Right Naming Wrongs - Support Your Old-School Stadiums
06/29/2009


When the New York Mets moved from their decrepit old building to their fancy new digs this season, they became the latest pro team to trade in their quaint stadium name for a profit-making corporate one. And Shea Stadium became Citi Field. (At least until the inevitable, and Citi goes bankrupt.)

For some Mets fans, giving up 40-plus years of stadium history for a moneymaking moniker - especially one for a bank, was too much to bear. So they did what any true sports fan would do: they made a t-shirt.

From the folks behind websites No Mas and Uni Watch was born the “I’m Calling It Shea” shirt, a way for old-school Mets fans to show their love for the stadium they grew up in... in while flipping the bird to corporate naming rights.

And due to the popularity of the Shea shirt, they’ve announced a new batch of shirts (shipping in mid-July) for other fans who lost longtime stadiums to new, sterile corporate names.

Denver fans can tell Invesco “I Still Call It Mile High”, and Tribe fans get "I Still Call it The Jake." Fans in the Windy City can call U.S. Cellular and tell 'em “I Still Call It Comiskey.” And long suffering 'Phins fans who lived through the indignity of cheering in a stadium named after underwear and are now trying to wrap their heads around Landshark Stadium, can let them know "I Still Call it Joe Robbie."

The shirts sell for $25 each, and 10 percent of the proceeds go to a local food bank.
www.nomas-nyc.com.

Comments

Confused wrote:

The other ones make sense, but the Shea one is dumb. Its a different building entirely, not simply a name change. And why would you want to remember Shea? It was an eyesore and a pit.
06/30/2009 12:17 PM

DrJimmy wrote:

Though I still miss the Astrodome, it's easy not to confuse it with the Juice Box (aka Minutemaid Stadium.)
06/30/2009 04:04 PM

Mike Hagges wrote:

Why are people so in love with "The Jake"? Why was it better that a billionaire named the field after himself, instead of after the city (see: Cleveland Browns Stadium), or even a famous player for the team (Sockalexis Field would be a nice nod to why they are CALLED the Indians)? If he had put up the money for the construction, that'd be one thing, but instead he got Cuyahoga County to jack up liquor and cig taxes to pay for a place for him to rake in money, then got out when the Browns came back and his investment was at its highest. Good on him as a businessman, but let's not confuse him with some sort of civic hero, nor his decision to name the ballpark after himself as an act of philanthropy, or a way to celebrate anything but his ego.
07/01/2009 10:39 AM

Bigby wrote:

The Shea one may sound dumb to you, but if you read the text, it's different. It's a statement that a fan is going to call the new stadium Shea. The others are statements that they're going to still call their stadium by its old name, hence the "still" part of it.
07/01/2009 11:48 AM

Biff wrote:

Way to steal an idea. "It's still the Jake" shirts have been seen around Cleveland since Opening Day 2008.
07/01/2009 12:40 PM

McFly wrote:

The Astrodome was great until uncle Drayton moved the fences in and planted those silly flowers right above them... The juice box sucks. The roof is ALWAYS closed and the train is silly.
07/01/2009 03:16 PM

Ball wrote:

check out these tees
http://www.norwaynovelties.com

because the Yankees cheated...
07/01/2009 06:45 PM

Andy wrote:

At $25 a pop (and $84 for a hoodie and $36 for most of the other tees), these guys aren't any less of a crook than franchise owners...
07/01/2009 07:12 PM

Den wrote:

Listen you hacks, Dick Jacobs made our sorry excuse for a franchise a legit contender for almost a decade and unlike the current penny-pinching regime, money was no object. That may have had something to do with the 400+ consecutive sellouts. Who cared that the name of the park was Jacob's Field...at least it had some fond memories.
07/01/2009 08:20 PM

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