Mets Lead League...in Home Field Attendance Decline

As with everything in Mets world, one step forward, two bizarre steps back: after starting the season losing eight of their first 12, they've seen their surprisingly solid pitching staff, led by a resurgent Mike Pelfrey, push their record above .500. Unfortunately, not as many of their beer-guzzling fans seem to be paying attention, since the Mets lead the league in a more dubious stat: largest decline in home field attendance.

Despite having the most home field victories in the Majors so far this year (14), attendance at Citi Field is down 6,852 fans a game, an average of 31,892 fans at games this season compared with 38,744 last season. It seems fans might still be irked after two heart-breaking September collapses and a miserable 92-loss season last year: “The problem is last year the tickets were really expensive and the team stunk and that can really stick with fans for a while,” said Jon Greenberg, the executive editor of Team Marketing Report, an industry publication.

Ever-optimistic shortstop Jose Reyes blamed it on mother nature: "I’m sure it’s been the weather. It’s no big deal. The crowds will come. The fans still love us.” And despite fewer season-ticket sales, the team has had "more walk-up sales, and we have had four record walk-up sales so far this season,” according to Dave Howard, the Mets’ executive vice president for business operations.

All those long games they've been having this season probably haven't helped much either: even broadcaster Keith Hernandez, who starred on the Mets 1986 World Series champion team, fell asleep in the broadcast booth last week. He's likely feeling lucky today though, with the report that former teammate Bernie Carbo, who Hernandez testified in 1985 had turned him onto cocaine, didn't succeed with a plan to "break his arms."

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By Ben Yakas in News on May 14, 2010 3:34 PM

Comments [rss]

HBHB

Maybe it's because field level seats at any other stadium costs the same as upper deck nose bleed seats at Citifield.

xgeyiph772

R1diculous ticket prices, a crappy "new" stadium that felt 10 years old the day it opened, and a .500 team. Can't figure out why attendance is down...if I wanted to see the Padres, I'd move to San Diego (actually not a bad idea, at least the weather is nicer, right Reyes?).

RFK

WAKE UP!!!!! You blame it on their play from the past couple years???? Give me a break! We are Met fans! The children and grandchildren of Brooklyn Dodger fans. We don't expect them to win all the time. We hope and pray but we are not Yankee fans, we don't have to win every year. We are (or were) loyal to our team. All we asked for was to see baseball in our home, our field, our love; SHEA STADIUM. Many hearts were broken when they tore down Ebbets Field. Finally, National League Baseball returned to NYC in 62 two years later our beloved Shea was finished. We did not just go there to see our team win but to build relationships and trust. Those mother F-ers ripped it down and on our dime! Now we have to pay more money; to see our team, to eat, to park and in a crappier park. I love the Mets. I grew up on them, I learned baseball at Shea. Now I wish they lose every home game they ever play. I want my home back!

I personally think (although I have no proof) that it's because our mayor, the Redsox fan wants to bring the Olympics to NYC so he is tearing down our fields to make

it more appealing for the IOC.

I want the people in the front office to go to the junk yard and reacquire every bit of Shea they can buy back all the seats you mother-Fers and GIVE US OUR HOME BACK!

Kevin Walsh

>>>Ever-optimistic shortstop Jose Reyes blamed it on mother nature: "I’m sure it’s been the weather. It’s no big deal. The crowds will come. The fans still love us.”

Jose is hitting .221 from the 3rd slot in the batting order and can't lay down a bunt (and having it necessary for the 3rd spot hitter laying down a bunt is bad anyway). Bay is the new Roberto Alomar. I don't need air conditioning with the Metsies at home -- Frenchie and Wright provide plenty of cool breezes. Ollie Perez is here b/c he is owed $12M.

That, and many other reasons, are why people are staying home.

www.forgotten-ny.com

Bernie Madoff-Goetz

Citi Field is a crappy park. It's not as intimate as Shea was, it feels like it was designed in the 70s and, well, let's face it, the Mets have been positively slapstick for two years running. Wilpon should sell the team and whoever buys it should fire Jerry Manual and Omar Minaya. Jerry is a robot who relies too heavily on statistical match-ups. He's got heart but he has no gut. Minaya wouldn't know how to spot a solid free agent if Albert Pujols was available and knocking at the front door.

longacre

In addition to the team sucking, attendance is down because last year's attendance was artificially inflated by the appeal of seeing a new stadium. People wanted to see it even though the team sucked. Now everyone who wanted to see it already has, and the team still sucks, so there's no reason to go.

longacre

That's crazy talk. I liked Shea and would have been perfectly happy if they kept it, but Citi is legit.

whitecastlerock

Attendance is down? Too fucking bad. They didn't need a new stadium. The team has sucked and they expect fans to come out in droves? Here's an idea, stop raising ticket prices! The cheapest tickets are $19. Tack on an additional $5 charge for ordering online. The team hasn't won a championship since 1986-they should be paying people to cheer them on...

Stevennnn

The weather? Reyes is an idiot and fool.

April was the warmest EVER in Central Park and May is looking to be another top ten warmest month in the record books even though it's been kind of cool the past few days.

row

Shocker, no one wants to see the Mets vs Nats on a weeknight when it's 45 degrees out? They've had some pretty bad luck these last two homestands weather-wise