Don’t confuse the Mets tribe with the Mets business

Today many of us will gather for the first time in a long time. This is the tribe. We dress alike, we sing the traditional songs, we say the traditional Let’s Go Mets chant. We are family.

Do not in any way whatsoever confuse that with the Metropolitan Baseball Club, Inc. That is a business. They operate an events driven business.

They hire some people to perform baseball games with the hopes that you will pay the highest admission price possible. Do not in any way think that this is anything but that. You the tribe did a good job rejecting the $63 ticket, which forced them to lower ticket prices – but don’t for a second think that “dynamic pricing” would not have kicked in and jacked the price higher had they seen the inventory moving.

The $6.25 hot dogs being sold this season? No reasonable human being I have ever spoken to about hot dogs could think $6.25 is a “fair” price.

So pack a sandwich. Avail yourself of the one bottled water you are allowed to bring. Bring 75 juice boxes and keep yourself hydrated.

We the fans have chosen this tribe ourselves. Nobody made us Mets fans. Well, maybe our fathers did, or Mookie Wilson did, or Tom Seaver did. However we got here, we are stuck.

So we will gather in our traditional lands. We will wear our traditional dress. The Metropolitan Baseball Club, Inc. will try to grab as many of our dollars as they can. That is what they exist to do.

We could all walk away, but we won’t. Along the way, recognize what it is. Any “discount” is just the sellers reading the tea-leaves and finding a new price point for maximum revenue. There is no favor being done here.

Opening Day tickets started at $63. No matter what happens gate-wise today, remember that.

 

….

 

Lot’s to do today. I am going to try to hit the various tailgates being discussed on twitter. Maybe a quick tour of the museum (with a longer one on Saturday). I have to stop by the Shea Bridge to see The7Line and friends, and then I will be upstairs in my blue Mets Police 13. See you there?

 

My official predictions on the season: 63-99, with Terry Collins finishing out his contract but the organization starting some marketing campaign for 2014 around Wheeler, Harvey, D’Arnaud, Wright, Ike and new manager Wally Backman. Opening Day ticket prices for 2014 will start at $50 not $63 and they will spin this as some sort of fan-favor. D’Arnaud comes up the first day that it doesn’t accelerate his clock, Wheeler after the All Star Game to sell some tickets. Attendance dips to a new Citi Field low.

7 Replies to “Don’t confuse the Mets tribe with the Mets business”

  1. Players come and go, front office staff comes and goes, owners come and go.
    The only constant are the fans….we are the NY Mets…we buy their blue and orange dress (thank goodness no black), we are the reason for their existence, we allow this team to exist because our fandom is such that even horrendous ownership and abuse is not enough for us to dissolve this team.

    And for all this we get $63 opening day tickets and $6.50 hotdogs.

  2. Players come and go, front office staff comes and goes, owners come and go.
    The only constant are the fans….we are the NY Mets…we buy their blue and orange dress (thank goodness no black), we are the reason for their existence, we allow this team to exist because our fandom is such that even horrendous ownership and abuse is not enough for us to dissolve this team.

    And for all this we get $63 opening day tickets and $6.50 hotdogs.

  3. Players come and go, front office staff comes and goes, owners come and go.
    The only constant are the fans….we are the NY Mets…we buy their blue and orange dress (thank goodness no black), we are the reason for their existence, we allow this team to exist because our fandom is such that even horrendous ownership and abuse is not enough for us to dissolve this team.

    And for all this we get $63 opening day tickets and $6.50 hotdogs.

  4. Players come and go, front office staff comes and goes, owners come and go.
    The only constant are the fans….we are the NY Mets…we buy their blue and orange dress (thank goodness no black), we are the reason for their existence, we allow this team to exist because our fandom is such that even horrendous ownership and abuse is not enough for us to dissolve this team.

    And for all this we get $63 opening day tickets and $6.50 hotdogs.

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