Mets Ticket Prices Plunging

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• K Maxx April 19, 2011 at 9:27 am

  The Mets are 2-3 years away from .500 baseball and that’s only if their farm produces at least two top of the rotation pitchers and by that I dont mean spot starter/number five types like Pelfrey and Niese.
  • Pete April 19, 2011 at 10:11 am

    2-3 years? hmmmmm…….maybe the Wilpons will be gone by then.
• Metsie April 19, 2011 at 10:14 am

  Lets try a little math experiment here…

  140 Mil divided by 81 equals 1,728,395 they need to make in PROFIT PER GAME (after paying everyone who works at the stadium) in order to make enough to simply cover salary and pay guys like Reyes and Wright.

  Yes they get a cut from the away attendance but then so too do the teams that visit us. So before you go saying there are 162 games not 81 know that about half that 1.7 mil per game doesn’t even go to us. Hopefully away teams draw better than we do! Then we might make more money away that we do at home.

  Citi field hold about 41,000 about 10K fewer seats that Shea. We have averaged 30K attendance so far.

  The reason I bring this up is many of you who are upset now and think a boycott is an answer (why? it hasn’t worked for two years running) to getting rid of the Wilpons are the same people who didn’t like the fact we didn’t spend in Free Agency and think Reyes should be resigned at all costs.

  Well if this lack of attendance continues

  the only one you are ACTUALLY going to get rid of is guys like Reyes and Wright because no one is going to see the players they want to keep there is no reason to actually keep them!

  The Wilpons may be able to sell the team but they can not sell the network because their partner in the network (the chief financer and investor) Time Warner will not allow the sale.

  If they sell control of the team they will also turn a currently PROFITABLE TV business into crap.
  A new owner with control could refuse to sign over TV rights to SNY meaning it would be a sport network with no flagship sports team to justify it’s existence.
  This is the primary reason why the Wilpons will hand over control or even allow a minority partner to have a veto in any way shape or form.

  So I propose that if you think boycotting is the method to get rid of the Wilpons you are dead wrong. It will get rid of someone but not them.

  It will rid you of the need to watch Jose Reyes, David Wright, Ike Davis and any other guy you would like to see the mets play.

  Fans need to re-evaluate their plan as it is a flawed and failed design.
  It will not achieve your goal it will only make it that much harder to sell the team and cause the few guys you like to go away. Not the ones you hate!
• Alan April 19, 2011 at 11:02 am

  In answer to Metsie’s claim that poor attendance does not influence the selling of the team by the Wilpon’s….

  If history repeats itself and the team suffers through another dry period as they did in the late 70′s into the 80′s, then hey will need to rename Citi Field as they did when they called Shea “Grants Tomb”. Last season’s attendance placed the Mets in the middle of the pack of National League teams. The seating capacity of Citi Field showed that the impetus was on creating more luxury and corporate suites for those who have not felt the economic pinch that the average fan has experienced.

  Can there be any doubt that the Wilpon’s finances have been greatly affected by the Madoff scandal? They are holding on for dear life with the hope that a limited partner will surface and provide them with the capital they need to improve the team. If not we will most likely see a fire sale by the trade deadline hoping to reduce payroll and to hopefully acquire pitching prospects for the future. They might well trade the one blue chip player they have in David Wright who is signed long term.

  I honestly thing that the main reason that Sandy Alderson was brought in by the Wilpons was that he would be able to deal with the financial situation better than any other candidate based on his track records with the A’s and their low budget operation.

  The best we can hope for for 2011 would be the team’s hitters to outshine it’s pitchers and keep the team competitive in most games and to keep the people coming out to the ballpark. If attendance keeps falling….watch out!
  • Metsie April 19, 2011 at 12:39 pm

    So many wrong facts I’ll try to touch on all them.

    “Can there be any doubt that the Wilpon’s finances have been greatly affected by the Madoff scandal?”

    The only FACTS regarding Madoff is the MADE money! Thats why they are being sued. If you believe MAKING money makes it harder to pay the Bills then I really shouldn’t even bother with the rest here.

    “If history repeats itself and the team suffers through another dry period as they did in the late 70′s into the 80′s, then hey will need to rename Citi Field as they did when they called Shea “Grants Tomb”.”

    Yep they called it that and yet still drew as many fans during the 70′s and early 80′s as we drew last year. Shea holds 10,000 more seats than Citi and they averaged those same 10,000 Empties we have now. But that means 10,000 more people per game still attended the game than attend now! And once they started looking good again most REGULAR fans complained they could not get decent tickets because all the corporations had bought up the choice seats when the prices were low and once they did make the playoffs in 86 no one could get into the game. I know I had Season tickets then and I was offerred almost enough to pay for the entire season by people who wanted to attend but couldn’t because they waited until the team was good again to go and see them.

    The sale of the team during those years had nothing to do with the attendance or the state of the team it had to do with the death of Mrs Payson. SO your point is just supposition again not fact.

    But you did make one point worth repeating. Yes they Hired Sandy because he is probably the most capable GM of dealing with a severly restricted salary!
    That Salary is going to be restricted not because of Madoff but because you won’t go to see the games and support the players who get that salary!

    If you don’t buy tickets then there will not be enough money to sign the guys that would make this team good and by your actions will CAUSE the return of Grants Tomb.

    You will not force the Wilpons to sell all you will force them to do is tell Sandy cut the payroll until Attendance covers the Salary!