So, attendance

[Frayed Knot]

With news that MLB's attendance is up slightly (0.7%) over the same point last season which looks to give the league the first consecutive years of attendance gains since 2011-12. Some of this is connected to the change in pace rule changes as this year will be up 10% over 2022. By season's end this weekend it is expected to be MLB's highest attendance since 2017, back up above 70+ million.

But what about the Mets?
They're 9th of 15 (2,329,299) in the NL with the possibility of going lower as other teams with three or six home dates remaining could conceivably pass them by.
Gary mentioned, at least twice last week, the sell-outs and the enthusiasm during the series in Philly. And then days later mentioned a surprisingly small crowd at CitiField, I think it was during the Washington series.

Teams above (in order): LAD, SDP, PHI (all over 3M), StL, ATL, CHI, SFG, MIL. Below: COL, ARZ, CIN, WAS, PIT, MIA
This topic was briefly mentioned, I think in an IGT, sometime last week. The bigger question is why -- bad 2023, lack of BIG! winter FA signing, poor late April/May could all be reasons. But it's been a successful and exciting summer and yet everyone below us, except for Arizona, is a sub-.500 club. For criss-sakes the Rockies could will pass us by the end of the week.

Not really sure I have a point here except to say that I'm surprised the Mets are below the mid-point on the list with a team going down to the wire in the final week. Also that maybe, once again, the ownership change wasn't the magic elixir many expected.

[Edgy MD]

I imagine there are a lot of factors. I guess some of them could be the lack of a marquee free agent to hook pre-season sales around, the impression that left that the Mets were looking past this season, a lousy start which cut into the May-through-July sales, and losing their biggest mound draw (and really having no established mound draw behind him).

Or they could just really stink at marketing. I dunno. I'm sure there's a place I can look up how big a cut of the pie ballpark revenues accounts for. Maybe that's lower with the Mets than other teams.

Or maybe their prices are more prohibitive relative to the market.

[Centerfield]

I would say lack of big moves following a down year hurt season ticket sales. The slow start. They didn’t really contend for half a year.

And then there’s the stuff that’s hard to change. Location. Accessibility. Neighborhood. Also. This belief among Met fans that they don’t have any obligation to go to the game. Puzzling.

[Gwreck]

Also that maybe, once again, the ownership change wasn't the magic elixir many expected.

Setting aside the straw-man problems here (who expected it? How many is “many?” Who said “magical elixir” or similar?), we’re 4 years in, with 2 winning seasons already. Obviously it’s way too early know if sustained success will ensue but the results are a lot better than what we were getting under prior ownership.

As for attendance: there is a definite lag between on-field success and attendance. 2007 attendance was significantly higher than 2006, 2016 over 2015, 2023 over 2022. With a very down year in 2023, it is not surprising that attendance is down in 2024, although I too am surprised it is down as much. It is notable that the change in W-L record from 2021 to 2022 and 2022 to 2023 were the largest year-over-year changes in team history. And, as noted, the team was not expected to be very competitive this year. Maybe the whiplash of bad-good-bad-good dissuaded people.

Tickets aren’t cheap, but they didn’t go up in any significant amount over last year. I’ve had a quarter-season plan for the last several years and went back and checked: the price change was a ~1% increase from 2023 to 2024.

I don’t buy any of the location/accessibility/neighborhood stuff as having any meaningful effect. Stadium’s been in the same place for 60 years, mass transit’s always been good. It’s always going to be a pain to get to from Jersey and easier from LI but that’s not new. The 7 train has been under construction and isn’t running full express this year but that adds maybe 5-7 minutes each way. I do understand that parking went up to $40 either last year or this year, and that seems excessive, but it’s not as if it went from $5 to $40; it was always high.

There are probably some longer-term/generational issues, such as the fact that the Mets failed at any point after 1990 to have prolonged success while around the same time our close neighbors to the north have not had a losing season since.

In the end, the only factor that really matters is winning. Attendance will go up next year and it will go up more in direct proportion to the number of playoff games the Mets win.

[Fman99]

We go once a year. It's prohibitively expensive to attend, park, eat, drink and buy souvenirs. If it weren't we'd attend more often (maybe). It's also a 5-6 hour drive for me each way depending on traffic.

[batmagadanleadoff]

The Mets now charge $40.00 for parking. That's the second highest parking fee in MLB: parking at Wrigley Field will set you back $85.00.

[Lefty Specialist]

They have a stadium that only holds approximately 42,000. If they had a sellout every night and no single-admission doubleheaders, that'd be 3,402,000. So on an average night the stadium is about 2/3 full.

Dodger Stadium holds 56,000.

It's really expensive. I'll always take the train, but everything else is crazy high, too.

[Johnny Lunchbucket]

$40 is probably not high enough. Im not necessarily down with a casino but acres or surface parking is one of the main reasons the "neighborhood" is so unattractive. Use the train!

Just eyewitnessing things but if you asked me I'd have said attendance was better this year than last -- when things fell apart last year there were a lot of noshows, and that momentum carried over, vs. optimism for this year.

[Frayed Knot]

I'm sure announced attendance is tickets sold rather than asses in seats so it's quite possible that more people went to the stadium this year than last even if the numbers don't reflect that.
I was mainly struck by Gary's comments about how full and lively things were in Philly and how less full they were at CitiField just days later.
Then there were Nimmo's comments of 'Hey we need you guys now' as if maybe he (possibly with prodding) felt he had to play the role of salesman.
Then to see the black & white numbers showing how they'll wind up behind the majority of the NL including all but one of the contenders (and ARZ
might also pass us by before the week is up) made me wonder why.

[metirish]

This has become a hot topic on Twitter, anyway, I take the Q50 from Pelham Bay to Main Street, jump on the 7 back to City, problems happen when getting home and the Q50 doesn't show up ,that's not the Mets problem obviously, but it's better than driving and dealing with that, I don't think the Mets control parking prices?

[Johnny Lunchbucket]

They have a citibike station now too.

Gwreck's explaination makes the most sense. People were turned off by last year's team and didn't buy as much in advance.

I think the consternation about this year is about walk-up traffic being down despite the performance.

I think the watered down playoffs probably has something to do with that. In a normal year we'd be a solid second- or third- place team but not a World Series contender

[batmagadanleadoff]

The Mets now charge $40.00 for parking. That's the second highest parking fee in MLB: parking at Wrigley Field will set you back $85.00.

To clarify, I wasn't necessarily blaming the high parking fees for the disappointing attendance figures, though it could be one cause.

If I was guessing, I'd blame it on the usual suspects, which youse all already identified --- the underwhelming 2023 season, low expectations for this season, the failure to sign a top tier free agent like Ohtani or Yamamoto-- if those guys didn't wanna play for the Mets, why should the fans come out? -- and yes, the fucking prices. Everything's way more expensive. And not just at the ballpark. At the supermarket. At a fancy restaurant. At McDonald's. At the gas station. Everywhere. So if people start cutting things out of their budgets, baseball games are gonna be like the first thing to go.

[metirish]

Last Tuesday we got a Pat LaFrieda steak sandwich and a surf and turf with two cokes , that was nearly $75 ,now ,no one is forcing you and I go infrequently enough that it's OK, but damn, and the steak was like leather ,sitting in the glass case to keep it hot , never again, they have $5 Tuesday thing, but it's hotdogs

[Fman99]

Don't discount the impact of the fact that the team sucked big fat nertz for all of April and May.

[Frayed Knot]

I think the consternation about this year is about walk-up traffic being down despite the performance.

Yes, that was mainly Gary's point and at least partially mine. The team has been mostly good and mostly fun since early June with a mix
of stars and newcomers so you'd expect something closer to capacity for the final week of games during a great run in September.



The only pushback I'd have to the high price of things being part of the problem is that the Mets are falling in comparison to other clubs.
They were 7th out of 15 in 2022, 8th in 2023, and 9th now with the possibility of falling one or two more slots before the week is over
despite good seasons [101 wins and 90-ish] in two of those three.

[Johnny Lunchbucket]

Last Tuesday we got a Pat LaFrieda steak sandwich and a surf and turf with two cokes , that was nearly $75 ,now ,no one is forcing you and I go infrequently enough that it's OK, but damn, and the steak was like leather ,sitting in the glass case to keep it hot , never again, they have $5 Tuesday thing, but it's hotdogs

The Tuesday Night plan this year was investing in a good deli sandwich or hero before departing--it can't possibly be more expensive than what you'd get at CF. The $5 deal isn't bad and the fans like it-- concession stands are full and lots of small cups of coors light are on display.

[Gwreck]

The Mets are low-key among the most fan-friendly teams in sports in terms of being able to bring in food and non-alcoholic drinks.

If it’s your one game a year, or course, get the hot dog and beer and everything else, but as Lunchbucket says, the frequent attendees have lots of other options.

[metirish]

Last Tuesday we got a Pat LaFrieda steak sandwich and a surf and turf with two cokes , that was nearly $75 ,now ,no one is forcing you and I go infrequently enough that it's OK, but damn, and the steak was like leather ,sitting in the glass case to keep it hot , never again, they have $5 Tuesday thing, but it's hotdogs

The Tuesday Night plan this year was investing in a good deli sandwich or hero before departing--it can't possibly be more expensive than what you'd get at CF. The $5 deal isn't bad and the fans like it-- concession stands are full and lots of small cups of coors light are on display.

There was one guy in section 140 constantly going back and forth getting two small beers ,and sitting in a different seat each time 😆

[Frayed Knot]

Semi-related stuff: updates on the casino/entertainment proposals

https://nypost.com/2024/09/24/us-news/f ... -and-park/

[Frayed Knot]

Just over 40,000 in Atlanta tonight.
The Mets were well under that for the three weekday games vs Washington last week [22K, 25K, 34K] and also for the Thursday game v Philly [36K]
but then topped 40K for the Fri thru Sun games [41K, 44K, 43K]