Dow Watch: Citi Shouldn't Play the Field

Updated from 1:58 p.m. EST

Just Stick to Shea

Turns out conservatives and liberals can come together for a good cause. In this case, that cause is to get Citigroup (C Quote) to abandon its naming rights arrangement for the New York Mets new stadium.

The $400 million deal to call the Queens park Citi Field for the next couple of decades might have been a fine idea at the time, if corporate names on stadiums can ever be a fine idea, but in light of the downturn in the economy, and in particular banking, and specifically Citi, the agreement makes little sense.

So now two House members, Dennis Kucinich, an Ohio Democrat, and Ted Poe, a Republican from Texas, have written a letter to Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner asking him to get Citi to walk away from the deal.

Citi, of course, has gotten billions of dollars in aid from the government and is cutting tens of thousands of jobs as it tries to get its business in order. The bank has taken some steps recently to do the right thing -- former chief Sandy Weill is graciously giving up the generous perks he has had during retirement and current chief Vikram Pandit steered clear of this year's Davos nonsense -- but Kucinich and Poe want to see more.

"We request that you intervene and demand that Citigroup dissolve the agreement they have with the New York Mets," the letter from the representatives read. "Absent this outcome, we feel strongly that you should compel Citigroup to return immediately all federal monies received to date, as well as cancel all loan guarantees."

Now that's playing hardball.

Either way, he'll still be smiling.