What did I think about Amazin' Day?
The positive- the staff were all very pleasant and tried to be as helpful as possible with the knowledge that they had. The Panels were fun and the different areas once you got to them were cool.
My personal negatives- When you first came in at 1030 am the staff only let you go to elevators and not use the stairs. The lines for that were ridiculous. I saw they finally opened the stairs later but that was a time waster. I also think the Mets should have been announcing their panels or at least retweeting when they are announced by the hosts who are outside of the org when they announce it. The lack of info leading up to the day was really bad.
The lines going to the Clubhouse/Auto section/Cadillac Club/Radar pitch all feeding into the same area was crazy. There was no real signage and no one at the very back of the lines pointing to which line was which. It was super confusing and I heard a lot of complaints about that. A lot of folks use the confusion to cut the lines.
The Autograph lines themselves. I get the “Blind Bag” of the players behind the curtain. This way no one tries to rush one table and then that messes up time management. I like that idea of you not knowing who you are going to get. I would say for the most part the lines leading up to the autos were pretty good. I do have to say if I paid for the VIP experience I would expect a real fastness line where they can skip the GA line. We do this with the QBC. You go “5” VIPs then do “5” GA. I would also maybe have the VIP go in from the back, get signed then walk out the back to the next table and let them get all 4 tables. You’d get people to drop a grand on tickets for the next one and also maybe sell some ticket plans because of how well the Mets treat their VIPs.
The map should have been sent out in the “ Hey your time is at X and you should be there.”
The lack of the info on the panels wasn’t that great either. I knew when the panels were and what they were because I go the lineup from someone. It would really make it easier for fans to plan the day better.
I think a lot of complaints are going to come about is going to be some panels being before the admission to time slots for people to get in.
What did you guys think of it?
5 comments:
Keith, your points are all well-taken. Having said that, as I joked when I passed you & Tricia in the autograph line there, “this is no QBC, but it’s pretty good.” I think overall, it’s really terrific. I was there at the 9:30 opening & stayed till 1:30, even though I could’ve stayed pretty much the whole day. For more context, I had also gone to the one in 2020 & when they announced this one, I told two Met fan buddies of mine that they HAD to go to this. When I saw them in Piazza Club around 12:30, they profusely thanked me, saying they were having the time of their lives. Hopefully the Mets do this again while incorporating the improvements that you stated here. Thanks.
For me, the whole autograph thing was a big waste of time.
I understood that you couldn't choose the players whose autographs you'd be getting. But I didn't like that they were only signing posters. Why posters? Not everybody wants posters! Why not have them sign something a little more fan friendly, like 8x10 photos? I'm sure many of the posters got damaged during the day. Mine did.
I had the 12.30pm session and I got on the line around 11.40am. I figured it was going to be a long wait, and I wound up being on line an hour and 15 minutes or so. So at least I got the whole thing out of the way pretty early.
My biggest issue with the autograph session is that once I got inside the curtained-off area, there were only two players at the table. The autograph session is supposed to be this great big deal featured event, and when you get inside it's only two players? Not worth it.
(For those who may be wondering, the players I got were Benny Agbayani and Luisangel Acuna. Again, I'm not complaining because I didn't get Strawberry or Gooden or some other really big name. I realize that it wouldn't have been feasible to allow fans to choose the players they wanted. The line for Juan Soto - yes, I know he wasn't there - the line for Juan Soto, even in yesterday's weather, would have gone all the way back to Main Street, but on the other side of the coin there are some players who you probably could have sat down and had a 30-minute conversation with them and not worry about holding up the line because you were the line.)
In 2020, it was the same thing as far as being assigned a random group of players, and the only thing they'd sign was posters. But in 2020 the autographs were a separate fee, and once I learned it was going to be posters only I didn't sign up. This year, the autographs were included in the ticket price.
In a thread on Reddit where people shared their Amazin' Day experiences, some said they decided to just skip the autograph session. That's not something I could have done because I felt like I had no choice since I already "paid" for them.
It wasn't worth it.
Good points. They either needed to sell fewer tickets (not gonna happen) or have more things to do. I was there for 4 hours and half that time was spent trying to find things or waiting on line. There was little to tell you what was going on or where. There were a ton of players there - where were they? Other than the Piazza Club, where could you see a player, hear them talk, or snap a selfie? As for the autographs, I got Dave Mliki and Jose Butto; the guys were friendly and chatty, but I much rather would have taken a sloppy selfie with a player and moved on than stand in line over an hour. Again, if there was more to do, I might have chosen to skip the autographs and just do other things or listened to players being interviewed, but everywhere I went there was nothing going on, or no one could tell me what was going on next, or there was a huge line. Honestly I had a good day and it’s always fun being in the ballpark in winter, but I hope there will be another and it will be better organized.
I’ll add that the distribution of players throughout the day did not seem fair. I arrived in early afternoon, but in talking to people it seems like more players and more big-name players were there in the morning.
I was there 5 years ago and it was a lot of fun. There were players everywhere, accessible for photos and to chat with, if only briefly. This year I went for much of the day (got there for 2:30) and was so confused as to where to go and what was happening, and saw practically no one. Where were the players? Only available to VIP ticket holders? Wasn't that the whole reason for this, to see and meets the players, both former and current? Again, where were they? They were nowhere to be found. The only two players I saw were RA Dickey & Josh Thole. They gave a good talk, but were quick to move on after that. Barely got decent photos with either of them. Kudos to Keith Raad for sticking around. Really disappointed in the whole experience this year. NOT an amazin day.
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