No Mets Opening Day ticket lottery this year?

22 Replies to “No Mets Opening Day ticket lottery this year?”

1. Being that their ticketing system essentially is a lottery (it is not first come first served), there really is no need for a lottery. I wouldn’t be surprised if it were canned.

   On top of that, there were thousands upon thousands of “duplicate” entries with people often winning several presale passwords at different address etc.

   This lottery was so much of an issue in the past that they had many people not buying tickets that won, had to do a “second wave” of notifications for a new group of winners and then still had to release tickets to the general public as they didn’t sell out. It’s hardly worth the trouble when your system weeds people out via lottery to begin with.

   Let’s not forget, the Mets didn’t sell out opening day last year, so as hot a ticket as it may have been, you could gave gotten in day of if you had the $.

2. I got a call from the Mets ticket office (I’ve never owned any Mets ticket package myself, so this is based on buying individual tickets, and even then, I’m not sure how they got my number) about getting a package for Opening Day and the Yankees (I forget how the guy worded it on my voicemail). I don’t remember getting one of those in some time, if ever, from the Mets. I think they’re getting desparate. Then again, I thought last year, they’d think a lottery for any game might be warranted.

   1. wow thats interesting. When did they call?

3. DyHrdMET

   I got a ton of those calls in previous years, once I started using my card to buy tickets.
   Definitely got repeated calls in 2007, which certainly wasn’t a year they were having trouble selling packages for.

   And Scott, I’m not sure what you mean by not selling out Opening Day. Since Stub Hub came into being, I doubt there has been a single completely sold out sporting event anywyhere, but come general sale of Mets tickets, you certainly couldn’t buy an Opening Day ticket, since I tried. For the first couple of hours you could get one of those $500 tickets, but I’m pretty sure those vanished pretty soon too.

4. Tickets were available via the box office and online for opening day until the day of the game. I know this because I was looking at them over several days before the game and eventually purchased some. Of course they weren’t upper deck, but Caesars club and up in pricing was still available the day of the game. The tickets didn’t sell. They may have eventually been comped as upgrades come game time.

   1. you mean in 2009? Well even the Yankees had unsold $3,000 seats.

5. Maybe the opening day packages are doing well enough that they don’t expect to have affordable tickets to sell via lottery. I don’t think that too many people would be happy if the Caesars Club & up tickets were what was offered via lottery.

   It’s pointless to speculate on the ticket sales without some real data, and the Mets are the only ones who have that.

6. Check your facts bro, there weren’t Opening Day lotteries until about 4 years ago. I know this because I used to be one of hundreds who would camp out overnight at Shea on a cold February night. It used to be a great experience with many of the people there recognizing one another from years past. We would have wiffle ball games and share in some adult libations. Then in the early 2000s the Mets decided to cease rewarding us for our all night, 20 degree, dedication and implement this lottery for OD and the Yanks series. This essentially crushed the need to be out there at Shea. In fact the next year they didn’t even bother sending any former players down like they always would, just a depressed Mr. Met. Chalk up another fun fan experience killed by the Wilpon$.

   1. Eddie has it only been that short of a period? I feel it was longer than than.
      Now that you mention it, I do remember going to Roosevelt Field circa 2002.

7. I probably have the voicemail DHM is talking about in my mailbox, If I remember I’ll forward it to you if you’re curious. They called the same day I got the email about the lux suites, so sounds like it was a “Sales Day”

   I think I agree with Paul, about the opening day packages doing well enough that they don’t have enough tickets to sell via lottery. Really the idea was to cut down on scalpers being able to buy 400 tickets and resell them, but limiting it to 4 a person does that almost as well anyway. On the other hand, maybe they worry about selling those mid-range tickets and are hoping scalpers gamble with them.

   Scott, maybe you just got lucky and got the 15-game pack tickets that were dumped into general sale closer to Opening day. I checked fairly frequently and never found an 2009 Opener ticket for less than the $100 I was willing to spend. This is why they lowered the ticket prices for those seats though.

   Also, this isn’t a ‘negative’ in terms of the Mets selling tickets. The ‘champion’ (vomit) Yankees had the same deal with Opening day tickets and even playoff tickets.

8. I don’t see how teams want to “cut down” on scalpers when they have partnered up with stub hub so people CAN scalp their tickets. I get the logical connection between the lottery and scalping, but it was more just a public face because during that same time at least last year, the Mets were selling directly to “scalpers” to get rid of inventory depending on your definition of a scalper.

9. I’ve been going to Opening Day for about 12 years now, and I feel like the lottery only came up in the past two or three years. I used to go online to buy the tickets, then my friends and I bought a six- or seven-pack for a few years. In ’08 and ’09, we went the lottery/Stub Hub route.

   FWIW, I don’t necessarily see the Wilpons as killing the campout tradition, but the internet — more people choosing to buy online, fewer choosing to camp out. I don’t know from experience; it’s just a hunch.

10. Yeah, but whose decision is it to sell over the internet? It’s not like they couldn’t do 1st day sales in person only.

11. Do you guys think Mets Opening Day will be sold out? I bought two sets of really good seats but my friend bailed on me and I don’t want to take a huge loss on the tickets.

    1. I think the Opener will be sold out in spirit. I’m confident there will be a pricey ticket available right up to game time, but the less expensive seats will be filled with fannies. How pricey are your seats?

12. Last I checked (29 days until Opening Day) the cheapest seat available is $165 or so, so yeah, probably will be able to get rid of some tickets.

13. One set is about $180/ticket and the other is $220/ticket. I don’t mind taking a small loss but it doesn’t seem like tickets are really selling for much on Ebay. If anyone is interested they’re sections 124 and 109–I’d rather get them to a true fan rather than a ticket scalper just trying to make a buck.

    1. don’t bother with ebay. post them on stubhub for a dollar less than the next guy and they’ll go.

14. Good point..I think I might try that unless I can get rid of them on Craig’s List or from a friend. Do you know if there is a way to see what has sold on StubHub?

    1. the reason im pushing stubhub us because it’s guaranteed. you dont have to do anything. just punch in the codes and thats it. no fedex. no meeting a guy in a parking lot. you know the $ is real.

15. Josh: If you start listing the tickets it does usually tell you what tickets have sold for recently in that section. on Stub Hub that is.

    Also, it’s still a little bit early I think. I imagine second-hand ticket sales will pick up when the season draws a little closer.

16. Thanks so much for the help. I really appreciate it.

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