Category: Uncategorized

I continue to think the Mets don’t think everything through.

Now that the 6 packs are out, one of them includes the Hall of Fame Game.  That seems nice, right?  A Nice Sunday afternoon at the park with some old greats.

However, as I previously discussed, the Hall of Fame game is not part of the Sunday Plus pack. Sure it’s part of the Weekend Plus pack, but if I give the Mets money for 15 games (and let’s all be real, anyone buying that pack wants it for the Sunday games and will just live with the rest) and then they put a cool event on a game I don’t have I get mad.   Now they go and bundle the game with 5 others.  It’s no longer as easy as “shut up and buy one more game.”  You may need to now have, in-effect, a 21 game pack.

That’s the sort of thing that makes people like me throw up their hands and decide to buy no tickets.  Why give the Mets money for 15 games when they could gouge you for 21 just to see the coolest day of the year.  The smart guys are the guys that waited for the Mets to blink and now are buying 6 packs.  The smarter guys are the one’s who will just buy day-of or use Stubhub.

This is the kind of thing I don’t think they think through.  Maybe they do, maybe they run some numbers and figure most Sunday Plus holders are fools and will come back no matter how poorly they are treated.   This is the New York Mets, in Citi Field where the Shakes are great!  Fans would never walk away in droves!  What else can we bundle?  The short-term balance sheet looks great!  We just need to win before they catch on. Maybe that’s the mentality.  Oh yeah. I forgot my own rule: everyone remember, it’s a business.

In the post about the new parking rates at Citi I made a sarcastic comment that it must cost more to park cars at a concert than a game.  Ceetar asked (in the comments) if maybe the additional money goes to the artist.

Here’s the excellent Sports Business Journal:

The concert revenue was welcome at a time when everyone in sports is battling the effects of the recession. MLB clubs do not have to share their portion of concert revenue with other teams.

The three teams all struck traditional rent deals with promoters, rather than promoting the concerts themselves, as a few organizations have begun to do. Under the rental arrangement, the acts take most ticket revenue, and the teams make their money on ticket fees, concessions and parking.

I think that last sentence tells all.   They are making none to little on the tickets, so you’re going to pay $30 to park.   Or read this Mets Police guide to being cheap about parking.

Three things catch my eye this morning:

1.  The mainstream press has learned of the 6 packs which Mets Police told you about two days ago. I don’t say that to show off (I only found out because a reader, Peter, told me) but I find it interesting that the link was live before the press release went out yesterday at 4:30, and yes the link was live to the point you could complete a purchase.

2.  The Mets have added a 6th pack which was not there two days ago:   The Pyrotechnics Pack includes Fr. April 23 (Braves), Thurs May 27 (Phillies), Tues. June 22 (Tigers),Mon. July 5 (Reds), Fri. Aug 27th (Astros), Wed. September 29th (Brewers)

July 5th is Pyrotechnics night, about which I can’t find any information other than it sounds better than having Fireworks Night the day after July 4th.

3.  I still think my idea for a Seven Game Pack was better, more fan-friendly, and could have become a happening.  However, my plan likely doesn’t fit the model of manipulating people into buying games they don’t want.  I’ll get into that later today.

The Wall Street Journal (which has a very underrated sports section) has a fun story about stadium naming rights, and me being me, I couldn’t help but share these two paragraphs.

When Dan Gilbert bought the Cleveland Cavaliers in 2005 for $375 million, he named the team’s arena after his company, Quicken Loans. Since the change, the Cavaliers have won 66% of their games. They’d won 44% in the 11 previous seasons when the building was named for the team’s former owner, Gordon Gund.

Citigroup seems to have had the opposite effect. Since the company signed a 20-year, $400 million agreement with the New York Mets in late 2006, the team hasn’t made it to the playoffs. Its first season in its brand-new ballpark, Citi Field, produced the team’s worst record in 15 years.

Personally I don’t care if the stadium is named Citi Field.  I would have preferred Shea or something Mets related, but now that it has a name, Citi Field is the name and should last forever…lest we be like the Marlins/Dolphins.