Presenting World Wide Webers Stadium

Word is that the Mets are soliciting bids for naming rights to their new ballpark, slated to be completed for the start of the 2009 season. (Isn't it beautiful? More images available here.) Son Matt shared with me the rumor that a certain clothing manufacturer was working on a plan to pay apt tribute to baseball history by dubbing the park The Ralph Lauren Polo Grounds. But if our advertising revenues go through the roof, maybe we can outbid them. Think of it--the first stadium named after a blog.

Actually, although I'm not much of a baseball purist, the trend to corporate sponsorship of stadium names makes me a little melancholy. It leaves ball clubs open to embarrassing fiascos like the one in Houston (Enron Park--ouch!). It also shatters in too-overt fashion the pleasant illusion that sports exists in a world apart from commerce. We all know that isn't true, but it's fun to pretend.

So I hope the Mets will give their new home a dual name, like Time Warner - Gil Hodges Stadium. Then we can just call it by the non-corporate name ("Are you going out to Hodges this weekend?") and quietly pretend that no CEO was ever involved.

Tags: New York Mets