The MTA gets one step closer to selling station names

Subway station names have pretty much been the same for their entire history, and they’ve also provided the same exact service for their entire history: letting you know where the hell you are when the train stops. But now that the MTA is open to selling more subway station naming rights, the station names could do more. Like say, remind you of the AWESOME times to be had at T.G.I. Friday’s.

OK, so the 34th Street-Penn Station A/C/E stop isn’t going to be renamed The 8th Avenue-Sizzling Chicken and Shrimp stop. Yet. What the Times report about naming rights actually said was this the MTA has for the first time, proposed specific rules to discuss at their next board meeting that will deal with the selling of station naming rights.

It doesn’t mean you need to worry about getting on at the Five Dollar Footlong-Eastern Parkway stop though, because the rules specify that station names would still have to be accurate, and that sponsors would need to demonstrate “a unique or iconic geographic, historic or other connection” to a subway station. Of course, Pinkberry sending a dumptruck full of money to a station they want to sponsor would certainly be an iconic image, so we remain nervous at the possibilities. In the meantime, go nuts in the comments with the best station sponsor names you can think of, because its Monday and you don’t want to be “working” or anything.