I actually had time last night to work on things and I realized that I never posted this one. I had intended to link tot his on 8/8 but I guess I never did.
Howard Megdal on tickets…(again this from a few days back)
The Mets are drawing an average of 29,159 fans per home date in 2012. That’s actually up slightly from 2011, when they drew 29,044 per home date.
Well that seems good. Not dire, right?
However, Howard senses doom…
Through 52 home dates in 2011, the Mets averaged 30,417 fans per game. So through the portion of the season that included some amount of postseason hope, they were about 1,258 fans per game higher than they have been in 2012 so far.
Interesting. Good point. I will observe that the Mets’ ticket sales were digging out of that 130 loss projection.
It seems that the Mets have played the same amount of games at home (through 8/7) that they did last year (through 8/7) so it makes for a good comparison.
Over their final 29 home games in 2011, the Mets averaged 26,583 per game, a decline of 3,834 fans per game from their first 52 game average.
An identical drop in 2012 would put the Mets on pace to draw 2,250,706 fans in 2012, a drop of 101,890 fans. If that sounds like a negligible amount, keep in mind that 250,000 fans are worth approximately $25 million to the Mets in revenue.
via Mets ticket sales are looking dire, too | Capital New York.
Interesting take. What we don’t know is what the Mets’ advance ticket sales look like. Have people bought tickets for T-Shirt Tuesday or some weekend games?
Without knowing anything I think Howard’s analysis will likely be close to the final number.
However, I’m not sure that 2.2 million fans is “dire” especially given the absolute venom that was printed in newspapers all winter long. It was a rough rough off-season…all things being equal 2.2 may not be a bad number.
Shannon, you’re kidding, right? The Mets, with 2.3 million ticket sales last year, lost 70 million dollars. Ticket sales are slightly down this year, and prices are down considerably, so that means less revenue. They have cut expenses by more than 50 million dollars, but that isn’t enough to break even, even if revenue had stayed flat.
Another year like that from ownership desperately in need of money is a big problem. But then, you knew that.
i think you did a great job projecting the final ticket number. Some great insight in there.
I do not know anything about the Wilpons finances both in the colloquial “Shannon knows nothing about finances” nor do I actually know anything Ben,ause nobody has given me a have to examine their books.
I do know that I am several hundred thousand dollars in debt. Fortunately I can manage my debt and in the meantime get to live in this house I borrowed against. Hopefully I won’t have to sell.
It won’t matter if the Mets lose $100 million dollars, the Wilpons are not going to sell. They’ll juggle their fortune around, sell more minority shares to ever-willing investors, cut expenses (on the bright side, a half-empty stadium means you can just close off half of it with no ushers, concessions, etc.). Just think about it for a damned minute. If YOU had a major league franchise, would you give it up before you exhausted every other possible option?
Honestly, we may as well be discussing secret underground plots to poison Jeff’s hot dog or frame Fred for running a crack lab, as either is about as likely to happen as them ever selling because of cash flow.
It’s been really hot. More than once I decided against going to a game when it was 90+ outside. Even on giveaway days.