Author: Shannon Shark @metspolice

A guest post from Scott:

Are sports teams entering  the secondary ticket market?

Places like Ticketmaster, through the events they sell have indirectly been getting involved in the secondary ticket market for some time now.  With their VIP options, and “auctions” just being a glorified way of directly scalping tickets to consumers, could sports teams also already be involved in a similar practice?

It’s strange to look at the Yankees and Mets ticket sales and watch how on stubhub, there can be blocks of tickets for premium games to which group tickets were supposedly not sold.  On the other end, with tickets selling for pennies on the dollar, are the teams directly involved in this practice?

Is MLB possibly in cahoots with Stubhub and reaping a significant portion of the fees and shipping charges to off set directly selling tickets that wouldn’t move otherwise for such a low price?   If this is happening, wouldn’t it be a serious conflict of interest?

More recently, is it possible the Mets are holding back single game cheap seats to the Yankees series in order to generate the perception of these tickets being sold out and forcing the unknowing customer into an up-sell?  The ticket world could be going down a very slippery slope and ironically, it may be because of the teams and not the typical talking point, the scalpers.

I don’t know what goes on or doesn’t, but I will tell some personal anecdotes.

Just this week I heard this story: A friend of mine is going to Chicago this summer and bought some tickets on Stubhub.  A few minutes later he got a thank you email from the Cubs.  That was nice of them.

This morning MLB emailed many fans including me to let us know we could buy tickets to the Yankees or Phillies series on Stubhub.

I decided to see if there were any tickets available through Mets.com for Tuesday’s game.  Yep – I can get myself some $19 seats.

I’m not smart enough to know what motivated MLB to send such an email today.  Perhaps there are some bargains on Stubhub they wanted me to know about.  I could right now get two for Tuesday from Stubhub for $18, which is less than the face – I’m not sure how it shakes out once fees are compared.

So, thanks MLB for letting me know I can potentially save a buck.  That must be it.

Forbes did another one of their reports – this time focusing on “brand value.”

The Mets come in at #9. Guess who is #1?

I’m not sure Forbes did all of their homework…this sentence is suspect:

The Mets have built their brand in part by successfully integrating the Brooklyn Dodgers and New York Giants’ storied pasts with their own

If you’re looking for me on Friday I’ll meet you by the Mel Ott statue.

Over the weekend I asked Randy from The Apple if he would be kind enough to provide a guest column about Los Mets jerseys with a perspective different than mine.

Here’s Randy:

When Shannon asked me to chime in with my opinion on the whole Los Mets thing I wasn’t sure I even had one. As it turns out I have two, and they completely contradict each other.

First off let me preface anything I say with the fact that as a Puerto Rican, I have sort a weird perspective on most issues facing the Hispanic community. In case you don’t know while Puerto Rico has many different cultural and language differences from the United States, we are still all born citizens of the U.S. So no matter how weird what we do may sometimes seem, keep in mind we are still Americans. I guess in that way we are like Texans. We act differently, a lot of people don’t like us and no one understands a thing we say. Yup, just like Texas.

So it is with that in mind that I approach my whole love/hate stance Los Mets issue.

*Why I Love the Jersey.*

Everyone wants to be included. Whether you’re Puerto Rican, Dominican, Mexican or from any of the many other Spanish speaking nations, it feels good when an organization run by old White men throws you a bone and gives you a tip of the cap. Is it a shallow gesture? OF COURSE it’s a shallow gesture but it doesn’t do any damage to the community. Also for personal reasons I love seeing how mad some people get when anything Spanish is introduced. You all know the guy. He calls the fan and screams about the Mets playing any Spanish music but is fine with Lou Monti’s Italian 7^th inning anthem.

Another reason I don’t mind the jersey is because, let’s be honest, the Mets don’t have some Yankee-esque devotion to one uniform. Looking back to ’62, the Mets have had no less than 842 different uniforms. The Mets have had so many uniforms that even the Mets museum doesn’t have them all. (Mid 90’s Softball swoosh anyone?) So what’s the big deal if on one or two nights they slap a Los on there?

*Why I Hate the Jersey.*

First and foremost it’s lazy. “Hey Charlie, order 50 patches that say “Los” and slap them on to existing Mets jerseys. That’ll shut those Lah-Tinos up.” We couldn’t do a larger design tweak than “los”?

Then there’s the whole grammatical issue. While it is correct that if you walk up to a Spanish speaking Mets fan and ask him his favorite team he will most likely answer “Los Mets”, it seems odd to put the Spanish equivalent of “The Mets” on a jersey. While Metropolitanos would be the literal translation, that would be a huge amount of stuff to splash across a jersey which makes me fearful that we would end up becoming the “M-Tanos” and if that happens, we all lose. There’s Nueva York which I think would make an awesome jersey but it’s really more of a road thing. Would have been great if they could have worn Nueva York jerseys when they played the “Los Marlins” last week.

*So Which is It?*

In the end I say keep the “Los Mets jerseys but put a little thought into it. Tweak the design so “Los” doesn’t look like such an afterthought. Why not put various Spanish nations flags as sleeve patches. Have different guys wear their nations flag and have non-Latinos represent unrepresented nations. David Wright could represent Panama for example while Beltran could wear his native PR. Or if that’s too much work, design a sleeve patch with lots of flags incorporated and write Latin heritage night or whatever they are calling it this year. Regardless of what they decide the most important thing is that it remain a once a year thing. Keep it special and make a big deal about it one night and that’s it. Don’t turn it into an even more watered down marketing gimmick.

OK, it felt good to get that off my chest, now I can go back to writing fake news.

..

If you haven’t checked out The Apple yet, you really should.  Randy writes fake Mets news every day and is consistently funny.

Hello Blue Cap Army – an idea is being floated around for next week.   Could happen, or we could all decide we’re lazy/busy.  I think this one could be cool.

If you want to make sure you don’t miss out – you can “register” your email and I will send you a note when we figure it out.  I don’t spam, I don’t market to you.  I’m just trying to get fans together.  (You’ll find the sign-up box on the main Mets Police page).  I’ll also post it here when-and-if there’s a plan.

If you’re already a member of the BCA, you’re in.  No need to sign up again.

Mrs. Mets Police just came home with a burrito which is great because I’m starving (it’s a quarter to nine, where’s my dinner?!) and Lost is on in 15 minutes…catch ya after the game.