Schwarzenegger name removed from stadium

But early on Monday, under cover of darkness, his name was removed from the arena in a sort of uncontested divorce between Schwarzenegger and the town council, which had been horrified that Schwarzenegger rejected pleas to spare the life of Stanley "Tookie" Williams, former leader of the Crips gang, who was executed by the state of California 2 weeks ago.

The 15,000-seat stadium had been named after Schwarzenegger in 1997 as an act of both self-promotion and fealty toward the poor farmer's son and international celebrity, who has always identified Graz as his native
place.

But when Schwarzenegger declined to commute Williams' death penalty, the reaction was swift and angry in Graz, which, like most places in Europe, sees the death penalty as a medieval atrocity.

"I submitted a petition to the City Council to remove his name from the stadium, and to take away his status as an honorary citizen," Sigrid Binder, the leader of the Green Party, said in a recent interview. "The petition was accepted by a majority on the council."

Before a formal vote was taken on the petition, however, Schwarzenegger made a kind of pre-emptive strike, writing a letter to Siegfried Nagl, the town's conservative mayor, withdrawing Graz's right to use his name with the stadium and returning a ring of honor that Graz officials gave him.

With the Hollywood star's name gone, the sign atop the main entrance to the stadium in Graz, about 120 miles south of Vienna, reads "Stadium Graz Liebenau," as it was known before it was renamed in Schwarzenegger's honor in 1997.

(source: New York Times)