I am quite serious that baseball is in trouble. Read this SI piece about how the next generation does not care about this sport and how Ninja is a bigger star than anyone in the game. Long games, bad start times, no stars, the crappy stadium experience despite modern amenities – it’s all adding up.
Specific to the Mets, this current rebuild is a complete disaster. The fanbase spent the 2010s in the wilderness…and Cespedes and Murph gave us 7 hot weeks to head fake everyone with a World Series appearance (don’t get me wrong, World Series appearances are great things) – but now it’s another tear down and rebuild. The fans are tired, and there’s just more to do for both the entertainment dollar and the entertainment time.
The days of “should we watch the Mets or play Monopoly” are lonnnnng gone. There’s too much to do, and not enough time to do it. Watching Austin Jackson, Joey Bats and The Virus is not a way to get anyone into your product.
So I come to you with a very bold prediction.
THE METS WILL NEVER DRAW 2.789M again.
I understand that NEVER is a very long time. That 2.7 number is the second highest total in Citi Field history.
2009’s 3.1M and an average of 39K plus….Never Ever happening. I won’t even take that one out for a dance.
2016 is not so long ago, and it followed a World Series. An average of 34,000.
This season they are averaging 28,505…multiply that by 81 and you get 2.3M.
I think the sport is damaged, the team brand is damaged, and the new stadium smell is long gone.
Sure, at some point the Mets will start winning, and the comedians and the frontrunners will come home to Queens as they always do – I just think there will be fewer of them, and they will be older. I’m not sure todays 15 year old is going to care when he is 30.
You think I am crazy? How many horse races have you been to lately? How about that big boxing match? (Bonus Points: Name a boxer who isn’t Floyd Mayweather.)
2.789 million attending baseball games in Queens? Never gonna happen again.
