Mets Share Great Ticket Secret With The World (With Service Charge)

I’m sure it’s a coincidence but right after Metspolice.com asks why the Mets are hiding their ticket plans from the world, suddenly they’ve announced them!

First major offense is this:  Note: A $25 service charge will apply to each Plan purchase.

Why?  Mets answer us!   Why do you have to tackle on $25?   What possibly justifies this?  Perhaps you need it to offset the $20 million in taxpayer money you will decline to take from Citigroup?  Maybe you’re just greedy bastards.

I also see that if Mets Police Junior and I want a ticket plan it’s going to cost us $600.  

Some “highlights” below.

40 Game “A” Plan
This plan includes every-other regular season game to be played at Citi Field, starting April 15.

Seat Categories:
 Note: A $25 service
 charge will apply to
 each Plan purchase.
Metropolitan Box $5,970 per seat (Left Field Restaurant access included)
Excelsior Club Gold $5,970 per seat (Excelsior Club access included)
Field Box $4,975 per seat (Left Field Restaurant access included)
Baseline Box $2,985 per seat  
Excelsior Club $2,985 per seat (Excelsior Club access included)
Promenade Club $2,388 per seat (Promenade Club access included)
Left Field Reserved $1,990 per seat


5 Game Friday Plan
This plan includes ten (10) Friday and five (5) weekday regular season games to be played at Citi Field -starting April 17- and features matchups with the Yankees and the American League Champion Tampa Bay Rays.

Seat Categories:
 Note: A $25 service
 charge will apply to
 each Plan purchase.
Left Field Landing $600 per seat
Promenade Box $525 per seat
Promenade Reserved Infield $375 per seat
Promenade Reserved $285 per seat

Click here to display the Plan dates & opponents »

 15 Game Saturday Plan
This plan includes ten (10) Saturday and five (5) weekday regular season games to be played at Citi Field -starting April 18- and features contests with the Yankees and Rays, the National League Central Champion Cubs and the N.L. Wild Card Brewers.

Seat Categories:
 Note: A $25 service
 charge will apply to
 each Plan purchase.
Left Field Landing $600 per seat
Promenade Box $525 per seat
Promenade Reserved Infield $375 per seat
Promenade Reserved $285 per seat

Click here to display the Plan dates & opponents »

 15 Game Sunday Plan
This plan includes ten (10) Sunday and five (5) weekday regular season games to be played at Citi Field -starting April 16- and is highlighted by the 2009 regular season Subway Series finale and games with the Cubs and Brewers.

Seat Categories:
 Note: A $25 service
 charge will apply to
 each Plan purchase.
Left Field Landing $624 per seat
Promenade Box $546 per seat
Promenade Reserved Infield $390 per seat
Promenade Reserved $297 per seat

Click here to display the Plan dates & opponents »

 15 Game Weekend Plan
This plan includes three (3) Friday, three (3) Saturday, three (3) Sunday, and six (6) weekday regular season games to be played at Citi Field -starting April 15- and features three battles with the Phillies plus matchups with the N.L. West Champion Dodgers, Cubs, Rays, and ending with the final regular season game against the Astros.

Seat Categories:
 Note: A $25 service
 charge will apply to
 each Plan purchase.
Left Field Landing $648 per seat
Promenade Box $567 per seat
Promenade Reserved Infield $405 per seat
Promenade Reserved $309 per seat

Click here to display the Plan dates & opponents »

 15 Game Weekday Plan
This plan includes Opening Day and 14 other weekday regular season games to be played at Citi Field -starting April 13- and features three games each with the division-rival Phillies and Atlanta Braves, and a contest with the Dodgers.

Seat Categories:
 Note: A $25 service
 charge will apply to
 each Plan purchase.
Left Field Landing $568 per seat
Promenade Box $497 per seat
Promenade Reserved Infield $355 per seat
Promenade Reserved $269 per seat

Click here to display the Plan dates & opponents »

Citi Storm Coming Mets Way

Hey Mets, I warned you Monday to get out in front of this one.  Return the $20M for the first year (take it on the back end) and make some “noble” statement about jobs and the economy and the holidays blah blah.
 
There’s a PR storm coming, and it’s going to wind up being something like “Mets Pay Big Free Agent $20M in Bailout Funds, Citigroup lays off 50,000 at Christmas.”
 
Here’s a roundup of today’s stormwatch:
 
 
Two New York City Council members say that Citigroup should show its thanks for a federal bailout by sharing the naming rights to the new Mets ballpark in Queens.
 
 

Here is what CFO Gary Crittendon had to say about it Monday on CNBC:

“That was a decision made in a different time. We have binding legal agreements… I don’t think it’s an issue.”

 

So let’s follow the money here: The government gives funds to Citigroup, who is now better able to make an annual payment to the Mets. Sounds a bit like a new taxpayer subsidy for the Mets, who are already receiving government subsidies for building their stadium.

 

Yes Gary, it is impossible to renegotiate any contract with a partner in trouble.   It has never been done.

 
 
That $20 million per year – which, by the way, the Mets don’t seem all that eager to invest in the free-agent market despite another dismal late-season collapse – is coming out of your paycheck and mine, funneled through the federal government to the failed executives of Citigroup, and ultimately winds up in Fred Wilpon’s pocket.

This amounts to not only the worst kind of corporate welfare, with no punishments meted out and no strings attached, it also adds up to 20 years of free advertising for a bank with nothing to brag about but a vault full of fail.

 
This is just the latest chapter in two sorry histories, the first being that of the U.S. banking industry and the second being that of the New York Mets.

For all the hand-wringing about the way the Yankees go about their business, it is really the Mets, the “little brothers” in town, who are the most fan-hostile organization in New York sports.

 
 
Those are the words of Wallace Matthews.  Amen brother!
 
 
 
 
 

Who is #41?

Man we're getting old. The cool chick in the office (she likes baseball and Galactica, although she's a Bosox fan) comes into my office and admires the photo I have up. It's two baseball players standing on a pitchers mound with their backs to us. The younger one wears #31 and she immediately recognized him.

She asks me, "Who's 41?"

I couldn't believe it. Who's 41???? Tom Seaver!

She wasn't impressed. The name meant nothing to her.

"He was even on the Sox. He was sitting in your dugout when you lost in 1986!"

She just said, "I was five" and left.

Sent via BlackBerry from T-Mobile

Kindred Spirit (link)

A kindred spirit wonders if the Mets will lose their identity at Citi Field:

It seriously makes me sick. We are the New York METS, not the dodgers!
And we even have the fabulous “Jackie Robinson Rotunda” to view when we enter our new state of the art facility.
No disrespect to number 42, but what on earth does he have to do with the METS!?!?

Los Dodgers 2.0

Why Are Citi Field Ticket Prices A State Secret?

(I’m writing this on Monday afternoon so if the Mets have updated their website between now and then, fine they got me.)

Why are the ticket prices at Citi Field a state secret?

Sure we’ve heard some anecdotal evidence from Mushnick and a few others, mainly from folks who are renewing their ticket plans.

A visit to Mets.com provides absolutely zero information.   I can leave a deposit for $250 for a partial-plan, but that seems insane to do, there’s no mention of how many games I would get or where the seats are.  What if the Mets offer me the one-game behind a pole plan?

There is of course a link to Stubhub, the official home of MLB scalping.   I can tell you the cheapest listed ticket for Opening Night is $189.   Nearly two hundred bucks to sit outside on a cold April night.  Heaven forbid they play a day game.