Thursday, December 10, 2009

THE REAL REASONS.

I was dismayed earlier today to read a tweet from Bart Hubbuch of the NY Post that the Mets admitted that ticket plan renewals were “slow” and that they attributed the slowness to people waiting to see if the Mets would make moves.

Once again, they are either oblivious, or doing damage control.  Based on the results of the entirely unscientific METSGRRL.COM 2009 METSFAN SURVEY, I can share with you the results of our study below. Out of 33 respondents, 26 said they were NOT renewing, and 7 said they were renewing their ticket plans.

I personally was surprised by the reasons given for not renewing. We hear about the economy as a reason and the lack of star power as a reason, but the reasons for not renewing are actually things the Mets could control - if they were bothered to do something about it. Let’s break it down.

Tuesday, December 08, 2009

WINTER WONDERLAND.

Twitter has started to make its mark on the Winter Meetings. If you’re on Twitter, and follow beat writers, your head is spinning. I follow beat writers for a handful of teams so I am starting to feel like like an owl. In between all of this are bloggers trying to make their mark, and whose desperation is so far resulting in stupid rumors being written about and Tweeted instantaneously, without any attempt to run down veracity. The ability to follow along in real time is seductive, and it’s fun, if you care about the behind-the-scenes machinations. It’s also frustrating, and infuriating, and heartbreaking, as the image above illustrates.

The Yankees get Curtis Granderson, and the Mets, to paraphrase Charlie Brown on Halloween, so far have a series of rocks. Jerry gave a statement today to Baseball Digest that the catcher position had to be sured up, so that’s why they went after catchers. They namedrop Torrealba and Molina and expect this to impress us. I am waiting for this episode of the Emperor’s New Clothes to end so we can get started with the baseball already. At least when this is all done I can still go watch baseball.

We have not yet decided if we are renewing one of our ticket plans or not. I very much appreciate the dialogue here over the past week and I think it has been helpful to a lot of folks. I will compile the responses shortly, but roughly 85% of people who commented said they would not be renewing, for a whole host of reasons (most of which have nothing to do with offseason roster moves).

Good articles:

• It pains me to say this, but the Phillies are 1,000,000 better than the Mets in selling tickets and treating their fans right.[via @howardmegdal]
• Great photos from last weekend’s private tour for Season Ticket Holders ONLY [via @nymetropolitans]
• “Luis Castillo has been offered to every team but Miguel’s Taqueria softball team.” [via The Eddie Kranepool Society]

Friday, December 04, 2009

SHOULD I STAY OR SHOULD I GO.

We finally sat down and had the discussion to consider taking the step of NOT renewing either ticket plan for 2010.

Reasons for NOT renewing the ticket plan:

1. No post-season rights. The Mets claim there will be a “presale” for partial plan holders but they can’t tell you how it will work because (and I quote) “We’ve never done one.” Given that the general presales route involves assigning a password so simple a Phillies fan could guess it, please forgive me if I have zero confidence in this providing me with a way into the post-season. And yes, I realize it is ludicrous to discuss the post-season given the last few years but it’s a reason people buy plans.

2. No discount. EVERY TEAM IN MLB INCLUDING THE YANKEES GIVES A DISCOUNT TO PLAN HOLDERS. Every single one. I’m not going to go into the other discounts offered by other teams to repeat customers because I understand that this is New York City. Why should I buy in bulk?

3. I can buy better seats than mine for most games. I understand how it works, you’re saving the lower rows for full season ticketholders and then when no one buys them you release them to the general public. But there shouldn’t have been so many, and you shouldn’t have been continually sending out Flushing Flashes and Club Mets and whatever else you did to offer tickets for 50% off throughout the season.

Tuesday, December 01, 2009

THIS NOTE CERTAINLY CONVEYS SINCERITY.

Here’s the email that came in from the Mets yesterday for partial plan holders. I am comforted and, nay, INSPIRED by the confidence and enthusiasm conveyed here. (If there was a sarcasm font, I would have used it.)

Monday, November 30, 2009
Renew Your Tickets
Dear Mets 15-Game Ticket Plan Holder:

Many thanks for your continued support of the Mets. We greatly appreciate your loyalty.(Okay, that’s what the consultant said we had to say.) With the return of our key players (Translation: we aren’t going to sign anyone big so get used to it) and the necessary changes we will make to our roster (like ex-Phillies who begin their career with a move immediately alienating them from the fanbase), we believe we will field a championship-caliber team in 2010. As Ownership (This is the weirdest part of the email to me. Why not say “Fred and Jeff Wilpon”? Otherwise, why not just say Big Brother? Because that’s what it feels like) recently said, we demand and expect better, and you deserve better. (This was the best quote you could get?)

Click below to access your 2010 Ticket Plan invoice. (Please click below, so I don’t have to keep talking, because I’m running out of things to say.)

  RENEW NOW » 

Monday, November 30, 2009

FACT-GATHERING.

Kind Commenter Ken chimed in on the Thanksgiving post to note that his invoice discount amounted to much smaller than the Wilpons had indicated. Some people on Twitter were talking about anything from a 1.5% decrease to a 15% decrease - and one person I chatted with did, in fact, have a 13% decrease.

So, let’s see the numbers. Don’t average, please - post what your invoice was last year and what it is this year. Just give us the numbers and let everyone else do the math.

Be sure to also let us know your thoughts about the wonderful, customer-friendly email they sent regarding payment.

Wednesday, November 25, 2009

HAPPY THANKSGIVING.

The invoices were waiting for me in the mailbox when I came home last night. There’s a price drop but it’s miniscule, the difference being a week of lunches or something trivial, not enough to make any impact or any difference. They are not extending the partial plans beyond the current locations; they are not offering us any new perks. Unlike our old, trusty Tuesday-Friday plan, we don’t get to see every team that comes to play the Mets unless we buy two plans, which we’re not doing. We’re keeping one and we’ll let the other one go. We’ll still spend the same amount of money on baseball, but the other half of the budget will go to games we care about being at and going to see the team on the road. With the exception of Dodger Stadium, we’ll have better seats everywhere than we will at Citi Field, and in all cases, we’ll be treated like valued customers.

The only other option is to not watch baseball, and that is no option at all.

The Wilpons are embarrassing themselves so much lately I have not even had the energy to write about it. It is just sad. It is all too little, too late. All of this goodwill will be yanked back from the fans as soon as the team starts playing well again, but at least the upshot is getting a home for the World Series trophies. They can’t get rid of that easily.

I will leave you with a link from the delightful Paul Lukas over at Uniwatch, who has managed to raise more enthusiasm to inventory the Wilpons’ latest offenses against the fan base, starting with the hideous new uniforms.

Happy Thanksgiving.

Wednesday, November 11, 2009

YET ANOTHER PESSIMISTIC POST ABOUT THE 2010 SEASON.

Someone wrote in earlier demanding that I update the site, talk about the Hot Stove, and who I think we should get. While I appreciate the enthusiasm, I’m not quite sure when this site was ever a news and information blog, but I figured I might as well update.

Regarding the Hot Stove: As someone noted on Twitter earlier today, “According to my sources, every player in Major League Baseball is available via trade.”

I do not buy the Matt Holliday bubbehmeises for one half of one second and you shouldn’t either. The Boras Client Goes For The Money. Period. End. There is no argument. It is just plain fact. If the Wilpons meet the price we’ll have Matt Holliday. If they don’t, we won’t. I doubt that they will meet the price. I do not think they can. I believe they are taking meetings with Scott Boras in order to say that they have and then they can say that they tried or whatever other mishegoss they think the fans will believe.

Monday, October 26, 2009

AND THAT’S A WRAP.

And we’re done.

I have been watching, despite saying I wouldn’t; many nights I would just hop on Twitter and get caught up, or check progress on At Bat or Gameday.

I am going to advocate the strong position that you do not need to root for anybody in the World Series. By all means, watch the games, enjoy baseball. But this nonsense that Mets fans “have” to root for the Yankees or “have” to root for the Phillies is just that - nonsense. There is no requirement that you have to root for a team in order to watch a baseball game. Zero. Zilch. Nada.  Maybe for fans of other teams they can temporarily take a side. But not these two teams for Mets fans. I mean, obviously, do what you like, but it doesn’t make any sense that Mets fans are suddenly flocking to either side with mandates that we “must” root for the Phillies or that we “must” root for the Yankees.

I am not rooting for anyone. I do not have to. And I absolutely will not root for either team. I also have no intention of watching. The outcome is irrelevant to me.

Just a couple of months until pitchers and catchers report.

P.S. You can read more of this theme - written some time after the last out last night, so please take it with a grain of salt - over at Jesse Spector’s Touching Base blog at the Daily News.