What does $4 Million buy you in NYC? Apparently a Subway Stop!

[Steve]

Brooklyn subway stop named for British bank

NEW YORK (CNN) -- The British are coming, the British are coming -- to Brooklyn? By subway?

New York's struggling Metropolitan Transportation Authority has sold the naming rights to the second-busiest subway stop in Brooklyn. The Atlantic Avenue-Pacific Street Station will now have the name of a British bank, Barclays, added to it.

Several subway riders are outraged that Barclays has purchased the naming rights to this subway stop, which sees about 10 million people go through it each day.

One straphanger said, "A London Bank shouldn't be the name of this train station; it's something that belongs to the public domain."

Another said, "It's just everywhere we go, everything we do, it's just branding, branding, branding. It's America now."

Renaming the Atlantic-Pacific Station is tied to the construction of Barclays Center, the new sports arena for the National Basketball Association's New Jersey Nets.

Barclays is paying developer Forest City Ratner $300 million for naming rights to this arena. in a separate deal, will be paying the Metropolitan Transportation Authority $200,000 a year for the next 20 years to rename this commuter hub.

[Coolyfett]

Thats a really cool idea, I actually was thinking about this on the train the other day, Transit Companies could make a lot of cash if they really wanted to. Some are public and some are private companies. I see the "Public Domain" thing though, that argument sounds fair. But Jay Z & Co are moving the Nets to NY so changing the name makes sense.

[Jason]

The problem with naming rights on transit stations or any other transportation oriented structure or mode is that there is no consistency.  One year it will be Riverplace Station, then CSX station, then Alltel station....   IMO, having a set name will reduce confusion and become an eventual landmark within the city landscape.  What should I tell visitors wanting to take the skyway from Kings Avenue Station to Hemming?  "Yeah, you just hop on the skyway at Barclays Station, or wait, I think its called Bank of America Station, no... maybe... oh I don't know!"

[urbanlibertarian]

Confusion isn't worth $200k a year?  For $200k a year I'd have Barclay's tattooed on my forehead.

[BridgeTroll]

Confusion isn't worth $200k a year?  For $200k a year I'd have Barclay's tattooed on my forehead.

But that is exactly the problem... what to do with the tattoo once the 200k dries up...

[fatcat]

the name of the station and streets do change from time to time, just have to make the contract long term so it does not change too often. Besides, if Jax can sell/rent the name of the bridges and all the bus stop, it might raise enough money to prevent the tax hike.