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I have come to terms with The Collapse Part Deux surprisingly easily. As a general sports fan, I understand that losses are a part of the game and so are devastating ones. As a Mets fan, I realize that those heartbreaking losses will come more often than they do for your average sports fan. As a Mets fan you’ve probably quit by now if you can’t tolerate agony and disappointment.
Last year, I was probably more upset over failing to make the playoffs than I am this year - for a number of reasons. First of all, last year was more dramatic and it happened in a much uglier fashion. They lost more games down the stretch last year, blew a bigger lead and lost in a more ignominious fashion. This year, I have the experience of suffering through the legendary collapse of last year and still recovering to find the Mets in first place in September of this season.
Plus, there is a larger issue on my mind. Like I said, I can tolerate The Collapse Part Deux. On the other hand, Citi Field troubles me.
I’m not devastated that Shea is gone - and don’t get me wrong, I have plenty of memories that I will never forget, and it is a venue that housed the Mets, Yankees, Giants and Jets all in the same season (1975) - but I am disgusted that they are building a stadium with more than 10,000 fewer seats.
It is truly shameful that the Wilpons are sacrificing thousands of seats, the opportunity for thousands of fans to go to a game, in order to build a few extra luxury boxes and earn an extra couple bucks. In fact, MLB teams have financial incentives to build luxury boxes beyond the obvious ones.
Revenue from general ticket sales is divided between the home and away teams of a given game. For the American League, the home team receives approximately 80% of the revenue while the visiting team receives only 20%. The National League is weighted more heavily, with the split being closer to 95% versus 5%. However, there is an interesting catch - teams keep all the profits from luxury box sales, and do not share them with the visiting team. Thus, there is a greater incentive to destroy regular seats in favor of luxuary boxes. So, part of this trend towards smaller stadiums with more luxary boxes and less seats is due to MLB, the MLB Players Association and the collective bargaining agreement.
Just for a second right now, think about how hard it was to win playoff tickets this year with the Mets online lottery. If you didn’t try this year, how about last year? Now, imagine trying to do the same thing with so many fewer seats available to purchase. Did you ever try and look on StubHub for a playoff or Subway Series ticket, and think it was outrageously expensive? Just ponder what the prices will be with more demand and less supply and it’s scary. Jailing so many fans out of games and hiking up ticket prices so much demonstrates how out of touch the owners (mainly Jeff Wilpon) are with the game of baseball and what it’s all about.
It’s cool that there will be good food, wider seats and a lavish concourse at Citi Field. But, what good is it when there will be so many fewer fans there to enjoy it?
It’s disgraceful that Citi Field offers so many fewer seats and by doing so slaps every Mets fan hard across the face. Once upon a time, baseball was America’s past time meant to be enjoyed and appreciated by as many fans as possible. What happened to that?
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9 Responses for "My Outrage at Citi Field"
[...] the Skill Sets when $iti Field opens. This one comes from Andrew Beaton of Hot Foot with his post Outrage At $iti Field. I wish there were a way t ofind out who is buying up these luxuary boxes and paying all the dough [...]
[...] Hot Foot’s Andrew Beaton expresses hit outrage at Cit Field and the Wilpon’s choice to build a stadium with 10,000 less seats, while providing interesting notes on how tickets sales are divided amongst Major League teams. [...]
It bothers me that there are fewer seats, but it’s not quite that outrageous. think about how many millions of extra dollars it would cost. The cheapest seat next year is supposedly going to be $12 (not counting standing room). So would the upper deck average $10-$15 overall? It would take many years to make up the cost of just building that level, never mind the operating costs for it, even though the average attendence for Shea rarely encompassed those extra 10k seats.
It will indeed make those platinum level games even harder to get. In a perfect world Citi Field would have 85000 seats and there would always be a cheap ticket to get inside. Unfortunately, New York is expensive, Baseball is expensive, and it’s not the case. It’s supply and demand, and to expect otherwise would be stacking the odds against the Mets in terms of competing. Certainly you don’t advocate them never spending more than say 75 mill just because that’s how it used to be and it’d keep prices down?
‘once upon a time’ baseball was trying to get enjoyed by as many as possible…because less were enjoying it. With the internet, the radio, and the television, so many more fans are enjoying baseball than they were, and all of these things are younger than baseball. Of course it’s not the same as being there, but even 10-15 years ago, you had to find a phone, dial a number, or find the right time of day for television recaps to find out what happened.
I think the Wilpons are more in touch with how baseball is as a business than the fans are. Just like gripes over rising costs everywhere else, fans rarely grasp the actual business cost necessities behind these hikes. This is how the Mets can compete in the free agent market, expand training facilities and scouting all over the world, and cultivate the guys taht they do find. Barring some sort of salary cap (and bottom), all clubs that truly want to compete are going to have to make business decisions over extra fans, that only come to 5% of the games anyway.
It’s a nasty cycle that’s all relative, cheetar. The owners pay ridiculous salaries, so they need to charge outrageous prices, justified by excessive and gluttonous amenities. All built on the back of their fan base. You can call it a business all you want, and it is, but keep one thing in mind. An overwhelming percentage of this generation’s kids is never going to see an MLB game. My wife and I are both teachers who, although not “poor”, can’t afford to take both of our boys to a game at Citi Field. Growing up bleeding blue and orange, that’s tough for me to swallow. Do I just have to accept that, as middle class America, that’s the lot I’ve drawn?
I couldn’t agree any more. I’ve been saying this for the past year and I’ve been met with hard criticism for the wanna-be Wall Street types. The bottom line is that the Wilpons were going to make large sums of money regardless of capacity they just happened to totally ignore the fans. A more appropriate sized stadium would have been around 48,000-50,000, stadium size that would undoubtably sell out for years upon years as most, if not all, new stadiums do.
With that being said the Wilpons are going to get what they deserve. This financial situation is nowhere near being over and the days of throwing money around like it’s confetti might be over for a while. And to be honest nothing would tickle me more then to see some empty luxary boxes……
The luxury boxes will be the last thing not to sell. If the luxury boxes aren’t selling, you can bet anything they’re not drawing 45k anyway. Not to mention that the idea to build ‘x amount of luxury boxes’ was independent of the rest of the stadium size, and isn’t that much more than Shea. (9 more actually) 45-54.
If you’re right that the financial situation isn’t getting better, it only supports the Wilpons decision not to spend an extra six figures on building a grandstand/10k extra seats. It’s an investment that would only pay off in dozens of years, if then.
“An overwhelming percentage of this generation’s kids is never going to see an MLB game.”
This won’t be because of lack of funds, it’ll be because baseball is becoming one of many sports, where years ago baseball dominated. Some concessions are always going to need to be made, but you’ll be able to get to Citi Field as a family for roughly the same price as this year at Shea.
Ceetar is right on. Smaller stadiums with lots of luxury boxes and restaurants are the trend. Baseball is an expensive business. The Wilpons are not in this to lose money.
The thing is, if you want season tix, it’s time to get creative. Get a group together to split up the season. We’ve had season tix at Shea for years. When the price upped to $49/seat, we got together a small group. Once we learned the price of our seats at Citi Field, we expanded the group.
Not only that, but we informed the ticket office the we had no interest in the very pricey seats they assigned us. Way too much $. So, they moved us farther down the field, (but still in the infield), at a more palatable price.
I’m guessing that when the dust settles, and the club knows how many seats are left after all season tix are purchased, they’ll begin to offer partial plans: mid-week, Sundays, etc. So, if you get a few people to share a Sunday plan, that may be an easier nut to crack.
Walk-up tix, yes, will be scarce. And, that’s unfortunate. It’s also a unfortunate that we live in a most expensive part of the baseball world. So, the Wilpon’s cost to build are way higher than if CitiField were in Phila, St. Louis or Baltimore. Naturally, tickets will be more costly.
We’ve complained about Shea being a dump for years. Everybody wants more comfortable seats, better food, wide concourses, more and nicer bathrooms, huge video screens, and a winning team. All of that costs lots of dough. To expect a 21st century building at 20th century pricing is unrealistic.
Blame Major League Baseball, if you must. But, stop blaming the Wilpons. They are doing what they can to compete on the field and provide the best surroundings for their fans from 2009 on forward.
Since they are funding the building privately, not asking the taxpayers to anti-up, it’s time to stop griping. Go ask a Floridian how many times they’ve defeated bond issues to fund a new park for the Marlins.
We’re getting our park, and it looks like a beauty. Get creative. Plan ahead for single games tix. But, please, enough whining!
They arent doing it because of luxury boxes. They are doing it for forced demand for tickets.
This stadium will last 25-30 years. Sure, for the first 5 years they will sell out every game. However, after that attendance will dip especially if the team isnt competitive.
With forced ticket demand, fans will know tickets are limited and will buy tickets in advance, leading to more money in the owners pockets. Walkup sales will be non-existant for many years and will only be available when the team struggles.
Forced demand was proven to work in Oakland where they put tarps over the top level of the stadium to cut down on walkup sales and get more advance sales. This lead to an increase in ticket sales vs. previous years.
Teams learned from this. They know they can get: More advanced sales, higher ticket price, and money in pocket earlier than usual. Again, this isnt about now or the near future, its for the distant future where the stadium wont sell out. How many times did we see an empty upper deck in Shea in recent years? Sure, weekends were strong, but how about a Wed night in April playing the nationals? Nobody wants to go, but if thats the only game you can get tickets for, you will feel blessed you got seats to any game.
So it is about money and making loads of it, but its not because of luxury boxes. Its about forced demand.
[...] Beaton of hotfootblog.com recently wrote an article about his outrage at Citi [...]
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