Last week Mike Vaccaro post a blog on the New York Post website that you can read right here saying that ticket agents from the Mets are questioning the loyalty of fans who have not yet renewed their season tickets for the 2010 season. I did get a phone call asking me if I was planning on buying the ticket package, but my loyalty to the team was not questioned by that particular agent, having said that I’ve heard from other ticket season holders including friends of mine that their loyalty has indeed been questioned. If that ticket agent had questioned my loyalty I would have answered the question with another question: where do you get off questioning my loyalty?
It seems that the Mets are more interested in taking our money instead of putting a championship caliber team on the field. The last 3 seasons have ended horribly with 2 last game collapses and of course last season when they lost over 90 games. Last year they lied to us for more than half of the season, promising us that the injured players would return by soon after the all-star game, but Jose Reyes was nowhere to be seen and Carlos Beltran didn’t return until well into September when it didn’t matter anymore. Carlos Delgado, who the Mets said had the same injury and surgery that was performed on A-Roid, did not return in 2 months as A-Roid did, in fact Delgado didn’t return for the rest of the season.
So far this off season the Mets have done nothing to help improve their team. I don’t consider overpaying Alex Cora because he’s a nice guy a huge improvement. Signing R.A. Dickey, Chris “Die Hard Philly” Coste, Henry Blanco and Ryota Igarashi who has had Tommy John surgery and has not yet faced major league hitters does not make me want to pay at least $2,000 to see this team when I can watch them on SNY and change channel when things get bad.
The Mets have yet to spend any significant money this off season, but they expect their fans to do just that, pleading with them to shell out money to see them play. Do the Mets really expect the us to simply fork over our hard earned cash, especially in this economy, just because they finally caved into fan pressure and decided to paint the walls orange and build a new museum in Citi Field to showcase the team’s history? Did they really think that naming the bridge after Shea that would be all that was needed to get fans to buy tickets again?
The teams in our division have been busy on working to improve themselves, while the Mets insult their fans with a few backups, minor leaguers, and risk/reward players coming back from injury. It goes to show you that this team is all about taking our money and not much else. I understand this is a business and teams want to make a lot of money, but at least try to improve your product before pleading for our money.
Look at the Yankees and Phillies… The Yankees won the World Series, but that hasn’t made them the least bit idle this off season, while the Phillies add one of the best pitchers in baseball in Roy Halladay and upgraded at third base as well.
The Mets made many promises to improve the day after the 2009 season ended, and must have assumed that we were naive enough to buy tickets based on their words rather than their actions.
The first deadline to renew season ticket packages was on December 4th, three days before the start of the Winter Meetings, a move that wreaked from the very beginning. I believe the logic was to get the fans to make a commitment before the lackluster meetings started, but thankfully fans didn’t bite so they extended the deadline to the 14th of December, a couple of days before that the Mets announced that they put an offer out to Jason Bay. Now, after a few insignificant additions, they have extended the deadline to December 31, 2009. Unless something happens this week I wouldn’t be surprised to see them extend the deadline by another week or two.
Questioning our loyalty is not the best way to endear yourself to a bitter fanbase. Met fans are among the most loyal fans in sports. We have watched and supported our team through the good times and bad. We have watched the Yankees win five World Series titles since 1996, losing to them in our only trip in 2000. We stayed with the Mets when they “battled” and “suffered” through the Art Howe era, so where do they get off questioning our loyalty?
Give us a product worth the price of admission and we’ll flock to see this team as we always have. Give us a championship caliber team, and we’ll give you championship caliber attendance. Until then, please don’t question our loyalty.
I hope everyone has a happy and safe New Year.
