Should The NY Giants Name A Stadium After A Company Who Was A Nazi War Profiteer? Some Fans Say Nein!

A few weeks back, everyone from the NY Times to Real Sports With Bryant Gumbel were doing stories about the New York Giants, fresh off a Super Bowl Victory (and the Jets, fresh off… um… their Brett Favre signing), and their outrageous pricing plans for their new stadium. Well, now they have something to talk about other than PSLs, namely the fact that the main bidder for the stadium naming rights looks be going to Allianz, an insurance company who had some ties with the Nazis back in the 30s. How tied?

The company insured the Auschwitz death camp and had a chief executive serving in Hitler’s cabinet… [d]uring the Holocaust, the same company refused to pay off life insurance stipends to Jews and sent their policies’ proceeds to the Nazis instead, Holocaust historians have written.

Oh… yikes. Of course, so fans don’t think this is such a good idea.

“I think it’s terrible, but that’s the mighty dollar,” Giants fan Keith Hayes, 33, said of the name.
“It would be an insult,” said Abe Foxman, national director of the Anti-Defamation League. “It’s putting their name in lights for generations to come.”

In their defense, Allianz has pointed out it has given millions in restitution “trying to redress the evils of the Third Reich,” and has sponsored tennis tournaments and other sporting events. But getting that stink off is pretty hard, and really, next time we go to a game, we want to have a good time, not be reminded of Schindler’s List.
Jewish groups, fans in uproar over name bid by firm with Holocaust ties [NY Daily News]
Image [NY Daily News]