Having only taken office in January, New York’s Governor Elliot Spitzer has apparently already resolved every major issue facing the Empire State in record time. How else to explain this?
Normally it is Jersey fans who gripe that they don’t get any respect from pro sports teams that play at the Meadowlands in East Rutherford but have “New York” in their names.
But three New York assemblymen recently sponsored a bill to stop football’s Giants and Jets and soccer’s Red Bulls from using the Empire State’s name or abbreviation because they don’t play their home games in New York.
“At the very least, the location of the place where a team plays should be accurate, and reflect where they actually play their home games,” Assemblyman Ivan Lafayette, of Queens, writes in the bill, as reported by The Record of Bergen County in Saturday newspapers.
As Steven Den Beste writes:
How do you enforce this? If these teams are actually based in Joisey, then a New York State law can’t be enforced in Joisey. And if the teams play in New York, then the law wouldn’t apply. Besides which, wouldn’t this be an infringement of the First Amendment?
And why would New York want to disassociate itself with two NFL teams with longstanding historic ties to the state?
Elsewhere, speaking of sports and naming rights, my wife has some thoughts on advertising and NASCAR over at her business law blog.
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