New name gives Ducks stadium top billing
The newly renamed Bethpage Ballpark in Central Islip. (March 19, 2011) Credit: Ed Betz
No, Ducks fans, team mascot Quackerjack didn't build a new nest in Nassau County.
During the offseason, the name of the baseball team's Central Islip home was changed to Bethpage Ballpark -- the stadium's fourth name in 12 years.
The geographically incorrect moniker is the result of a naming rights deal struck last year between Suffolk County, which owns the 6,000-seat stadium, and Bethpage Federal Credit Union.
Under the deal, the county is guaranteed nearly $1 million over five years, or $2.1 million if the bank exercises an option to extend the contract an additional five years.
At a ceremony Saturday to unveil a 40-foot-high sign with the park's new name, Kirk Kordeleski, the bank's chief executive officer, laughed when he was asked why the stadium wasn't called Bethpage Federal Credit Union Ballpark.
"Too long," he said. "It just doesn't fit."
There's little chance that loyal fans will get lost searching for the Ducks in Bethpage, 21 miles from Central Islip.
Fans already have seen the stadium's name change from EAB Park when it opened in 2000, to Citibank Park in 2002, to Suffolk County Sports Park last year.
"They could call it Elvis Presley Ballpark," said one Ducks fan, Jim Bunbury, 46, of Port Jefferson Station. "It doesn't make a difference."
-- Carl MacGowan
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