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Comment by bequanna | Hacker News Reader

> Assuming those are all members paying $205 a year, that's about $29 million a year. It's easy to imagine a scenario where that number doubles to a future 300,000 riders, which would net about $61.5 million. That's a lot of money, in the normal sense of the word "money." But Citibank's 2023 first-quarter earnings were $4.6 billion—a "bumper profit" tied to industry-wide chaos.

Ah, more “tax the rich” so I have some freebies nonsense.

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Not just that, though? I thought the comparison with the cost of sponsoring Citi Field was instructive - compared to that it does look like the advertising benefits to Citi from the deal are outsized, and there is a competitive market for this kind of sponsorship that should allow the dept of transport to extract more value.

> thought the comparison with the cost of sponsoring Citi Field was instructive

Citi Field regularly broadcasts games nationally.

> there is a competitive market for this kind of sponsorship that should allow the dept of transport to extract more value

This would have been a more compelling article: who would be willing to pay more than Citi.

The argument seemed more that the value of bike sponsorship was significantly higher than the cost. Then, there’s the credible accusation that Citibank’s conduct has caused harm, and it is therefore reasonable, though debatable and possibly naive, to suggest that Citibank take action out of social goodwill in addition to whatever settlements they have made (https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/justice-department-federal-an... has a 90 million NY settlement)

It’s not just up to Citibank, though, as the bikes have Lyft (I believe?) as an owner and whatever contractual agreements with the city. Further, there would still need to be some sort of deposit system to prevent casual theft/neglect.

Pretty disingenuous to not provide the next sentence as well.

“All those billboards, roaming constantly, for just $10 million! They've also literally inserted a bank's name into the mouths and lives of countless New Yorkers and tourists. It's in the lexicon! How much is that worth? Citibank is getting an incredible deal, and surely they know it.”

> How much is that worth?

Seriously, how much? It’s probably more than $10mm. But 5x that, into perpetuity? What business are Citi winning that’s worth that much?

If anything, they seem to have gone out of their way to find an alternative to just taxing the rich.

I think the real message is that people really like these bike programs. So maybe we should pay for them from taxes and instead of adverts for banks we can write "your taxes at work" or "woo! socialism" or whatever on the side of the bikes.

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