Discounts For Ticket Plan Holders Are Nice, But...

Since 2002, I have been a Mets ticket plan holder. During the last seven years of Shea Stadium's existence, I was a proud owner of a Sunday Plan. This plan allowed me to have the same seats (Mezzanine Section 7, Row E, Seats 16 and 17) for all 13 Sunday home games. If the Mets were playing at home on a Sunday, I was sure to be there.

Then in 2009, Citi Field opened its doors and I wanted to be sure that I was there on Opening Day. Therefore, to guarantee my seat for the inaugural game, I purchased the Weekday Plan in addition to my Sunday Plan. However, now the Sunday Plan consisted of 15 games, of which five were weekday games. In addition, not every Sunday game was part of the package (three Sundays, including the season finale, were now allocated to the new Weekend Plan).

Therefore, I now had two plans totaling 30 games and my Sunday Plan now had weekday games that I couldn't attend. But I did get into the inaugural game and I still had most of the Sunday games. I also had the same two plans for the 2010 season.

Now I just received my 2011 invoice for the two plans in the mail. Yes, the ticket prices are down from previous years. The Mets have been quite vocal about sharing that bit of information with fans. But they neglected to mention one little detail about these tickets.

This is the schedule for the Weekday Plan (the one that includes Opening Day):

Fri. April 8 vs. Washington @ 4:10 p.m.
Tues. April 12 vs. Colorado @ 7:10 p.m.
Thurs. April 21 vs. Houston @ 7:10 p.m.
Tues. May 3 vs. San Francisco @ 7:10 p.m.
Wed. May 18 vs. Washington @ 7:10 p.m.
Mon. May 30 vs. Pittsburgh @ 7:10 p.m.
Thurs. June 23 vs. Oakland @ 1:10 p.m.
Wed. July 20 vs. St. Louis @ 7:10 p.m.
Mon. August 1 vs. Florida @ 7:10 p.m.
Tues. August 9 vs. San Diego @ 7:10 p.m.
Mon. August 29 vs. Florida @ 7:10 p.m.
Thurs. September 1 vs. Florida @ 7:10 p.m.
Mon. September 12 vs. Washington @ 7:10 p.m.
Thurs. September 15 vs. Washington @ 1:10 p.m.
Wed. September 28 vs. Cincinnati @ 1:10 p.m.


Did you notice anything missing up there? Where are the games against the Phillies and the Braves? Believe it or not, every series played by Philadelphia and Atlanta at Citi Field this season falls on the weekend. That leaves undesirable games against teams like Washington and Florida to put on the Weekday Plan.

In all, seven of the 15 games in the Weekday Plan are against the Nationals (4 games) and the Marlins (3 games). That's almost half of the games in the plan.

Because so many of these games are part of the value category of ticket prices, the Mets were very happy to let me know that my invoice dropped from $695 for two Promenade Reserved Infield seats to $574, a savings of almost 20%. But they're not exactly advertising that these games are mostly against the poorer teams in baseball. Ten of the 15 games are against teams that finished .500 or worse in 2010.

The moral of this story is to be careful what you wish for. Since the Mets opened Citi Field, the product on the field has been less than stellar. The high prices have not been justified by the Mets' performance. So fans asked for lower prices if they were going to come back for another subpar season.

You want lower prices? You got it. Now you can tell me how all those Mets-Nationals games were because I surely won't be renewing my ticket plans.

Broken News: The Mets Are Slashing And Dashing

It's time for a new edition of Broken News, where we report Mets news long after everyone else has beaten us to the punch. And no, that last sentence was not another jab at Francisco Rodriguez. (But that one was.)

Today, we will talk about slashing and dashing. No, not slashing like in hockey, Nightmare On Elm Street movies or the former Guns N' Roses guitarist. And no, not dashing like what you do in a one-horse open sleigh while traveling through the snow.

We're talking about the Mets doing two things. They slashed their ticket prices for 2011 and they picked up Jose Reyes' option so he could dash around the bases for another season.

First, the Mets reduced the prices of their tickets to 2011 games by an average of 14%. In addition, the team will now offer their season ticket holders and plan holders an additional 10% off their individual game tickets. That's all fine and dandy to a former plan holder such as myself, but what about those fans who don't invest in plans?

Those fans are more than likely to purchase tickets for Promenade Level seats to get the most bang for their buck. So what did the Mets do? They RAISED the prices of those seats.

Executive VP for business operations Dave Howard made sure to point out that the cheapest Promenade Level seats were only raised by $1 (from $11 to $12 on value days). However, he failed to mention that other seats on other days were increased by more than a dollar.

For example, seats in the Promenade Reserved Infield that sold for $35 in 2010 (Opening Day and the Subway Series) will now cost $45 to purchase. Also, premium games (formerly known as "gold") that sold for $30 per ticket last season will now suck $35 from your wallet.

In 2010, only four games were priced at $35 in the Promenade Reserved Infield. The 2011 season will feature 26 games where those same seats will be priced at $35 and higher (22 premium games and four marquee games). These are the seats that are more in demand with fans who can't usually afford to go to many games. So the Mets decide to raise those prices? And they also fail to mention that when discussing the new ticket prices? What's up with that? In fact, the only place where you would even notice those increases is on this confusing seating and pricing chart.

The most drastic price cuts were in Excelsior Level and Field Level seats, also known as the seats that Oliver Perez should be sitting in instead of the Mets dugout. Seats in the Left Field Reserved area, where the Mets have been known to hit a home run every month or so, saw an average decrease of 20% in ticket prices, while the Metropolitan Box Silver area had prices cut by a whopping 47%. Of course, the bigger the price drop, the less of a chance the common fan was going to be sitting in those seats anyway. For fans such as myself, the Metropolitan Box Silver is more of an urban legend than a reality. In fact, I can't even prove that section even exists. I sure as hell have never been anywhere near it.

The bottom line is that the Mets are trying to make it seem like they're doing us a favor, when all they did was make it easier for the fan who was already investing a ton of money on their shoddy product, while making it more difficult for the more financially strapped fan who would go to an occasional game in the Promenade Level.

Ya gotta believe in Selective Slashing.

In better news, Jose Reyes' option for the 2011 season was picked up by the Mets. It will pay the 27-year-old Reyes $11 million next season. The move also paves the way for a potential contract extension for the veteran shortstop (and perhaps a less itchier cup).

Although Reyes missed about a month's worth of games in 2010, he still managed to hit .282, with 50 extra-base hits (29 doubles, 10 triples, 11 home runs) and 30 stolen bases. As long as Reyes remains healthy, he will continue to be a spark plug at the top of the batting order.

Since he is playing for a new contract, Reyes will have an extra incentive to have a career year. He has seen other National League shortstops parlay breakout seasons into lucrative long-term contracts (Hanley Ramirez and Troy Tulowitzki both received six-year deals from the Marlins and Rockies, respectively), so a banner year could do the same for Reyes, especially with so many hefty contracts coming off the books after the 2011 season.

The Mets do not have a shortstop in the minor leagues who can give you the solid defense and dynamic offense that Reyes can provide. A long-term deal with Reyes would help both player and organization, especially since the Mets would suffer a significant dropoff in production at the shortstop position if Reyes is no longer a Met in 2012.

If the Mets want to put more fans in those slashed seats, they need to make sure Jose Reyes will be dashing around the bases at Citi Field for more than just the 2011 season. They'll also need to continue to address the missing pieces, such as finding the best manager to lead the team and change the negative attitude into a winning one.

The Mets are a business, just like every other major league team is. What's one of the main objectives of a business? To make as much money as possible. So it makes plenty of sense (cents?) for the Mets to slash and dash in the hopes that it leads to a stash of cash.

Cheaper tickets (mostly)? A motivated Jose Reyes? It looks like the fans will have a reason to come out to Citi Field other than to boo Oliver Perez.

The Rich Get Richer, The Poor Get Promenade Seats

The Wilpons are at it again. They've noticed the empty seats at Citi Field over the past few weeks. They've seen the decline in SNY's ratings for Mets telecasts. Therefore, they have decided to do something that looks like they have the common fan in mind, when in reality, they're not doing a dang thing for us.

According to an official press release put out by the Mets today, ticket prices for season ticket holders will be cut by more than 10% for the 2010 season. Some locations will see over 20% price reductions.

Let me repeat that for you in bold letters. SEASON TICKET HOLDERS will be getting this discount, or as I like to call them, the ones who could probably afford their tickets no matter what the price is.

The press release did not say anything about partial plan holders (Studious Metsimus owns two 15-game plans) and individual ticket prices. They did seem particularly proud of the fact that no ticket price would increase and made sure to mention that tickets will cost as little as $11.

Of course, they failed to mention that those $11 seats were only available in the outfield area of the Promenade Level. This is the area that has many of those obstructions and poor sightlines that Mutt (Fred) and Jeff (Jeff) promised the fans wouldn't exist at the new home of Amazin'.

Also, these $11 seats were only available for 10 games out of the 81-game home schedule, with all of those games being against the Washington Nationals and the Florida Marlins. By comparison, 34 of the 81 games were part of the gold or platinum ticket category. Those same seats cost $23 for the gold games and $27 for the platinum games. A fan who wanted tickets in these outfield seats with a nice closeup view of the auto junkyards on 126th Street would have to plunk down a nice chunk of change to see the ants on the field.

I found an old Mets pocket schedule from 1990 and was shocked to see what ticket prices cost back then. Take a look for yourself:
















You could sit in box seats directly behind the dugout for $12. Upper deck seats, regardless of who the Mets were playing or whether you wanted to sit in the infield or outfield were $6. Even the loge seats were only $10.

Think about that. Less than two decades ago you could sit mere feet behind legendary Mets players such as Daryl Boston and Mackey Sasser for only one dollar more than the worst seat at Citi Field for selected weeknight games against the Washington Nationals.

















The Wilpons want the fans to think they're listening to them. Dave Howard, the executive VP of business operations is even quoted in the press release as saying,

"The Mets are sensitive to the economic realities facing our fans and we have lowered our ticket prices in response to these challenging conditions. This move underscores our appreciation of our fans' ongoing loyalty and support. We are committed to delivering exceptional service and value to our customers at Citi Field in 2010."

They're making it seem like the season ticket holders represent the Mets' entire fan base. Fiddle Faddle! The people in the Promenade Level, those who bought the lesser plans, the ones who buy individual game tickets. They're the ones who are the true supporters of the team. They're the ones who wish they could buy more tickets but are priced out of such a luxury. Shouldn't they get a discount as well?

It's nice that the Wilpons have noticed that the performance of the team on the field has not justified the prices we're paying to see them suck, I mean play. It would be nicer if they lowered these prices all around. Hopefully, they're saving that for the next press release.