The Bernard L. Madoff Student Center! 11 Public Facilities Desperately In Need Of A Name Change

One of the sad realities about being publicly disgraced is that people don’t like being reminded that you exist–so it can get pretty awkward when your is name plastered all over well-used facilities like stadiums, academic buildings and hospitals. For instance, after Enron blew up, the Houston Astros quickly stripped the tainted moniker from their ballpark (later reselling naming rights to Minute Maid). And last year AIG did the smart thing and took down the logo outside its Wall Street offices after things went sour.

But in the wake of the massive and intertwined financial scandals that have come to light in recent months, the names of several now-toxic individuals and companies are still attached to noteworthy places. While the Madoff Student Center was a figment of our editorial imagination, here are 11 real-life public facilities that are in dire need of a new handle:

11. Maurice R. Greenberg Pavilion, New York Hospital, NYC - As longtime CEO and chairman of AIG, Greenberg presided over the company when the ill-starred Financial Products division was hatched and the insurance giant started going off the rails. In 2005, he resigned in the midst of a major accounting scandal. A couple of years later, just as AIG’s $500 billion credit default swap book was about to blow up, New York-Presbyterian Hospital christened the Greenberg Pavilion. The act of giving $100 million to medical center was admirable, of course–but do patients really want (or deserve) to be reminded of a $150 billion national debacle every time they go see the doctor?

10. Bank of America Stadium, Charlotte, NC - This zombie bank has already eaten tens of billions of dollars in public money, but it’s paying $7 million a year to keep its name on Carolina Panthers’ home field. More galling is that the facility includes a rich array of luxury boxes and private clubs that are, we understand, well enjoyed by BOA executives.

9. - 8. - 7. - 6. Weill Cornell Medical Center, NYC / Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Center, NYC / Weill Hall, U. of Michigan, Ann Arbor / Weill Hall, Cornell U. - In the 90s, Sanford Weill cobbled together a vast and ridiculous assortment of financial companies and called the resulting behemoth CitiGroup. In order to accomplish this feat, he spearheaded the movement to reverse the Glass Steagall Act which prevented traditional banks from owning investment banks. As a Slate story from 2002 put it: “Thanks in large part to Weill’s influence, Glass-Steagall was repealed in 1999.[...] Weill has reaped a massive financial reward as a result.” He also set the table for the near destruction of the world banking system. Though Weill’s always been generous with his wealth, his primacy legacy now is as a godfather of the financial crisis.

5. Charles B. Rangel Center for Public Service, City College of New York - It’s never a good sign when the naming ceremony for an academic center at a public university is “put off indefinitely amid an ethics investigation of its namesake.”

4. CountryWide Theatre, Richardson, Texas - This mortgage lender wrote a fortune in reckless loans, imploded, got “bought” in a last-minute shenanigans deal with Bank of America, and left taxpayers on the hook to cover all the losses. The CountryWide Theatre is part of the Eisemann Center, “conveniently located in the Galatyn Park Urban Center of Richardson’s Telecom Corridor® area.” Naming rights were acquired with a seven figure donation in 2005.

3. Allen Stanford Cricket Grounds, Antigua - “If you are cricket fanatic and a billionaire then building your own ground is a must,” says ESPN’s cricket website. Allen Stanford — aka “Baby Madoff” — followed that advice. The Texas money manager who orchestrated “a massive Ponzi scheme” (to borrow the words of government investigators) built a facility that remains the envy of the Caribbean cricket community–except for the little matter of the name.

2. Citi Field, NYC - CitiGroup pledged $400 million for naming rights. The jokes about infield TARPs and so on pretty much write themselves.

1. Mozilo Family Executive Dining Center, Pepperdine University - Angelo Mozilo founded Countrywide nearly four decades ago and remained at the helm until the company blew up last year. A lesser known fact about Mozilo is that he also founded IndyMac bank which–until WaMu imploded–stood as the largest bank failure in US history. Time magazine recently named him public enemy number one in the financial crisis. The Mozilo Dining Center was so named after a large donation in 2005. A university announcement gushed that Mozilo “embod[ies] the entrepreneurial and philanthropic spirit that was George Pepperdine.”

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Honorable mentions: WaMu Theater (Seattle and NYC) and WaMu Center (Seattle); Wachovia Arena (Wilkes-Barre, PA); NYU’s tight alliance with Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed, brother of Abu Dhabi’s torture tape prince.

(Photos: Weill Hall (top) from Cornell.edu, Weill Recitial Hall from carnegiehall.org, and Stanford Cricket Grounds from CricInfo.com)