When I first became a mini-plan holder, I was thrilled to have tickets to so many games in the same seats.  After the Mets moved from Shea Stadium to Citi Field, the demand for tickets was great.  In fact, I had numerous parties inquiring if I had any extra tickets to sell.  Then the Mets fell out of contention long before the last day of the season and the requests for my tickets subsided.  When I tried to sell my tickets to games I couldn’t attend on StubHub, there were times I could not find a buyer, even after I had marked down my tickets to as low as $4.86.

This year, the fans have stayed away from Citi Field in droves.  In 2009, the Mets averaged 38,941 tickets sold per home game, ranking seventh in the major leagues in home attendance.  This year, the average home attendance for Mets games has dropped to 33,335.  They now rank 12th in the majors in home attendance.  Whereas the Mets sold 92.7% of their available seats in 2009, they have only sold 79.4% of Citi Field’s seats this season.  Small market teams like the Milwaukee Brewers are selling more tickets to their home games (on average, 34,655 Brewers tickets are sold per home game) than the Mets are.

Earlier this week, I received a phone call from the Mets ticket office.  I was offered two free field level tickets to a future Mets game to be played this season.  The representative explained that the Mets were offering these free tickets to their mini-plan holders as a measure of goodwill to thank us for supporting the team.  I thought this was very kind of them, but there was one catch.  The tickets would not be mailed to the recipient.  They would be left at the will-call window at Citi Field, where they could be picked up on the day of the game.

I don’t know about you, but at first glance, it appears as if the Mets are concerned that by giving fans their free tickets in advance of the game, those tickets would find their way on StubHub.  Once there, they could either be sold cheaply to another party (although it would still represent a profit to the mini-plan holder), or they might remain unsold and the seats would remain empty.

By making the fans pick up their tickets at Citi Field on the day of the game, there’s less of a chance that the tickets will be re-sold online or that the fans picking up the tickets will not use them, since they are already there.

The Mets know that their decrease in home attendance will only continue during September, with the Mets out of contention and games against other non-contenders such as Pittsburgh, Milwaukee and Washington.  They do not want fans to come to Citi Field dressed as empty seats.  Of course, they’re going to say the right thing, like “we want to thank you for your support”, but any intelligent Mets fan can see right through it.  The Mets want fannies in the seats in September and apparently, they’re willing to give away field level tickets (i.e. the seats that TV cameras pan to regularly) to save face and to try to retain their mini-plan holders’ business.

Let’s just say that I didn’t fall for it.  There will be at least two field level seats that will remain unused for an upcoming home game.  I guess I should expect the ticket office to call me again this winter when I don’t renew my two mini-plans.

Last night was out first game. Our seats were in the Promenade, section 526, row 17. The 17th row, how bad could it be, right? It turns out that row 17 in the Promenade is the very last row in the stadium! This is preferred seating?! The only thing I had a premium view of was the jets landing at La Guardia airport!

It seems that once again the Wilpons and company have spat upon their loyal fans. Here we have a group of fans that agreed to support this franchise, that does in fact have a dwindling fan base, and they get rewarded by sitting closer to the airplanes than the field.

I was so cold in the last row Friday night, that we decided to walk around on the lower levels. We stood by the rails in the outfield and watched as ushers and security removed fans from seats that weren’t theirs. It was truly amazing to me that the Citi Field stormtroopers would remove paying fans from seats that would otherwise remain empty.

The big question I have is whether or not to use my remaining tickets. I’m questioning if I want to to continue to make Fred & Jeff richer, or if I would be better off going to local bar for those games. It cost $19 dollars to park at Citi Field. Five games at $19 each is $95. Then of course there’s food and beverage at the stadium. I know I would be better off spending that type money at the local bar, at least I’d get a seat at the bar and a buy back or two.

Once again, Fred & Jeff illustrate how much they just don’t get it. Hiding loyal fans in the Ueker seats just isn’t the answer.

This is great news for season ticket holders, but the Mets did not say anything about decreases to the partial ticket plans (the 40-game plans and the various 15-game plans).  I’ve had the Sunday Plan for eight years now and was not pleased when they took out three Sunday games and added five random weekday night games to the plan.  I was forced to sell many of the weeknight games for far less than face value because I couldn’t make it to so many of them.  Shouldn’t plan holders who were forced to buy tickets to games they had no interest in get the discount as well?

People who can afford full season tickets clearly have enough money or else they would get partial ticket plans.  Conversely, there are probably quite a few people who purchased 15-game plans who might have purchased a larger plan had they been able to afford it.  These are the people who should be getting the 10-20% discount, not the ones who have a better chance of affording their tickets.

Also, from what I understood when reading the press release, people who buy individual game tickets can only be thankful because their ticket prices will remain fixed for the 2010 season.  In the final season at Shea Stadium, there were 12 “value” dates and 22 “bronze” dates.  Upper deck seats, regardless of whether they were in the infield or outfield, were $5 for the value games and $10 for the bronze games.  That meant almost half the time (34 out of 81 home games), the average fan could purchase a ticket to a Mets game and not spend more than $10 per seat.

This year, the cheapest seat in the house was $11.  These seats were only available for 10 games (as opposed to the 12 value games in 2008) and were specifically for outfield seats in the Promenade Level.  Similar seats for bronze games were $15 and there were only 18 such games when there were 22 in Shea’s final season.  Therefore, if you didn’t mind sitting in the outfield with all of the obstructions that were promised not to be there, you could go to a game for $15 or less.  However, you only had 28 games to choose from (roughly one-third of the games) and you probably saw the Washington Nationals quite a bit, as seven of those 28 games were against the Nats.

If the Wilpons want to make nice with the fans due to the brutal season we were subjected to, they should start with the common fan.  These are the fans that bring their kids to the games.  You know, the kids?  The ones who will be buying even more expensive tickets from you in the future?  Until they make an announcement about Plan Ticket prices and individual game ticket prices being cut as well, I’m not going to do cartwheels.  Besides, I’d probably end up getting hurt doing so anyway.