“Inspired by tradition, Citi Field will be clad in brick, limestone, granite and cast stone, with the brick closely resembling the masonry used at Ebbets Field…”

These are the words the CitiGroup is using to describe the Mets’ upcoming new home. So, given this supposed dedication to tradition, someone please explain this logo to me.

When the corporate partnership with Citigroup was announced last year, and the name “Citi Field” was given to the new stadium, Mets fans were cautiously optimistic. After all, Citigroup is a NY-based company, and though the name isn’t classic, it isn’t “3Com Park” or “Safeco Field” either.

We hoped that people would soon adopt “New York Citi Field” as the name, simply because it rolls off the tongue. People from the Metsblog community are even tagging it “The Bank” which works on multiple levels, and more importantly, doesn’t suck.

However, this logo does.

At no point in laying eyes upon this rectangular abortion do I see the words “New”, ‘York” or “Mets”. Nor do I see any design element that recalls Ebbets Field, the Polo Grounds, old-time baseball, or the great city of New York. The only red I want to see in this logo is a rusty, dented mechanical apple — not the stupid arch in the blatantly oversized Citi logo. Gotta love tradition, right?

I realize corporate sponsorship is a necessary evil in modern sports. In exchange for a crappy park name, we get to drink beers for less than $10 a pop. Fair enough.

But when a retro-styled stadium displays meaningless commercial logo treatments every five feet, it kills any sense of tradition and goodwill that the stadium designers had intended. And as someone who has spent a lot of time — and motherloads of money — at horrific Shea Stadium, tradition and goodwill is exactly what we want from this new ballpark.

In order to make the new stadium commercially profitable (and viable for true New Yorkers), I’m calling for the end of the partnership with Citigroup, and the creation of new sponsorships, with any of the following New York-based companies:

• Sabrett Hot Dogs ( “By-Product Park” )
• Brooklyn Brewery ( “The Stout” )
• Hess Petroleum ( “Emission Stadium” )
• Fortunoff ( “The Discount Diamond” )
• Calvin Klein ( “Androgyny Field” )
• Scores ( “The Pole” )

Yeah, these names suck, too. But at least they suck with New York flavor.

Me? I’m just calling it “Shea”…