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.
4. The 15 game plans are unevenly structured. The Tuesday-Friday plan guaranteed me 24/25 games and that I saw every team that came through. Buying two 15-game plans (which is what we did last year) guaranteed that there were weeks I had to be at the ballpark Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday (Tuesday/Wednesday from the weekday plan that got us into Opening Day, and Friday from the “Friday Plus” plan). Furthermore, you wouldn’t even give me the same seats for both plans. I couldn’t deal with a rep, I had to go through the automatic ticketing system and take my chances. It was sheer force of will that got us in the same row in the same section for both plans. What I really want is a 40 game plan IN THE PROMENADE RESERVED, not on the field level, but that’s another story. There is no way I would commit to a 40 game plan in 2010.
5. No additional benefits. There are no benefits for plan holders except the waiving of the service charge for tickets purchased for additional games. The service charge is making Irving Azoff look like Mahatma Gandhi so this is not a trivial benefit, but it’s the ONLY BENEFIT. Would it really kill them to let all plan holders have rights to the Acela Club? Or one or two of the new, improved privileges they are extending to full season ticket holders (like early access to the ballpark on weekends)?
6. The tickets are not resellable even at face value. Buying the games in advance means we are locked in to either going to those games or forfeiting the money we spent on them, because the upper four rows in the Promenade are not resellable. Our seats were selling for 97 cents last year at one point. So if something else comes up we end up passing on it and going to the game instead. Last year, we just didn’t go to the games towards the end of the season when there were conflicts because being there was so excruciating.
7. Payment in December instead of January. They want the money the day before I have to finish my holiday shopping. Greedy.
8. Price decrease is a joke. They were right that people bought the line and looked at the numbers on their invoice instead of figuring out that the decrease came from the fact that they stopped jacking up games as Silver when they should be Bronze. There were no ticket price decreases in the Promenade level, they just changed some games from Silver to Bronze to make it look like your plan was cheaper.
Reasons FOR renewing the ticket plan:
1. We have a baseball budget, we like knowing in advance what games we are going to, we like having our tickets for the year.
2. We like sitting in the same seats every time. We are picky and don’t like sitting in the outfield.
3. There might be some kind of seniority later at some point that could work to our advantage.
4. We like being plan holders. It means something to us to be able to say that. (Or at least it used to. Right now it just seems to say, “Sucker.”)
5. We’d have to plan the season more specifically than we already do.
I deliberately did NOT include “not impressed by post-season moves” because we still like watching Mets baseball, if that makes any sense. We don’t need Omar to sign Halliday/Holliday in order for us to be compelled to renew.
That’s all I got. What am I missing?
Posted by Caryn at 12:58 PM
You’re right on the money… These are all the reasons to not bother to buy a full season plan either…
The non discounts is really insulting. I made a spreadsheet of all the ST prices out there so far for 2010 and all provide a significant discount over face, from the Upper Decks to the field Levels.
The Mets business model is archaic and all wrong. Hopefull they wull lose about 30% of their full season ticket base today since we have to respond today.
Because you and TBF are planners, I think you should still take the 15 game plan, just the one, then buy tickets from your favorite season ticket holder for other one-off games :). The thing that sickens me about the postseason opportunity—is that…WHAT ARE THE ODDS THEY ACTUALLY MAKE IT?!?!?!??? They should be thankful they have fans left after this abomination of a season. I can say, at the very least, they are doing their best to keep us full plan holders roped in. But do what you gotta do.
Great list of pros and cons. I can’t really give too good an opinion since I’m not living in that city and dealing with those games and the team as you, Coop and others do.
I will say that it’s nice to know you have x, y and z games all set, though. If the team stinks or other things come up and you can’t re-sell, then maybe unload to a friend who doesn’t go often and let them enjoy it. We’ve had to do that with a few hockey games.
Lastly, your reasoning for not including of post-season moves in either list is spot on. No matter what happens with deals, or fall season chokes, we’re still fans and will keep rooting. Whether it’s watching a game from a seat at the stadium or on our couch, it’s what we do.
“I deliberately did NOT include “not impressed by post-season moves” because we still like watching Mets baseball, if that makes any sense. We don’t need Omar to sign Halliday/Holliday in order for us to be compelled to renew”
This is all that matters. I/we like baseball, want to see the Mets play. Maybe we go to less when they suck, but the point is that we’re going to give them money regardless. They completely suck at caring about us for the most part, and it’s NY and there is always demand and Citi Field only capitializes on the demand while minimizing the down years.(less seats, etc, the Mets weren’t going to even break even on the cost to build and sell another 12k seating deck for decades)
The problem is, they _do_ sell enough of the plans and packages to make it worthwhile to them. (Just like they sell enough black jerseys to justify their existence. I own one, for example.) For every person that says they dont’ renew (or says that, do they follow through?) there are dozens that do renew, and dozens that buy those remaining tickets. Regardless of how we think it could be better, they’re selling a product that people do indeed want. The packages don’t work out for you/us, so we choose not to partake in them, but unfortunately, we’re the minority in that.
I’m not as picky as you, I don’t care where I sit, and I purposely didn’t renew last year for my Saturday plan cause I didn’t want to pick seats based on something I can’t seen first hand. (and many people that did regretted it.) I saw in a dozen different locations last year, based on my walking around the park for the st. johns/exhibition games, and loved every seat. from Prom Infield/outfield, to pepsi porch, to Right Field Reserved. I’m planning on sitting all over again next year. Maybe in a couple of years the plans will be more appealing and i’ll get one, but I know i got tired of sitting in UR15 at Shea.
I think you’ve got the list about right. We renewed for the following reasons:
1. I like to know when and where I’m going
2. Our 17th row Uecker seats (top ‘o’ the stadium) guarantee no kids kicking my seat or drunks spilling beer on my stuff. Also, the noise from the industrial fans in the food courtyard below drown out the chants of “Let’s Go Yankees” and “Let’s Go Phillies” at those particular games. It’s oddly peaceful up top.
3. I have some hope that seniority will matter at some point.
I guess that’s it :-)
It seems to me that you really enjoy being a plan holder. I don’t think you’d quite enjoy getting all your tickets as, single game tickets.
So, and I think you may have guessed what was coming, I think you expect to whatever package they offer that you feel does give you some benefits. Maybe it’s half-season. Maybe it’s full-season. You have enough of an audience, that I’m sure you could find somebody to split with. Or who would take all the Wednesday/Sunday games or something like that. I know it’s more money, but it’s who you are. And, though, I think seniority is nice, I don’t get the sense that the current scale of your purchase gives you enough to be really considered somebody with seniority. If their threshold for interest and goodies and guaranteed playoff tickets is 40 games or 81 games, get yourself to that level.
YPA
I didnt renew my Sunday/15 game plan. I am tired of giving my money to an organization that gives me nothing in return. I will do more road trips this year but still will get to Citi Field at least 10 times but when I want and will sit in better seats.
The ONLY reason why I contemplated renewing was for the seniority factor…I guess with the money I save, by the time they get back to the post season, it’ll all even out. At least that’s what I’m telling myself!
As always, Lets Go Mets!
My brother and I have had the “Saturday” plan for years. We truly disliked our seats in 2009. When I received the bill and called the Mets box office, I just got pissed off when they told me they couldn’t do anything until they had all our money. That’s it. A few years ago, when we didn’t send in our renewal, I started getting calls in February. I’m willing to wait. If not, we’ll go to a few games with great seats. If they don’t give a damn, why should we?
I re-upped my Saturday plan in Promenade (section 531) with the hope of upgrading to the Friday plan. Like the rest of us, I know there’s a big chance that the Mets will suck in 2010. But, like others have said here, my heart says that being a plan holder is special and a huge chunk of who I am as a person and as a New Yorker. Sitting in the same seats year after year (despite not being able to see the apple, the out of town scoreboard, the left field corner and roasting in the sun) is still a tradition in my life which has too few of those.
The best part of Shea was my Mets family. It was knowing that every other Sunday, I’d be at the ballpark in varying Mets gear with other like minded people. It was the sport of watching otherwise intelligent people not be able to find their seats. It was teaching the girls that came with me what was really going on so they would be able to talk with their boyfriends about it, and buy a regular jersey over a pink one, or like someone on the team other than David Wright. It was riding the 7 with a friend who was a Phillies fan from birth and hating on Shane Victorino together (The man is a walking STD!). It’s bringing a friend from out of state to Citi and showing him NEW YORK BASEBALL. It’s walking to the train at 10am on a Saturday and returning nods from every Latin guy in my neighborhood wearing a baseball hat, whether its for the Yanks, the DR, or the Mets. It’s wiping away tears at the first time I hear the starting lineup. It’s making good friends out of bloggers and being dorky about a picture with Kevin Burkhardt. It’s my boys.
Yes, they have shitty management. Yes, the owners don’t give a hoot about the fans so long as we pay up. Yes, the trainers are reckless and let the players go out on the field when they shouldn’t. But the sun will eventually set on the Wilpon empire, and when that happens, I’ll be there. But when all the fairweather fans and wallet folks are complaining about the Mets day in and day out, I take a rare moment to shut my mouth and just show up. Last year, in September and October, it was still fun to be at the game, just me and 5,000 other people watching Trip A.
Single games are just not the same. So I’m buying my plan because it ensures that I’ll be there, fifteen times, in the cold of April and the heat of August—always believing, despite what everybody’s saying and enjoying some baseball.
You’re right on the money… These are all the reasons to not bother to buy a full season plan either…
The non discounts is really insulting. I made a spreadsheet of all the ST prices out there so far for 2010 and all provide a significant discount over face, from the Upper Decks to the field Levels.
The Mets business model is archaic and all wrong. Hopefull they wull lose about 30% of their full season ticket base today since we have to respond today.