Attendance Continues To Plummet At Citi Field

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• Pete May 18, 2011 at 8:43 am

  It is greed that is turning the fans off from baseball. The greed of the owners and the prices they charge for an inferior product. The greed of the players and their agents who took the flavor out of the game. Fans aren’t stupid, they are human beings who are able to think for themselves, although ownership would argue this point. TRhe fans see what is being done to the game, and they are fighting back! Let those shltheads learn the game is for the fans, not something to be used to screw the fans. Football will learn this same lesson, just wait and see.
  • MetsMan86 May 18, 2011 at 7:03 pm

    Bud Selig wants to continually boast about how much money he’s infused to the game. All he has done is sold out the game to corporations. That’s why most season ticket holders in the most expensive seats all accross baseball are owned by corporations. There are no more fans sitting in the best seats. And agree, football is going down the same exact road as baseball.
• Lou May 18, 2011 at 9:15 am

  Call me crazy but could low attendance be do to the brillant technology of high definition tv’s and all the hi-fi sounds and gadgets. I look at golf on my 55 inch hdtv and can count the blades of grass on the putting greens and baseball viewing is just as fantastic. My tv cost over 1600 bucks and maybe some folks figure that spending the money on the enjoyment of the in home experience is better than being there live when good seats are over 40 bucks and add parking and snacks , etc. Just a thought. (you still have to have a good product on the field!)
  • Metsie May 18, 2011 at 12:03 pm

    Excellent point Lou!
• lazycrochet May 18, 2011 at 10:19 am

  Lou,
  I agree with you, it’s better to watch the games on tv then being in the stands. You get to see more of the action close up then being up in the clouds and it doesn’t cost that much.
• Mr North Jersey May 18, 2011 at 11:17 am

  Just wanted to add something that was told to me when the topic of attendance came up around this time last year.

  I was told that the Mets avg attendance would go up once school was out and the Summer began. I’m not sure if indeed that turned out to be the case last year but something to consider as well I suppose.
  • Metsie May 18, 2011 at 12:07 pm

    Another excellent point MNJ!

    Attendance might be down but the question is did the ticket sales go down significantly.
    Most of the season ticket holders are coporate accounts who buy the tickets but rarely go to the game.

    They need to go on a hot streak like they did last year to salvage their summer attendance though.

    And without Wright and Davis in there I wonder if they can do that!
• Harry C May 18, 2011 at 4:56 pm

  Gee, wonder why people won’t pay, or is the proper term over pay to go to Queens for a game. The owner is being sued for a biollion bucks or so give or take a few hunfdred mil, he has gotten sole ownership thru money gained from his buddy’s ponzi scheme, the GM saifd I ain’t doing a damn thing for a year and og by the way, the first thing I want to do when I awake is get erid of all the high priced guys, and hints that the most exciting player in the history of the team is no good because he doesn’t walk enough. Really, now, you want tom pay for this management team. Unlike a few here, most fans are saying no way.
• Mr North Jersey May 18, 2011 at 6:07 pm

  Actually Robert your statement of “There has been a significant drop off in the Mets attendance numbers from last season to this season.” may not at least up to this moment not be 100% accurate. At least not based on the figures you are using.

  Like you said this year over the 1st 19 games the Mets have had just 548,518 fans come out to Citi Field for an average of just 28,869 fans a game.

  Now if you compare that to the 1st 19 games the Mets played last season the drop off is not that significant.

  Over the 1st 19 games in 2010 the Mets had 605,092 fans come out to Citi Field for an average of 31,846 fans a game.

  That ends up being 2,977 less fans per game this year overall compared to 2010 for an average difference of 156 less fans per game. Not that significant of a drop off in my opinion compared to where they were at this time last year in my opinion.

  Now it still remains to be seen going forward if indeed there will be a big drop off after 81 games so time will tell I suppose.

  Source: 2010 Attendance numbers over 1st 19 games
  http://www.baseball-reference.com/play-index/share.cgi?id=1H7uo
  • Mr North Jersey May 18, 2011 at 6:11 pm

    That should read,

    “That ends up being 2,977 less fans this year overall”

    Sorry.
    • mike May 18, 2011 at 7:10 pm

      If we average 28,869 fans a game this year, and 31,846 fans a game last year, where in the world do you get 156 less fans a game?
      • Mr North Jersey May 18, 2011 at 7:40 pm

        Let me see if I can explain it better.

        548,518 – 1st 19 games of 2011
        605,092 – 1st 19 games of 2010

        605,092 – 548,518 = 2,977

        That is 2,977 less fans over 1st 19 games in 2011 compared to 1st 19 games of 2010.

        2,977 divided by 19 = 156 or to be exact 156.68421052631578947368421052632

        Over the 1st 19 games of 2011 the Mets have averaged 156 less fans per game.
        • mike May 18, 2011 at 7:55 pm

          605,092 – 548,518 = 2,977 ???????
          • Met Maniac May 18, 2011 at 8:03 pm

            That’s how they do math in North Jersey, lmao
          • Mr North Jersey May 18, 2011 at 8:18 pm

            Hahahaha

            Thanks Mike. I apologize to everyone and stand corrected.

            I messed up and clearly wrongly looked at one number and confused it with another.

            605,092 – 548,518 = 56,574

            56,574 divided by 19 = 2,977

            Somewhere in all of this I took the 2,977 as the result rather than 56,574 and divided 2,977 by 19 instead and well you see now the results of it.

            Thanks for pointing it out and I stand corrected.
            • Metsie May 18, 2011 at 8:27 pm

              Should be noted they did lose a few of the games that got rained out which could explain some of that dropoff…

              But It doesn’t really matter what the reason is, they are no where near selling out even a single game this year!
• MetsMan86 May 18, 2011 at 7:05 pm

  How about the HORRIBLE WEATHER plaguging the baseball season so far as well. Already more games rained out so far this year than all of last year. The thing with rainouts is that even when the game DOES get played, a lot of people who would have gone decide not to, not risking making the trip for the game to get called when they get there.
  • MetsMan86 May 18, 2011 at 7:06 pm

    At add: Major reason why I haven’t made it to a game yet, and I live right in the neighborhood. Why would I spend money to pregame when there might no even be a game.
• francis May 18, 2011 at 9:11 pm

  don’t forget the thousand odd people continuously on line for shake shack. i’d say about 25% of the crowd at any game is wandering around. makes the place look even emptier.
• Midwestern Met May 18, 2011 at 11:02 pm

  I agree the game is much too corporate now; I remember when New Yankee Stadium opened up, the fans were outraged at some of Hank S’s policies. The difference is the Yankees won the WS that year, so fans didn’t mind as much. The Mets can’t do the same at Citi because they haven’t made the playoffs in 5 years. Supply and demand, folks.

  Read all about tonight’s sloppy Citi affair at Midwestern Met:
  http://tiny.cc/ypn2b
• tlagee May 18, 2011 at 11:46 pm

  I have to say that I am delighted that there is a drop off in attendance.

  New York is the number one market in the world and it is an honor and responsibility to own one of only two baseball teams in this market.

  What has happened over the past two seasons is just really bad management. Before last season, ownership stripped the team of ten million and then promised they would use that money during the season to fine tune the team. We had major players go down and nothing was spent to replace them.

  Then, of course, this past off season was a joke – making the entire organization a bigger joke.

  We had no front line pitching but that didn’t seem to be a problem because ownership and management had already committed themselves to giving up this year so we could dump a few high priced players either during or after the season.

  Mets fans aren’t stupid though. There is no real plan after the player dumping. For all we know, they could dump all the big salaries and run the team on a 30% less budget for next year.

  It’s not only just the empty seats that hurt the Wilpons – some of those tickets are already sold. But there is so much hidden costs with going to a game – overpriced food, crap at the Mets’ store, parking etc.- real money that the team is not pulling in – that hurts.

  I have nothing personal against Fred Wilpon (except that he spawned an idiot son) but it’s time to move on.

  My recommendation to Mets fan is – go once or twice this year. Bring your family and make a special outing out of it. Spend the $250+ for tickets and the other stuff that will cost for a family of four. And watch the rest of the games at home. You get a better seat!

  The only way to stop this foolishness is not to go to the ballpark and force the Wilpons to sell to someone who understands the privledge of owning a baseball team in this market.
• gary s. May 18, 2011 at 11:59 pm

  I watched game tonite.there was a couple of thousand people in the stands at the most.Changed channel to espn, in philly not an empty seat to be seen.Packed house.Gee, could it have anything to do with the fact that the top ticket in citizens bank park goes for $70 and parking much less than citicavern also?You make the call.
• gary s. May 19, 2011 at 12:01 am

  I guess it helps that the Phillies put a winning product on the field and the fans don’t despise the owners..