(I feel bad for the dogs who bought tickets for tonight)
I was reading this article in the Times which explains the marketing of the Mets heritage nights. All makes sense, people seem to enjoy them, I don’t think anyone gets annoyed at them.
Then I got to the last line..
The Yankees do not hold ethnic theme nights, said Alice McGillion, a team spokeswoman, because “their philosophy is that everyone is welcome to every game.”
Is that a dig? Is Alice just speaking casually? Am I not welcome at Korean night?
They don’t hold ethnic nights because they’re a racist organization.
It’s just part of their “we’re better than everyone else”
It’s mainly because they’re winning/selling right now. No need to give extra to the fans, concerts, celebrations, etc.
Well for one thing lets face it, the Yankees don’t need to come up with a different promotion for every game played just to put fannies in the seats!
Second – all of their promotions are geared around promoting the Yankee brand and Yankee greatness/history. And they have enough of that to last 20-30 promotions. I mean we can celebrate the 69 and 86 Mets and after that your done! I mean how big would Pat Zachry night go over?
Everything with the Yankees is always all about the Yankees. They can do that because they win consistently! Until we start doing the same they will need to target these niche markets of Fans because right now it is way more likely to find someone who is into showing pride of being dominican than it is to show pride in being a mets fan!
Yes, and this is most closely emphasized with…
Sinatra CD Night – Selections from Come Fly Away!
Limited Edition Miniature Collectible Yankees Ford Fiesta Day!
Luggage Tag Night!
I think it may be about what sponsors they have/can get. Baseball fans, even Yankees fans, are about more than winning. See a more recent post here where a commenter says that Alomar is the reason he became a Mets fan. So marketing to “Merengue Night” is actually a fairly decent thing.
Also as the Mets, not the Yankees, are a baseball embodiment of New York, they should and do represent the Melting Pot that is New York City. I think it’s cool to see Oktoberfest dancers before the game on German Heritage night, or hear bagpipes, or whatever. Mets, and Mets fans, are a diverse group.
Ceeter…. if we’re looking to attract more Robbie Alomar fans we might as well host ‘Watermelon seed spitting night’. :/
I actually side w/ Alice on this one. We don’t need no stinkin’ ethnic nights.
Ceetar is in cahoots with the Mets if you haven’t figured that out from all his comments by now.
Alice’s comment makes her come off as dumb, but the actual reason the Yankees don’t have these nights is because they don’t need to sell seats. If the Mets were sold out or close to it without gimmick nights, you wouldn’t see them having Latin night etc.
So you’re saying they didn’t have these nights in 2008 when they were selling tickets based on the last season at Shea and set record attendance?
But yes, you repeated what I said at the end of my first mostly sarcastic comment. It’s because they don’t need to give the fans anything else because they’re already coming.
Actually, I’m going to have to side with The Yanks on this one. Holding all these “ethnic nights” is in fact racism by its definition.
If it weren’t, you would see “White Heritage” night as part of the list. People don’t see that though, because its been beaten into their heads that its okay to discriminate against some races, but not others. Which, again, is racism BY DEFINITION.
The funny thing is though that racists believed their ENTITLED to feel this way. IE, “This (Race) owes me”, or “My (Race) can say this but no other (Race) can.
Etc, Etc, Etc.
It was always one of the things which disturbed me most about The Mets. And I’m glad someone finally said something about it.
The Mets had multiple “White Heritage” night on the schedule the year.
Greek Heritage Day Saturday, June 5
Irish Heritage Night Saturday, August 14
Polish Heritage Night Tuesday, August 24
Italian Heritage Night Wednesday, August 25
Scandinavian Night Saturday, August 28
Oktoberfest Friday, October 1
Ceetar: Perhaps they should focus on winning games rather than pandering to “racial pride”?
These aren’t the values that baseball teaches us. If fact, the early pioneers who broke this “color barrier” are known by virtually everyone nationwide. But focusing too much on “Hispanic Pride!!”, “White Pride!!”, “Black Pride!!” The areas of the world that focus too much on these issues usually end up being the sites of genocide/holocaust. Think about it.
This isn’t the time or place for racial conversations I don’t believe, but two things. I don’t want to fill up Shannon’s post with what’s basically a non-baseball discussion. Just two quick points
The people that make the promotions and try to sell tickets are completely different than the ones that try to acquire players, etc.
I don’t believe celebrating ethnicity is racist anymore than celebrating Christmas is anti-semetic.
Interesting point regarding Christmas. And I wasn’t attempting to get into racially charged conversations, rather respond to what The Yankees organization said. And I do agree with them. The Yankees have had plenty of their successes, regardless of the individual team-member’s race. Heck, they had a no-hitter pitched by a man with one hand!!!
The Mets, on the other hand, seem to be pandering MOST SPECIFICALLY to one or two ethnic groups, to the point that MANY Mets fans have found it “disturbing”. I myself didn’t mind at first. Even used to call it, “embracing diversity”. The reality is that its a marketing ploy to target the “racial pride” of one or two ethnic groups. This is, quite frankly, committing a blatently racist act and then getting away with it by calling it “diversity”. Its as Orwellian as it gets.
Like it or not, the proof is in the pudding… The Yankees stance seems to work just fine for this issue, and the team/fans as a whole are probably more diverse/Global than Mets fans. The Mets could actually learn something about this issue from their cross-town rivals. Because they’ve handled this issue about as well as it gets.
do you mean the Yankees stance of designing hats with gang symbols on them?
Or how it was reported lots of criminals are wearing Yankees caps?
Yeah, they are both completely different, yet they both suck miserably at what they do lol.
You can not believe it all you want, but until they have a night celebrating every individual ethnicity, they are excluding people from having their own special night with the Mets. The Yankees cater to anyone who has the money.
I don’t think you’re really jamming up the blog considering there is no relevant Mets news for the rest of the season.
Wow, there are some ignorant and downright stupid people in the Mets Fanbase.
NYC is unbelievably diverse and Queens is particularly so. More languages are spoken in Queens than anywhere else in the world. So while the Mets marketing staff may not be the greatest overall, they have been incredibly wise to market to various ethnicities year after year. As the article points out, other teams do the very same thing.
Its not about favoring certain ethnicities while excluding others, its about targeting the major ones in the area who are going to buy the most tickets. Similarly, the Mets do special days for local communities an for charities.
http://mlb.mlb.com/nym/schedule/themedates.jsp
I am pretty sure the reason they had a Breast Cancer Day & not a Brain Cancer Day isn’t because they favor the fight against Breast Cancer or Brain Cancer.
As earlier stated, the Yankees have far more giveaways than the Mets do. So if you are going to say the Mets need to sell tickets via the use of promos, what does that say about the Yanks.
Seriously people, use your freaking brains when attempting criticizing the Mets.