On Wednesday, executive vice president Lou DePaoli told Newsday that Mets ticket sales are up 19.26 percent over last year.
Considering the team hasn’t produced a winning season since 2008 and failed to add any high-priced box-office draw, Howard Megdal of Capital New York finds it astonishing that ticket sales would surge that significantly especially since they did nothing to impact those two primary drivers of attendance spikes for baseball teams.
Additionally he asks, if sales are really up almost 20 percent, it would also seem to “fly in the face of a promise by the team’s financially troubled owners to increase payroll when revenue rose.”
“Why would the team invite such trouble with its fan base, after years of misleadingly sunny projections and unfulfilled spending pledges,” he asks.
Megdal speculates that one motivation for the Mets to come out and make such a public claim is because it helps their defense in the discrimination lawsuit against the team by a former Mets executive who was in charge of ticket sales. Plus the fact remains that the Mets could claim anything they want right now and can distort those figures knowing that they are not obligated to provide evidence of it.
An increase in sales this large would be historic. Megdal points out how the Seattle Mariners experienced the biggest jump in attendance in 2014, going from 1,761,546 in 2013 to 2,064,334, a rise of 302,788, or a jump of 17.1 percent.
But the Mariners drove that by signing Robinson Cano for $240 million and giving Felix Hernandez a $175 million extension, arguably the best hitter and pitcher in the game.
Even if you assume this 19 percent spike in sales is completely legit and the Mets have truly achieved an “economic miracle” without a winning season or big splash signing, why are they not acting like a team swimming in $23 million dollars of new revenue?
Why do the Mets continue to cower in fear at the presence of any player who could help the team when the subject turns to dollars?
According to my own calculations and assuming the Mets unload Dillon Gee, payroll will see a slight uptick of about $3 million dollars above last year’s $89 million level. If they trade Daniel Murphy at the deadline – as many predict – payroll could actually finish lower again for the fifth straight year.
So if things are so much improved financially, and if money issues are in the rear view mirror, and attendance is rising, and now we hear revenue is projected to rise at MLB historic levels, why does it still feel like we’re in Kansas?
Inquiring minds want to know.
“I do believe that payroll will go up if we’re able to generate the kind of revenue that will support that.” ~ Sandy Alderson
Promises, promises…
