cancel expensive sports sponsorships.
ABC reports that “AIG, Citibank and a number of other federally bailed-out financial institutions have no plans to cancel hundreds of millions of dollars in sports team sponsorships, even as they take billions in taxpayer support”:
Struggling Citibank just sealed a multi-billion-dollar emergency “backstop” deal with the U.S. government. The financial behemoth, suffering with billions in bad mortgage-related assets on its books, recently shed 53,000 workers and saw its stock price lose over half its value. Yet it’s in a 20-year contract to pay the New York Mets $400 million to name the team’s new stadium “Citi Field.” [...]
Imploding insurance giant AIG is paying the British soccer team Manchester United $125 million for the privilege of having its logo appear on Man U’s uniforms. That, despite the fact the firm is standing largely thanks to a $150 billion lifeline from the U.S. Treasury.
Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-MD) said that this “type of spending is indefensible and unacceptable to Citigroup’s new partner and largest investor: the American taxpayer.” Steve Ellis of Taxpayers for Common Sense joked that Manchester United should put “U.S. Treasury” on the front of their uniforms instead.
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I wonder how many Citi salaries could have been paid with $525million ?????
Skinning the cat starts from the top down!!!!
November 24th, 2008 at 2:46 pmWell, you may not get the efficacy of the advertising, but they can’t stop advertising, or they will be in big trouble. It’s not like they do this stuff for fun. They do it because every time the Mets play on TV the name of the company is brought up 20 times.
November 24th, 2008 at 2:47 pmThe Mets stadium should be renamed Taxpayer Bailout Yard.
November 24th, 2008 at 2:48 pmMaybe they can use the suites at the ballparks as a place for their fired workers to live….
November 24th, 2008 at 2:50 pm“Newsday notes that last week, Citi announced plans to “let go of 52,000 workers by early next year.”"
Gotta wonder if all severance packages oughta include season tickets to the Mets games.
Or maybe not…
November 24th, 2008 at 2:51 pmPaul Krugman agrees that this one smells even more than AIG.
As congress told Detroit, ’show us a business plan’.
Citi has piles of tainted credit swaps. The American worker did not buy, profit from or want these little balls of shit our financial sector played musical chairs with.
Well, the one w/o a chair loses in that game, and now Citi can’t find a chair to sit in. Tough! Each one of us here knows what it’s like to have an uncertain financial future, & I’ll guarantee you that the Feds haven’t bailed us out for bad business practices.
Man up. Shut up. or Close up.
November 24th, 2008 at 2:52 pmAIG, Citibank and a number of other federally bailed-out financial institutions have no plans to cancel hundreds of millions of dollars in sports team sponsorships, even as they take billions in taxpayer support.
Now THAT should be an automatic no-no. How many of those people who are being laid off could be kept if it were not for these ridiculous marketing expenses?
STOP FEEDING AT THE PUBLIC TROUGH AND EXPECTING NO CONSEQUENCES FOR FAILURE!!!
November 24th, 2008 at 2:53 pmWow, you’d think with all the recent financial happenings AIG would have all the advertising they would ever need. Not sure what anyone would want to do with that piece of shit at this point but still..they can afford to cut the advertising budget.
November 24th, 2008 at 3:00 pmTelling them to drop their sponsorships would be akin to SOCIALISM……..and it works for me and the rest of us honest hard working people.This whole trickle down bailout smells fishy.
November 24th, 2008 at 3:01 pmWall Steet corporate greed rolls on, supported by corporate Democrats like Pelosi and Reid. Why don’t they individually chip into the their favorite rulling class charity, CitiCorpse. The so-called Big Three SUV makers are still running vile stupid TV ads during NFL and NCAA football games: nothing has changed. Allegedly going broke, but still handing out millions in bonuses to corporate exec idiots who have bankrupted their companies. Heck of a greed-machine, huh?
November 24th, 2008 at 3:02 pmThis is all just a load of crap?!! What’s REALLY going on here? We hear all these figures – incredibly high numbers – that make little sense to the average man/woman. We are all witness to lots of esoteric rhetoric, fear campaigns (”If we don’t do this now, we’re doomed“), and an unbelievable lack of transparency. Everyday, another company comes begging for a government bailout, and the government obliges. Today, it’s Citibank. Who’s next?
Shit loads of currency are exchanging hands, and yet, stock market indices continue to slide, investors are seeing the values of their portfolios diminish, companies continue to cut thousands and thousands of jobs, and our so-called economy is in shambles.
So, where is all that money going? $2.8 trillion has already been doled out, and no one seems to really know (or maybe just don’t want to tell us) what all that money has been spent on, and when we will start to see its effects on the economy, if we ever will.
This is all a sham, and we’re getting suckered! Somebody, or rather, some people are benefiting, and will continue to benefit from all this, and I’m sure it’s not the 98% of us that make up the base and middle of the pyramid!
November 24th, 2008 at 3:02 pmI read very recently (last couple of days) that Citibank has $2 TRILLION in assets. If this is the case, then why the H are we bailing them out? Just because their stock price declined? This whole thing smells big time, the entire bailout stinks. I wasn’t opposed to it originally, because I believed that it would actually free up credit. Unfortunately, the Treasury Dept. never mandated that the banks they injected capital into would start lending money, at least intra-bank. Instead, they paid dividends to their stockholders, bought up small banks, funded mergers, etc. Last time I heard, the “oversight broad” didn’t even have members appointed to it. Of course, the irony, is that what there was of the Oversight Board had both the Fed Secy and Treasury Dept. Secy overseeing THEMSELVES!
November 24th, 2008 at 3:02 pmHow about the Federally Unaccountable Cash Kleptocracy Stadium?
November 24th, 2008 at 3:03 pmI like it BnF!!
November 24th, 2008 at 3:05 pmPaulson said no money for auto workers because wages are too high for assembly line workers..
The lie was that workers are getting $ 74.00 an hour.
Anyway,Paulson and the Congress did not grill these bankers bosses as they did to the auto manufacturers bosses.
Republicans like Senator Shelby was criticising auto industry management, by describing them as failures…
Can Shelby tell us if bankers have better management,needing hundreds of billions of taxpayers money to stay alive?.
What the auto industry big 3 was asking for is nothing comnpared to the daily checks Paulson has been writing to banks, in the last month alone.
November 24th, 2008 at 3:06 pm‘Too big to fail’ seems to be the caveat justifying this.
Is the American economy ‘too big to fail’? That’s the road we’re heading down, I’m afraid.
Why are these decisions made on Sundays; because no one’s listening?
Who makes these decision? Why isn’t congress involved when we’re handing out billions upon billions to private banks?
Where’s the business / recovery plan?
If your stock has already collapsed by over 60%, why are we still trying to do CPR, (Corporate Profit Recovery), on a corpse?
…so many questions; so few answers…
November 24th, 2008 at 3:06 pmIs this nbillion part of the 700 billion, or a new nbillion?
November 24th, 2008 at 3:07 pmFederally Unaccountable Cash Kleptocracy Stadium
lulz :)
November 24th, 2008 at 3:07 pmRep. Elijah Cummings (D-MD) said that this “type of spending is indefensible and unacceptable to Citigroup’s new partner and largest investor:
****Yeah Mr.congressman ,well do something instead of running your yap.This is a ploy folks.The congressman is well aware that many of his constituents are in a financial straight jacket & are upset with the looting of our tax dollars with congress just watching.So to appease his constitutents Mr.Cummings is trying to shout the loudest.Kucinich said it was stealing of our Tax dollars & refused to vote for the bailout.Cummings voted for the give away.
November 24th, 2008 at 3:08 pmZimzone says:
Why are these decisions made on Sundays; because no one’s listening?
I’m fully expecting to read the comics next Sunday wherein General Halftrack asks the Pentagon for a hundred billion dollar bailout for Camp Swampy.
November 24th, 2008 at 3:09 pmWith all these bailouts going on one has to wonder what is going to become of the dollar..
Are we going to be like, trading labor and direct bartering again in a few years?
November 24th, 2008 at 3:10 pmWow! free money! All you have to be is top-heavy, inefficient, hedonistic, arrogant, out of touch and in denial to qualify.
November 24th, 2008 at 3:20 pmWhy do we keep swallowing this?
Too big to fail my burro!
There are no dinosaurs for a reason.
Here’s a marvelous Idea!
Vendors at the Mets Taxpayer Bailout Park could pass a cup up and down every aisle begging for donations to help out CitiBunk!
Only problem is, someone would steal the cup.
November 24th, 2008 at 3:32 pmSt_Steven Says:
Well, you may not get the efficacy of the advertising, but they can’t stop advertising, or they will be in big trouble. It’s not like they do this stuff for fun. They do it because every time the Mets play on TV the name of the company is brought up 20 times.
No, there are good times to advertise and bad times to advertise. If I was Citigroup and I just begged the American taxpayer for billions and billions of dollars, I would not want my name out there for all to see. Everytime Citigroup is displayed, the taxpayers will need more ointment for our financial injuries. If Citigroup had any gratitude for what we did for them, they would stop spending immediately for anything not 100% necessary – including advertising and sponsorships.
It seems like the US Taxpayer is doing all the sacrificing – not the companies who are sucking at the trough. This is a last ditch effort to raid the treasury – just in time for the holidays.
November 24th, 2008 at 3:32 pmHmmmm. I call this “taxation without representation.”
I want my money back!!!
November 24th, 2008 at 3:35 pmThe American taxpayer’s are going to OWN met’s stadium? WOO-Hooo, what’s our cut from ticket sales, and the 12 bucks cups of beer?
November 24th, 2008 at 3:44 pmSo now, we the people who actually pay taxes are expected to foot the bill for the corporate ‘bail-outs’.
November 24th, 2008 at 3:48 pmThese sobs have had the benefit of huge tax cuts for how long ?
How many years did they boast of record profits ?
They knew this time was coming and where it would be going, right in their pockets. In the name of ’saving the economy’.
Is it just me or is there a reason to realize and recognize that you have to be able to make money before you can re-pay the money that someone else has borrowed in your name while they tell you that putting you in endless debt is really the best thing for you ? Is all of this bail-out/rescue business not just more of the fascism we have seen ?
This is just like all the money unaccounted for in the Iraq war. Some one needs arses handed to them on a platter for this one. Doubt it will happen though.
November 24th, 2008 at 3:48 pmSo, let me get this straight: I’m a teacher in the public school system in a critical need area who will be paying off my student loan for the rest of my life. But, if i were to royally screw the pooch as a CEO making a gazillion dollars a year uncle sam would bail me out and all bets would be off in terms of repayment? something is seriously wrong here
November 24th, 2008 at 3:52 pmRUCerious Says:
Is this nbillion part of the 700 billion, or a new nbillion?
I heard today that this is part of the TARP (or the $700 billion).
Time to erect the gallows, as far as I’m concerned.
November 24th, 2008 at 3:56 pmField of Reams
November 24th, 2008 at 4:00 pmAIG & Citi could “advertise” on the side of the BIG 3 automakers private jets.
November 24th, 2008 at 4:03 pmThis just the beginning of the largest thief of taxpayers money in the history of America whill Americans look on and do nothing. Many more Big Business friends of the GOP will get more billions from Hank the head Crook. Hank will be going to the Fed for back door billions and then face Congress with more lies and fake stories to make the debt over 15 trillion. Yes this with the hope Obama/Biden can’t recover the economy before 2012.
November 24th, 2008 at 4:14 pmOf course, one of the situations leading up to the Depression of the early 30s and the last few years leading to today has been the meteoric rise of executive salaries in relation to the common worker.
I wonder if I’m wrong in connecting today a meteoric rise in professional sports salaries in relation to the little guy (can the common man even afford a ticket ?). And connecting this with the insane bidding of venues wanting to attract the big-name teams with government perks for building new and elaborate stadiums with VIP boxes.
November 24th, 2008 at 4:15 pmGM has announced that it will be ending its endorsement deal with Tiger Woods.
There’s a start… to get out of the woods.
November 24th, 2008 at 4:31 pmYet Citibank is ADDING THOUSANDS of new jobs in the Philippines.
November 24th, 2008 at 7:25 pmI was watching Man U Saturday (I like soccer, Fox Soccer Channel, I know it’s Fox) and I was sick of seeing that dumb AIG across their shirts. As I don’t like Man U, we can add their asswipe sponsor to the long list of why.
November 24th, 2008 at 8:04 pm400 million over 20 years is 20 million per year. If you pay workers 50k annually then you could hold onto 400 of them. It doesn’t really hold a candle to the 53,000 who have been laid off, but I’m sure the 400 workers would be happy.
November 24th, 2008 at 8:13 pmUnfortunately, these sponsorship deals were set months or years ago, before all the poo hit the fan.
November 24th, 2008 at 10:20 pmBut I wonder if there are any other companies out there with deep enough pockets and long term solvency to take over their sponsorships?