The Mets Police

Saved this from yesterday...and at 7pm Saturday it was the top-sent article on the Times.   The blogoverse knows this already, but there's zero demand for NYC baseball tickets.  Stubhub is the way to go to buy tickets below cost (and I'm slitting my own throat telling you this, but it's not a state secret.)

The Times predicts for 2010 what I do:


The weak resale market has Goldman and a growing number of Mets and Yankees season-ticket holders considering whether to drop their seats next year, or to switch to a plan with fewer games or cheaper seats. The risk of being stuck with expensive tickets that are hard to resell, they said, is just too high in a weak economy.


“I figured this year would be a no-brainer,” said Goldman, a salesman from New Hyde Park on Long Island. “But it’s a buyer’s market. I get offers all the time for my tickets that are insultingly low. I don’t know that being a season-ticket holder is the right route.”


Check it out:




 www.metspolice.com
@metspolice

The hotfootblog asks an interesting question about Mets tickets:

Why Put Tickets on Hold?

Why have they only sold single game tickets for April and May?  Seems odd right?

Originally this post was just going to be a link, and I totally admit to cribbing their idea, but I think I have figured it out.

My guess....

They are hoping the team gets off to a great start AND the economy recovers.   They are mentally prepared to sell a particluar seat for say $20...but maybe the Mets start off 35 and 5 and the Dow goes back to 10,000....then suddenly they seat is $30.

This way they aren't locked into either selling seats for a price lower than they want....or being stuck with overpriced tickets like some of the other baseball teams in New York.

The risk they take is if the Mets get off to a bad start and the economy doesn't get better.   The buzz on Citi Field is so good that I think they'd be OK anyway.....I'm not so sure fans would be lining up to see New Yankee Stadium if that team combines a bad start with overpriced tickets.

Do the right thing and give hotfootblog some hits and no I'm not that good at photoshop...that image comes from here.

From Yankees.com


Pepsi will blitz the market in an unmistakable van that visits high-traffic locations within the tri-state area March 25-April 8, leading up to Major League Baseball's Opening Day and the Yankees' home opener on April 16 against Cleveland. The van's occupants will be rewarding fans with exhibition-game tickets, regular-season tickets and team-branded prizes to fans wearing Yankees gear and consuming Pepsi products.

Stops will be made on the street, at retail locations (Yankees Team Store, Wal-Mart, Target, Modell's, Stop & Shop, ShopRite), sports venues (Madison Square Garden, Prudential Center, Yankee Stadium), transit stations (Hoboken ferry and bus terminals, subways and train stations), college campuses, corporate campuses, theaters and public venues such as Central Park, Greenwich Village, Financial District, Seaport, Times Square and other public parks.

Noticeably more fans are wearing their Yankee gear these days and Pepsi is providing yet another reason to show your team colors. Someone could spot your new CC Sabathia customized jersey and send you to a home game to watch him pitch. Just think, that jersey might pay itself off.

Prizes will include tickets to the April 4 exhibition game between the Cubs and Yankees as well as regular-season tickets for to-be-announced games. Other Yankees premium items such as bobbleheads, wristbands, pins and pennants will be handed out.

March 28, Greenwich/Westchester Stu Leonard's -- Yonkers Central Avenue (Yonkers to White Plains) White Plains Mall/Wal Mart/Target Pace University Greenwich Avenue Stamford	March 30, Brooklyn Brooklyn Bridge Empire Fulton Ferry Williamsburg Brooklyn Heights Bayridge Park Slope	March 31, Staten Island Victory Blvd. Hylan Blvd. Amboy Rd. Manor Rd. Staten Island Ferry Terminal
April 1, Bronx/North Manhattan Arthur Avenue 125th Street Hub Columbia Upper West Side Port Washington (Columbia Presbyterian) Upper East Side	April 3, Bronx/North Manhattan Arthur Avenue 125th Street Hub Columbia Port Washington (Columbia Presbyterian) Yankee Stadium Upper West Side	April 6, Queens Queens Blvd Forest Park Roosevelt Mall CW Post College or Queens Community College Hofstra or St. John's Bell Blvd.
April 8, Manhattan Central Park Columbus Circle Chelsea Piers Union Square Modell's Yankees Stores East Village

www.metspolice.com

Hey you know that 15 game pack you (I) bought because you really wanted to go to Opening Night (more on that later today)...well....psyche....you panicked.  The Mets now offer Opening Day Packs.  Sorry suckers (like me).

By the way, when the Mets say Opening Day they define Day as a few minutes after sunset, in April.

Remember when we used to get livid about tickets being bundled with games you don't want?  They've really worn all of us down on that one, huh?


In addition to a ticket to Opening Day at Citi Field, the Citi Field Opener Pack provides fans the opportunity to select four games from the other 11 April home games and all 10 Monday-Friday May home games, including the Philadelphia Phillies' first visit to Citi Field (May 6-7), subject to availability.

• Includes:
  Opening Day at Citi Field (April 13 vs. the San Diego Padres) plus your choice of four other select games in April and May.
   

www.metspolice.com

Our weekly roundup of what people clicked on The Mets Police.

Tom O'Malley made the All-Irish Mets Team. The Mets celebrated with really hideous green, blue, black and orange caps.

Here's Tons of Pics of Citi Field and 150 Pics of New Yankee Stadium but doesn't New Yankee Stadium look drab?

NY1 posted this really good video of Citi Field but I'm still overly concerned about the dividerless urinals.

It has nothing to do with the Mets, and it went underreported in my opinion but The Rock said he did steroids.

Also underreported in Metsland was that Ollie Perez threw 85 pitches in a WBC game!

If you plan on trying to get Yankees tickets this week you may want to read the Tales of Buying Yankees Tickets at the pre-sale.

My man Lee Mazzilli made the Teas Rangers Worst 10 list.   From the Arlington perspective I can't say I disagree.   As much as I loved Lee, that was a major fleecing.

www.metspolice.com

As I've been honest about before, when I'm not in Flushing I like to attend baseball games.  I used to have a small plan in the Bronx where I'd go and drink some beers in the uppers.

This year the Yankees won't sell me tickets.

I'm not going to make it out like I'm one of those guys who has had section 1 for twenty years and was sent to the back row of the bleachers behind a pole, Tuesdays only.

I'm just a newbie with a small el-cheapo plan.    They won't sell me tickets.

I filled out my relocation package way back when, and every day I click to see if I have an invoice.  Nope.  My friends all got theirs but not me.  You'd think it would be the Mets who hate me not the Yankees.

So i clicked the "email us" tab:

Nick Fugazy is your New York Yankees contact.

You can reach Nick at (718) 293-6000 Email Nick your questions or comments.

I wrote you Nick.  Nick doesn't write back.  I also defy anyone to call that number and get a human in under a half hour.

I'd like to give you some money.  Drop me a note at shannonshark at gmail dot com if you or your boss says this.  I'm even going to type George Steinbrenner, Hank Steinbrenner and Hal Steinbrenner into this sentence for no reason other than hoping I make your Google Alert.

I'd like to give you money.   Now, to be fair you do seem willing to sell me tickets at $350 per seat but I can't roll like that.   Sit behind the pole, Tuesdays only.  That's fine.  I just want to have a beer.

How about it Nick, how about a shout back?

Check out my blog-crush New Stadium Insider for more about how you too won't be able to buy tickets.

www.metspolice.com

Got my Red Sox tickets in the mail and saw a $145.00!!! service charge on $36 of tix!

Whipped out the cellphone and called 507-TIXX and quickly (pay attention Yankees) got a very nice man who pulled up my account.  Seems the 145 is a running total of all my service charges (for my two 15 gamers plus these).

Whew.

So if you get a scary letter in the mail from Flushing, don't freak out.

Maybe if someone in the Bronx could pick up the phone once in a while...

www.metspolice.com

Plenty of folks enjoyed my Speculation About The Opening Day First Pitch - I mean it's fairly obvious who it should be, right?

Also popular were the suggestions for New Traditions For The New Mets Stadium - I want to add one to that list.  I want them to take the field to Meet The Mets every day, none of this techno music and C&C Music Factory nonsense.

Still popular is the question of What Does $632 Million Get You  - and the answer is obstructed seats!

Between A-Rod and Ticketgate this is turning into Yankees Police some days.   Click here to see the new Yankee caps for 2009.  Here for pics of the new place.  Here for the warning the NYY's sent ticket holders.

By now you know that the First Game At C-Field is not a Mets game.

Nobody is buying into The Curse Of Bob Murphy but some enjoy The Curse of Lee Mazzilli.

Finally some shoutouts:

Fellow Mets Policeman "Cyclones Fan" got married, and played Meet the Mets at the reception.   My table debated if there was a second verse or not, apparently there is and it's exactly the same as the first.   No Curly Shuffle though, I will need to get on him about that when he returns.

Shoutout to Amazin Avenue who sent us lots of traffic this week.

Shoutout to New Stadium Insider who hustles his butt and um inspired several posts this week.

Shoutout to Mets By The Numbers who saves me tons of research.

Shoutout to Mets Geek who included us in a Guide To Mets Blogs this week.



www.metspolice.com

Quiet morning and I'm resisting the temptation to complain about the WBC (I will never make it through the day).

The excellent New Stadium Insider  reports that standing room at Yankee Stadium III will be $20, which brings up their excellent observation that if they'll charge $20 to stand, how long will $12 bleacher seats last?

Click and read.

www.metspolice.com

The Times has a few anecdotes from Yankee ticket holders.  Apparently if you haggled with the sales rep there was a chance they'd take care of you.  Of course now that that;s in the New York Times everyone will try it, so it's unlikely it will work for you.

Some lucky fans:

Steve Cohen of Briarcliff Manor, N.Y., wanted a 15-game midweek plan (to replace a discontinued eight-game plan behind home plate), but was offered four tickets in a Friday night plan that he told the team conflicted with his weekend schedule. But he said he persevered and got four $20 tickets for 15 midweek games, high above right field.  Cohen said that the salesman said “don’t tell anybody” about the switch.

Gerry Grossman, a salesman from Manhattan, said he and a friend were enraged at being offered a 20-game plan for two seats near the left-field foul pole for $85 each (without postseason-ticket rights) after being at field level, looking at left field, for $55 last year (with postseason), under a 46-game plan.....

 He said he received inadequate answers from Yankee ticket sales people about why two other fans, whom he said had lesser seniority, got a 41-game plan, or if seniority really mattered at all. On Thursday, his persistence was rewarded: he got a 41-game plan at $50 a ticket, on the second level, in a distant left-field burg, with postseason rights. 

SPORTS BUSINESS

Yankees’ Fan Plan Doesn’t Sit Well 

By RICHARD SANDOMIR

Published: February 28, 2009

Some partial-season-ticket holders are angry at being assigned to seats far from the equivalent in the old stadium and at losing postseason ticket rights.

www.metspolice.com

Lonn Trost on WFAN yesterday:

 "Those seats are being sold at $5, not $12.   I think some seats may have gone out improperly invoiced. Those are going to be corrected, but those 600 seats are going to be $5."

Oops.  Silly billing error.  Silly Yankees.

It's good that they caught this after message boards, then New Stadium Insider, then every sport blog, then the newspapers, then WFAN brought it to their attention, otherwise sarcastic bloggers might observe that on Monday Trost said:

"We had a choice of selling it to somebody or not. ... For $12, it's a choice of taking it or not."

Or someone might check out the seating chart and see that the chart accidentally says the seats cost $12.

Neil Best (who rocks and has the best column going these days) has plenty more.

Good stuff here too on Insider.

I think the new stadiums may have changed the karma.  This seems very Flushing-like.   Maybe the bad PR genie moved to the north side of 161st when Shea came down.


www.metspolice.com

Some chatter here: Yankees message board

Some folks are saying that they were downgraded from weekend plans to weekday plans.

Some are saying that instead of being offered cheap tickets they are being offered $100 tickets.  One of the challenges of the relocation process is that if you decline whatever they offer you (say $100 seats) you have to go back into "the pool" which I think means the end of the line.

The News got into this a bit on Friday:  here

I also highly suggest checking out New Stadium Insider for all things about C-Field and New New Yankee including more information about NYYS relocation.

It's hard to kill the Yankees for selling season tickets but I do feel bad for folks who were downgraded.  I don't think they were wrong to not buy 41 game packs.

Stubhub's going to have a good year!

www.metspolice.com

NY Sports Examiner: Yankees warn 41-game ticket plan holders