Subway stations for sale soon?

As seen in AMNY, one of our free dailies (which only recently became available outside my subway stop, yay!).

This seems like a reasonable suggestion, particularly if it means avoiding another fare hike. Granted, an even better suggestion would be to attempt to cut the budget somewhere else first, but the odds of that happening are approximately the same as the odds of Willie Randolph being rehired by the Mets next season. Having said that, I might have to write a post in the near future about possible ways for the MTA to save some money...

But I'm actually a little surprised this hasn't happened by now. Everything else gets corporate sponsorship, I would have thought doing so for a subway stop would have been a natural extension. It's not like anyone's going to actually start referring to 14th St. - Union Square as "The Virgin 14th St - Union Square," or "The Starbucks 57th St. Station." And who knows, maybe it would make the announcements easier to understand. Plus, it's not like the MTA would have to sell the rights to every single stop. Granted, they could certainly demand more money for, say, Grand Central Station than for the last stop on the G line (no, I don't know what it is, and frankly, I don't want to know), but they could draw the line at renaming the more venerable stations.

On the con side, the article does offer this well thought out, strong willed objection from MTA board member Andrew Albert, "There is a limit. You don't want to rename stations I believe." Way to hedge your bets there, Andy.