This one is bothering me. Junior and I hit the game last night and once again we didn’t really have fun. We weren’t miserable, but the entire experience was meh.
I have been increasingly feeling this way.
Last night we got there our usual early (traffic concerns) and went inside.
We were given a t-shirt, not the best looking design, but hey a free t-shirt. So that should be a plus.
We didn’t go in the museum – presumably nothing new to see.
We didn’t go in the store – got enough merch.
We didn’t check out the Rotunda.
Got some food and found a picnic table and hung at Worlds Fare area. I like the picnic tables a lot (seriously). It’s a nice place to chill and they should add more tables around the park.
Didn’t go to center field. He’s getting a little big for the activities out there, and we’ve done them all.
Down to the Star Wars thing. Was it a parade? A costume contest? I guess the latter. The “Bullpen Plaza” is the worst area in the stadium. It’s like the basement storage area of Citi Field. It was a bad look for the Mets and for Disney Star Wars to have something down there. It’s just a bad spot in the park and they should try to figure something else out down there. (They’ve buried the ASG apples there, will post that later.)
So Junior entered the contest on the fly and we had sort of fun. He didn’t win which we never expected to.
Up to our seats and Oh My The Emptiness.
So we sat in our seats and watched a game. I guess it was a “good” game with big long home runs and the good guys winning. But the “when should we leave?” conversation started pretty early on a beautiful summer night – and it wasn’t the whiny kid nor the crotchety dad who started it. We just both were like “why are we here, we could be doing something else.” I don’t know what the Else would have been, but it was still more appealing than sitting in an energy less ballpark.
We made our way through six, and had gotten our fill, and we left.
It wasn’t a bad night. It wasn’t a good night. The battle for my free time and money is being lost (those bridges are not cheap these days!!!! Seriously – 14 and 15 to cross the rivers).
I don’t know what I was looking for, but it’s not at Citi Field this season, and that bothers me.
Welcome to reality. This stadium was designed smaller than the real Shea, with the plan that it would be filled every night. Financially it must be a disaster. This hurts the payroll, which hurts the product, which makes the ballpark empty, which hurts payroll…what a vicious cycle. The park has a bland, antiseptic feel…but Met fans were a raucous, energetic bunch at Shea. Many of those fans are priced out of this park and don’t like the product anyway. Throw in the fact that the Yankees have stolen a nice chunk of our fanbase and you have a nightmare. It would take new ownership to have the vision to get out of this cycle. It would be a great time to start, because the Yankees losing Mariano last year and Jeter this year will not be the same, maybe in our lifetimes.
You can’t call yourself a mets fan and leave before last out.
wow! I was there on Thursday for the only Met loss in a week or so, plus they seemed to revert to the old offense, especially considering what they did last night again, but it was an absolute gorgeous night & me & my guests had a blast! Not sure what you need to have fun at a Met game? Yes it wasn’t as filled as a team 10 games over .500, but we all realize that will start to happen (not if) when they start to win again! I also had tix for CAESAR’S CLUB & ASCELA CLUB, so that helped, but still, not really sure what was so bad? Personally, since I live in Jersey, I only get to 2-4 games a year, and try & enjoy every minute of it! Love baseball & love beautiful summer nights!
apparently you did not drink enough.. haha. I had a blast, I think, wish I could remember.
the METS are a desperate company
metspolice Really, what is it that you expect? Not everyone is ready to finance the Wilpons’ debts after winning 6 of 8. Try again in a mon
@Dept of Corrections A raucous bunch? I wasn’t alive in the 70’s, but I certainly was in the 90’s and I’ll tell you this much, the crowd was about as raucous then as I heard they were when the place was Grant’s Tomb. If the on field product was better, perhaps you’d enjoy Citi more, but as it stands, calling it antiseptic is a big misnomer. Shea Stadium was the definition of a cookie cutter park. The character it had was built over decades, but it was a multipurpose stadium in the same way most of the era had been. Cookie cutter. If you want to talk antiseptic, have you been to places like the Oakland Colosseum? Hell, even Yankee Stadium, which is a giant gray mall has less character than Citi and that place is just as old. Citi has its ups and downs for sure, but it’s not a bad park by any means.
The experience at the ballpark is designed around one-time visitors, not
regulars. The whole economic and entertainment model is focused on
getting people to the ballpark, but not keeping them there. Beyond the
field there needs to be more change, more options that evolve during the
course of the season. The ballpark should be more of a living,
breathing thing, a place you can go and spend time without getting
bored. There should be new exhibitions every home stand at the museum.
There could be special guests, temporary food options, more interactive
elements that are tied to being at the games (think a baseball game
appropriate version of a scavenger hunt). I believe the game is the
reason people should go to the ballpark, and there is a lot more than
can be done to make even the worst teams interesting to watch that are
ignored by management. But there are also missed opportunities to think
about the ballpark as a culture center and not just a seating area with
food options.
I went to the same game as Shannon and we had a blast. Its also who you socialize with at games. Have to be able to interact with more people.
if the Mets offered a free of charge random Tuesday night game in say mid-September first come first-served seating (I now this is 100% fantasy, would never happen), I wonder how many people would show up.
Are there 42,000 Mets fans in New York that would come?
Someone here or somewhere commented on the cost to GET to Flushing, which is not the Mets fault, is really high. From Westchester, two Whitestone Bridge tolls, and say two gallons of gas=$20-$25, just to get there. Granted, I can find free parking, but many would think to pay $20 to park, and while one doesn’t have to buy food or beer, most would, so a free game can be expensive…
And now many Mets fans are watching soccer, another competitor.
I believe that the Mets model is simple. Lose money every year, tread water, and wait till Donald Sterling buys them for the $2 billion he gets from somebody… In other words, the Mets might lose money every year, but the value of the team presumably goes up and up and up, in spite of themselves.
Am I of topic? Probably!
🙂
Back on topic, hopefully, no doubt a half or more empty stadium can be a drag, and supporting a loser forever can take it’s toll (I have been a Mets and Jets fan since the early 60’s and not much to show for it and it does take it’s toll), and yes, if you go with fun people none of it matters, but beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and going to a Mets game is probably about cup half full or empty.
And does the Mets MAKE NOISE Department mellow out when there are only 3,000 people in the park? Probably not, which drives me bonkers, no one in the park, but you still can’t have a conversation with your neighbor. And does the desperation hype ever stop? No.
The MAKE NOISE Department has single handidly (spelling?) ruined my game experience, ironic since someone up there surely believes that they are making it better. NO, many guys I know over say age 45 or 50 HATE it, and some won’t go because of it. This is not just a Mets thing, it’s spreading like wildfire, and next season the Mets will probably bring in a cheerleading p.a. announcer, and a D.J., to whip the crowd to a frenzy. My nightmare compounded.
OOps, probably off topic again.
JordanFiddle Oh I am with you on the Noise. Meanwhile everyone goes to Wrigley Field because it’s everything the modern parks are not. Nice organ music. Sounds great. We don’t need CLAP CLAP CLAP after every pitch