6
2013
Some Concerns About The Mets And Attendance At St. Lucie
An article by 
Deep concerns over declining attendance is not only limited to Citi Field this season for the Mets. The community of Port St. Lucie, where the Mets make their Spring Training home, have some abiding concerns about the team, attendance and revenue themselves.
Ray McNulty of TC Palm says the Mets are nothing-special, and they have done far too little this offseason to give long-suffering Mets fans any real hope for the 2013 season and even less reason to get excited about the next few weeks in Florida.
Will the promise of beautiful weather — accompanied by the blind-faith required to root unfailingly for an also-ran team on the National League side of New York — be enough to overcome an impossible-to-ignore lack of buzz about the Mets these past few months and entice their frustrated fans to flock to our community for the annual rite of spring?
I’m having my doubts. Now more than ever… The Mets are coming off their fourth consecutive losing season and fourth straight fourth-place finish in the NL East, where they’ve finished 23, 18, 25 and 24 games behind the division champions during that sorry span… The recently re-signed David Wright and too-often-injured Johan Santana are the only recognizable faces remaining on the Mets’ roster.
The Mets have a longstanding relationship with the St. Lucie community ever since transplanting their operations there from St. Petersburg in 1988. Each year, the community becomes a go-to destination come spring-time as fans flock to catch a glimpse of the players, both old and new, as well as the team’s top prospects. They do this while contributing millions to their hotel, travel, dining and entertainment industries.
McNulty is concerned over the way the team is perceived and that it may affect the Mets’ Grapefruit League attendance, particularly those fans who make the trek down from the New York area. He doesn’t believe this latest offseason does much to revive a community that has become financially dependent on the team.
It’s a time to look at the lineup, see how much is still missing and wonder why the Mets have wasted another winter — one that offers no cause for optimism that the coming season will be noticeably better than what we saw last summer, despite anything you might’ve heard from general manager Sandy Alderson about being in the chase.
Think about it: Other than trading Dickey, the Mets’ biggest offseason headlines have been spawned by a debate over whether they’ll need to, or should, surrender their first-round pick in this year’s draft if they sign All-Star free-agent outfielder Michael Bourn. Meanwhile, the outfield is a mystery. The bullpen is filled with nobodies. The rotation lost its most dependable starter. And the Mets’ equipment trucks ceremoniously departed Citi Field for Florida on Monday.
He urges fans to come down to St. Lucie anyway – the weather is beautiful and at least the sun is always shining.
It was a somewhat harsh rebuke and unnecessarily over the top in my opinion. However, I wonder if it’s a fair indication of the sentiment from the community that the Mets call home for two months of the year?
I also wonder if there is some resentment here over the whole Digital Domain debacle that I’m told led to many people losing their jobs last year.
Anyway…
About the Author: Joe DeCaro
I'm a lifelong Mets fan who loves writing and talking about the Amazins' 24/7. From the Miracle in 1969 to the magic of 1986, and even the near misses in '73 and '00, I've experienced it all - the highs and the lows. I started Mets Merized Online in 2005 to feed my addiction. Follow me on Twitter @metsmerized.
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Actually spring training could be a good place to get a better glimpse at the future.
Still, ultimately, what counts is (regular and hopefully postseason) wins. A rebuild cannot go on forever – especially not for a NY team.
So 2013 pretty much has to be the final year and 2014, the switch needs to be turned around.
One can understand concern down in St Lucie especially with the whole Digital Domain issue and teams leaving Florida to go out west causing some to wonder if the Mets may be the next team to follow suit in the coming years.
BP full of nobodies? That’s inaccurate.
Speaking of bullpens did we ever make that Shaun Marcum deal official? What’s the status on that?
Marcum yes, that is official. But if you mean Lyon since you mentioned BP, then no, have not seem that in stone yet.
Like four days ago
To not even waste your time seeing this team in ST tells you the job that alderson has done…..
By the end of the day they are going to say that writer was from the Core. LMAO
Lmao, hell no maniac.. The relationship between Joe and The CORE its shaky due to his actions against it.
I’m sure tough economic times, high unemployment rates, prices of hotels, flights has nothing to do with it either.
If you’re gonna use that, then please provide a link with attendance for ALL TEAMS, now look at the teams that made the playoffs and start from there.. Don’t use excuses as to why fans won’t show up to the game. while i do agree it’s expensive to go to the games and whatnot, part of the reason fans won’t go to see the mets is the FO and the PO’ss they’ve brought in to fill the team.
You, yourself, are the ultimate POS ($1 to yourself). You see my name and have to respond with your typical BS.
Provide links to common sense?
Making excuses – once again you are making up lies and/or just misusing the word, which is frequent for you.
You need to get a life, while you’re doing that go take a class in reading comprehension because clearly you are a 1st grade level.
Ha, don’t flatter yourself. i only responded because as usual you come out gunz blazing when the subject is about the FO. the only stalker in this blog is you, so don’t peg me in the same class or division as you
Thanks for proving my point – you make this too easy.
Anyone who has spent any time attending spring training games knows that most of the games are filled with prospects, hopefuls and maybes. The stars play an inning or two and then hit the links to polish their backswings. I spent 4 years working a couple blocks from Legends (aka Steinbrenner) Field and I think I saw Jeter hit about a dozen times.
The idea that fans are going to stay away because they are forced to endure the same quality of players that every other team is throwing out on the diamond is really stretching for a reason to bash the team. Of course, that seems to be the thing to do these days.
I thought that PSL was pretty much in the middle of nowhere though. And the Mets are one of the few teams that has not abandoned that area of Florida. So this does seem pretty harsh, and could come back to bite them.
If anything, they should be glad the Mets are still there at all. Becaue it seems that it would be in their best interest to relocate to the east coast, over near where all the other teams (and a heck of a lot more people!) are.
pretty sure that if the Mets up and left, no other team is coming in to replace them.
Guess you have absolutely no idea where port st lucie is.
It is less than an hour from west palm beach and IS on the east coast.
an hour from the next nearest place with a team or much population is still pretty far. Look at the west coast (sorry, that was just a typo, I know which side PSL is on) and central where there are clumps of teams in populous areas.
The issue is the teams themselves set the Spring Schedule….
It’s harder to get a team onthe west coast to travel to the east coast and have to take an hour long drive.
Which is why every ST game seemed to be vs the cards because they were the only other team on the East coast.
Mets need to get another team to work out of PSL…
They have the space and capabilities to supprot two MLB teams.
If they did that then the attendance and state of ONE team would not be so important to the StLucie economy.
Any true Mets fan will be there. Plan on buying some tickets this weekend. Nothing like sitting on the berm watching an afternoon game. Beer, food and bathroom 30 feet away.
This is for some of my female friends, including Kay, SRT, Gina and others:
http://twitpic.com/c1f6w6
You really need to seek help, right after that you should take a reading class, once you got the reading thing down pick up a book about baseball and learn a thing or two. Maybe they have a “Baseball for Idiots” you can buy.
Maybe they have a “Baseball for Idiots” you can buy.”
They do, it’s called moneyball
http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/baseball/mets/david-wright-engaged-model-molly-beers-article-1.1243666
He has now achieved most men’s biggest dream….
Marrying Beers that look good in a bikini!
only if the build a casino next to the park!
Attendance is going to be the big BUZZWORD for the next few years…
They cut just about all of the salary they could cut….
There is nothing left to cut save trading Wright to someone who will pay all of his salary….
And when they lose money at the end of the year due to the lack (and drop from last year) in attendance they will be forced to do what Minaya was forced to do and buy talent hoping it peaks attendance up that can be maintained before those contracts stop being worth the money or the player gets injured….
And if they fail we will be right back where we started in 2011, losing money, trading off our best preformers in the name of REBUILDING.
Well with Michael Bourn in center it should increase attendance.