As the Barclays Center sports arena namesake finds itself engulfed in an interest-rate scandal —one that caused its chief executive to resign — Richard Sandomir, writing in the New York Times, wonders if teams and arenas should be selling naming rights at all.
The Brooklyn-based arena, which the financial services firm is paying $200 million over 20 years to name, is scheduled to open in less than three months.
Sandomir notes that many an arena or field has had to change its name when namesake companies have gone under, been acquired or found themselves in legal trouble or mired in a scandal. But there are no plans to change the name of the arena, whose presence is expected to transform the borough’s leasing landscape. [NYT]