David Howard told Mike Francesca that fans overreacted to “sightline issues.”
David…here ya go. You keep telling me we’re wrong. Defend any of this…
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People paid you money to sit in these seats. How dare you say that overreacted!
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You forgot to include one of the most egregious ones, which could only be solved with the proposal to move home plate towards the walls by 10 feet or so: The play by play announcers have no line of sight into either outfield corner from their booth behind home plate!
The Mets made a decision that they wanted as many fans as close to the field as possible, so there is exceedingly little foul territory down the lines leading into the corners. Well, if you put the front row just a foot or two from fair territory, and that front row is 3-5 feet above the field, the only way to have a view of what's going on in that corner is to be on the opposite side of the ballpark.
Aside from the issue of railings and plexiglass, the other major sightline problem is the upper deck in left field. Again, this is because the Mets made the decision to have an upper deck in the outfield in the first place. If you're designing a ballpark with an upper deck in the outfield, the only way to have a view of more or less the entire outfield from those seats is for that upper deck to sit behind the lower deck, not above it — and you'll still lose the space right in front of the wall, but the only way around that is to elevate the field and use transparent walls, which is just silly, since you'd get a view of what's going on at the edges of the field at the expense of seeing things in the middle of the field.
Part of it is just a marketing problem. No one complains that you can't see the right field wall from the Pepsi Porch, because the whole gimmick of the Pepsi Porch is that the front rows overhang the field. A very strong argument could be made that the Mets would have been better off with a smaller upper deck in left, while adding more rows to the upper deck behind the plate where the sightlines are better. (I've found that the upper deck seats behind the plate present the best bang for the buck, giving a good view of the whole field for prices that are a hell of a lot closer to reasonable than much of the rest of the park.)
Imagine how differently we'd all be perceiving the sightlines if someone at the Mets ticketing and/or marketing departments decided that the left field seats should be marketed as sacrificing views of deep left in order to be closer to the plate, while toning down all of the talk about the ballpark having fantastic sightlines all around. Somewhere along the line this was a design decision — not good, not bad, but a decision that had to be made — that was lost somewhere along the way in favor of marketing that was designed around a set of design decisions that were different than the ones that were actually made…
You know what, I almost could tolerate Jeff in the interview yesterday. Omar should be demoted to a scout somewhere where we never have to hear him talk again…but Dave Howard…DAVE HOWARD…he should be fired instantly. Really, I wish we could take him outside the rotunda and throw fanwalk bricks at him. What a pompous a-hole. He has no clue about BASEBALL. He admittedly never sat in Camden Yards, he didn't take the teams make-up in designing the stadium, he didn't take the fans into account when building site-lines…and his parting kick in the groin. Don't worry kids, "being a Mets fan builds character." ARE YOU KIDDING ME!?! I don't want character, I want championships, preferably in a stadium I can actually see the field from.
Jeff, you sound like a man who wants to make money somehow, so in turn you want to appease the fans (even if you don't believe what you say)…so listen to the fans…FIRE DAVE HOWARD!!!
With Citi, the obvious omission was not only the seats in left, but what about the partial view seats down the left and right field line?
As for the dimensions, simple solution is moving home plate 8 feet to make center 400 feet, and get rid of the stupid Mo Zone.
In conclusion, designing a park for the current roster (and management) which will only play in the park for at most 5 years of the parks 40 year history is idiotic.
As for the building character statement, I say that but as a joke about the org — for mgmt to say that means they are incompetent.
Great post. Great suggestions, especially moving home plate up to improve sightlines and ensure the players don't crack their skulls going after foul balls. (After all, skulls are important to human players, and even clueless invertibrates like Dave Howard should know that.) But the NY Mets are now the Assklown Organization of MLB, and after hearing the Three Stooges on FatDog's show yesterday, I expect no rational changes to improve the sightlines until new ownership moves in. This is an ADD ownership that believes New York baseball is a shopping, wiffle ball, and eating experience.
keep up the good work. The views aren't much better from the Field Level concourse trying to see over people's heads and under the overhang, video screens, and sound amplifiers.
Charles and James Dolan and the rest of the owners of the MSG teams, step aside.
Fred and Jeff Wilpon and Mets management did win at least one championship this year – worst run area franchise.