Very, very interesting read from NYTIMES.com. I will comment as we go along.
The Mets, long one of baseball’s most highly valued franchises, have lost millions of dollars in recent years, including nearly $50 million in 2010, according to two people briefed on the team’s finances.
Nearly lost 50 million dollars last year? And this isn’t even the stuff about Madoff. Just cost of doing business expenses.
The losses — the club’s falloff in revenue was the largest year-to-year decline for any major league team in recent years — are certainly jarring for a franchise operating in the nation’s most lucrative market. In 2009, the Mets, boasting one of the sport’s most expensive payrolls, opened the season in a new park, Citi Field, and the club took in revenue of more than $350 million. Still, it lost close to $10 million, according to the two people briefed on the matter.
Opening up of a new ball park and lost close to $10 million. Has that happened anywhere before? I am far from a financial guru and I definitely do not know about other baseball cities and their finances at all. But, WOW.
The falloff in revenue in 2010 for the Mets was one of the most striking for any club since the losses suffered by the Florida Marlins in 1998, when their roster was decimated by cost-cutting ownership a year after the team won the World Series.
Really? This is as bad as the Marlins fire sale in ’98? OUCH!
And sales of what are known as full-season equivalents — a mix of small and large season-ticket packages — are projected to top out at 10,000 this year, less than half the total sold just two years ago. Without any major player signings after last season’s 79-83 record, there might not be much for fans to root for.
The Mets would not comment on their financial situation, other than to say that ticket sales for the 2011 season are up over the same time last year.
Ticket sales are gangbusters I thought. I guess maybe single game ticket and flex plan sales are up. The people who had plans must have ditched them and went for the smaller flex plans and single tickets.
There is a lot more in this article and its getting late. So, you can read more here and get your own take on the story.
Just to swat the dead horse one more time before the day is done, how are they losing so much money when they have all those black caps & jerseys jumping off the shelves?
I like the Black Cap and Unis…..but i like all of them, depends what im in the mood to wear i guess