The Mets announced a new “dynamic” ticket-selling plan today. I was going to call it a ticket-selling “scheme,” but that carries such negative connotations, just as “dynamic” carries positive connotations. Dynamic sounds exciting — like Jose Reyes when we knew for sure that he was a Met. Even in a 140-character, “Like” button, “This” world, words carry weight.
You can read the Mets’ words here. You can read some of Dave Howard’s words to a graciously arranged blogger conference call here and a good analysis of what’s going on here. Overall, I wouldn’t call the plan a scheme in that you’re the consumer, so you can decide what you want to consume. It is, however, dynamic in that the Mets have put in place a mechanism to let the prices for single games rise (a lot) or fall (a little) depending on how much demand any given game generates. If the Mets are dynamic, one imagines the lines at the box office or, more modernly, the queue at the Web site will be somewhat dynamic, too.
And if the Mets fail to sustain on-field dynamism for a fourth consecutive season, then seller beware.
There are deals and perks to be had for season-ticket buyers, a group Howard rightly referred to as just as important to the Mets as their corporate clients. There is more club access on the horizon if you have a full season-ticket ticket, and, if I was interpreting Howard correctly, there will be more to come if you have a partial season-ticket plan (they’ll tell us more next month). There will be, no doubt, the opportunity to come to the park and put your plastic through its paces if you so desire and can afford it. Who among us wouldn’t do it as much as we could if a) we had the resources and b) we were continually tempted by the super exciting dynamic Mets?
If I don’t sound overwhelmed by the dynamism or, for that matter, no more than modestly moved regarding schemes and plans, it’s probably because five years ago today, I was watching Paul Lo Duca tag out two Dodgers on the same play, Carlos Delgado register four hits and John Maine personify “emergency starter” successfully. I was at the Mets’ first playoff game of 2006. It was electric. Every seat was filled. Nobody was quiet. Baseball was like it oughta be.
My god, I miss that sort of thing. There isn’t a Next Year ticket promotion in the world that could be anywhere near as good as playoffs Right Now.
Phillies bloggers, Rangers bloggers, Cardinals bloggers, even Rays bloggers had better things to do today than think about the structure of season ticket plans for 2012. Tonight, such diagrams and calculations will be the furthest thing from the minds of Tigers bloggers, Brewers bloggers, Diamondbacks bloggers and You Know Who bloggers. Those poor saps won’t have to have dynamism explained to them. They’ll look for it on a field or television near them and figure it out for themselves.
Full transcript of the call, from Chris McShane of Amazin’ Avenue here.
You hit the nail right on the head! It’s still befuddles me that at a soon to be 46, I have only enjoyed six postseason appearances during my lifetime (don’t include 69..I was 4 and don’t remember it). I have been a season ticket holder for several years but didn’t renew full seasons in 2010 and 2011. With The Mets losing, it’s virtually impossible to find people to go with and I just can’t afford to throw tickets in the garbage.
There is only one problem!…The 2012team METS are not going to be dynamic!
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Get your money in early so that ‘We’ve got you!”. Then we don’t sign Reyes, dismantle what is left of this team due to cuts in payroll and finish last in 2012, because the nats and fish will get better in th freem agent market.
Hi Greg,
Wasn’t this the same BS that was pulled last year? If I recall prices on the most expensive seats for season ticket holders dropped while the ones that you, I and most everyone else in this blog (except Jason, of course LOL)could afford actually went up a bit.
Dave Howard – the one who said fans were not used to sitting in the outfield and thus did not know it is common not to see all of the outfield as per other parks. Well, is 20 feet past third base considered an outfield seat? As of today, I haven’t seen fans in other cities complaining about blocked views, Mr. Howard.
And ownership doesn’t understand why even the most loyal fans are not showing up? Sell the team.
You want me the fan to pay up and I don’t even know if I will be watching the New York Mets or the St.Lucie Mets!…Nice!
What are you going to due for Spring Training? Have “Dynamic Pricing” based on the temperature and how hot it is?…..Its a beautiful day in FL as always, so lets jack up the prices!…..Below 80 lets cut ticket prices!
And consider that they are asking more from us and spending less on the roster at the same time…..
I happened to catch Mets Weekly on SNY the other day. I don’t usually watch, I find the bubblehead hostess particularly annoying, for all sorts of reasons. Anyway, they featured a montage of Mets highlights from the just completed season.
As expected there was lots of Jose, a good amount of the up-and-coming Tejada, more than I would have thought of Bay, some unavoidable Beltran even though he’s gone, some Turner, some Pagan (inlcuding, of course, my personal highlight of the season, The Pepsi Porch Home Run), some from Murphy, and so on.
Oh, and exactly one (one!) David Wright highlight, a diving catch over 3rd base. Yet another subpar (or maybe it the new “par”) season from the Franchise, Not.
2012 Met third baseman – Daniel Murphy
It shouldn’t come to that, but if it came to that — Davis, Tejada, Reyes & Murphy — would it be that bad?
Gut feeling is that Reyes is also gone. How about trading Wright, Turner and Pagan to Pitt for Andrew McCutchen and Neil Walker. 2012 Mets – Davis, Walker, Tejada, Murphy in the infield. Bay, McCutchen, Duda in the outfield. Whatcha think?
The more Pirates the better. Bay has worked so swimmingly.
It’s always about the pitching. When are ever going to have a big three in the front of our rotation again?
Good question.
Wasn’t third base Murphy’s best position?
If the Mets were looking to trade David for some pitching the only way to do it would be with Wright agreeing to an extension of his contract with a new club for otherwise no club would give up as much as they would otherwise with the possibility of David opting for free agency at the end of 2012.
Actually a Murphy/Tejada/Turner/Davis infield would not be that bad if Sandy is able to get some good players in return for Wright and sign some others with the money saved by not re-signing Reyes. But it would be very strange seeing either in anything other than the orange and blue, even if it does improve the team in other areas.
Trading Wright now would be stupid, unless there’s a GM out there who is as desperate to get him as Brian Sabean was to land Beltran. And even Beltran, who was having a very decent bounceback year, got traded for a guy we’re not likely to see in Flushing until at least ’13, if at all (lower level minor leaguers, even those as gifted as Wheeler, are always crapshoots). Wright, having had a career-worst, injury-riddled season, and whose ’13 option belongs only to the Mets and would be invalidated upon trade, might not even fetch something as good as Wheeler.
Is that really what people want to do, get rid of David just to get rid of him? Didn’t the Yankees go through this with A-Rod a couple of years ago, with the fans trying to run him out of town on a rail, only to embrace him by the end of the year like nothing had happened? Fortunately for us, Sandy Alderson does not give a flying pink shit what sports media people and WFAN yeehas think of him, and therefore, is not likely to give David away for nothing, not even if David “demands” it.
We’ve run too many guys out of town on a rail before their time (you think anyone was crying over Nolan Ryan at the time they traded him? hah!). Please let’s not do this again.
A little offseason rumor-fueled speculation doesn’t equal running out on a rail. Personally, I hope David, like Jose, is here his entire career. But, as with Jose, given the precarious state of ownership, everything is at least a little up for grabs when the numbers on the particular players rise. And after three years of going nowhere on the field, even players who seem more a part of the ultimate solution than the problem have to be considered (by clear-eyed management, which is what we have at the baseball level) in the context of what they might bring.
If they can build around David and Jose…well, that’s been the idea for a while now.