This is an open letter to Steve Cohen and the Mets organization about the state of the attendance during last season.
Dear Mr Cohen,
I see that you weren’t too happy with the attendance numbers and what the Mets place were in attendance league wide. Were you really blaming the fans about not coming out to the ballpark? Was it just the context or the wording about the statement you made about the lack of fans? I’m going to give you the benefit of the doubt but I am also going to give some reasons why fans weren’t coming out to the ballpark.
1. The team sucked for the first part of the season. There was no fire, no chemistry and no fight in the team. Halfway through David Stearns started making moves to get rid of dead weight and bringing up better players and teammates to the ball club. Until that happened this team was unwatchable. The silliness of Grimace and the fun of the song Oh My God was lightning caught in a bottle that made the team fun in the second half. Good on the organization for embracing the wackiness of it with the purple Grimace seat and the OMG concert after a game. That was smart.
2. We need more Dance Squads. I really thought that would bring more fans to the ballpark because that’s what we want to see when we are there. Dancers! Seriously, the pushing of the dance squads and the new led ribbons and scoreboards really meant nothing. Was it a great update for the ballpark? Sure, but that experience the organization was trying to create was forced and that’s not selling tickets. Also you guys renovated a whole bunch of clubs that 90 percent of ticket holders can’t get into and you kept pushing it as a big win for fans. It wasn’t
3. The ticket prices and plans were crazy this past year. If you want to take a family of four to a game you are spending enough for a weekend vacation somewhere. There was some course corrections with promotions to move tickets at a cheaper value but when you are a plan holder you don’t get that break and the cheaper tickets that I hear the Mets dump on the secondary market doesn’t help the resale of tickets to get your money back which has always been a selling point to have a plan.
4. Stop concentrating on trying to get the Casino. You and I both know that’s not going to be bringing in more fans to the ballpark. It’ll probably keep some fans away. Also stop saying the neighborhood is barren. Across Seaver way there is construction that’s going to be done way sooner than the proposed casino. You want fans and some casual fans to come to Citi Field? It starts with field a viable team on the field, which it looks like you guys are doing and also making sure your fans aren’t priced out with tickets, parking, and consessioms.
2 comments:
I have additional reasons:
1. The March/April nighttime weather is usually unpleasant(no retractable roof).
2. Shea had 55000 seats. Citi Field has 42000 seats. Therefore, there are 13000 affordable seats that no longer exist.
3. Because of the stadium’s capacity, there is never 50000+ sellout crowd, to bring the average season attendance up.
4. Promotional giveaways are capped at 15000 items. Many times, more than half the crowd did not get the giveaway.
I'm all for a Ballpark Village-like area around Citi Field & the new NYCFC stadium. In terms of casino, instead of that, how about a sportsbook/restaurant/bar, that'll get ppl to come & hang out pre/postgame.
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