The Shame of the Citi

By Mike McGann
Posted Wednesday, March 18, 2009

It’s not surprising that people are angry. The financial meltdown has exposed the extent of greed and short-term thinking and the basic “screw-you” mentality of business in general. You’ve probably seen the furor over the millions of bonuses paid out to AIG executives -- some of whom were responsible for the meltdown of the company.

So what, exactly, does this have to do with baseball, and more specifically, the Mets? Another Bernie Madoff screed? Nope (although, after reading this, you may want to buy yourself a “I Heart Bernie” t-shirt). It’s the greed of the Wilpons.

Now, this isn’t another “Freddy Coupons” rant -- I have no complaint about the Mets’ payroll. No, this is about a team in new stadium, financed by public subsidized bonds and local improvements, located on public ground with ticket prices that out-and-out gouge fans.

Now, look, it’s no surprise to anyone that CitiField tickets are going to more expensive than those at the dear, departed Shea Stadium, but the extent of the price hike is startling. While having a normal suburban dad moment, trying to figure out when I could take my kids as promised out to the new park, I started pricing tickets. I was stunned.

The pricing is insane. For a gold game, in this case, a Monday afternoon game to see the Mets host the Phillies, field level seats beyond the dugout, 20 or 30 rows off the field are $180 each. That same ticket, by the way, 90 miles away at the home the World Champions -- and in an equally nice park -- is just $60. Even outfield seats on the lower level are $60, those same seats at Citizens Bank Park are $30.

So where’s the outrage? Granted, the Yankees seem poised to be even more outrageous with their pricing, but that’s not the point. Doing some rough math, assuming sell-outs through the 2009 season, the Mets stand to make more than $200 million just in ticket revenue. That doesn’t count parking or concessions or luxury box income. Or stadium ads. Is it a stretch to assume that the Mets will generate $350 million from CitiField in 2009? No. Add in the revenue from SNY, WFAN, and Major League Baseball’s broadcasting contracts and it seems unlikely that the Mets will generate less than $500 million in 2009.

Kinda makes that $147 million payroll seem, well, cheap, but that’s neither here nor there. And the issue really isn’t mega-priced seats down low, behind home plate. I get those are for corporate weasels (like the AIG guys) who write-off $1,200 baseball tickets as a business expense and then sell them on Stubhub for more than face value. No, the issue is the mediocre seat pricing, the seats where average Joes take their kids to the ballpark. A lot of those Joes are worried about getting laid off and even if they haven’t have seen a decline in real income since 2001.

I don’t expect to see $6.50 Mezzanine reserved seats, mind you, but where does Manny from Sheepshead Bay find seats for his wife and three kids? Even the worst seats in the house will run him a couple hundred bucks (gotta love those ticket service charges) and that doesn’t count the dogs and Pepsi for the kids and maybe a brew for he and the wife.

In my case, we do okay (Flushing University may not make money, but I have enough clients to get by and at least I’m not losing my shirt publishing a magazine anymore) so we can drop $500 taking the kids to the game, which is about what it cost to say goodbye to Shea last year. But now, to get similar seats, it’s going to cost us, all told $1,000 (when you add in the food and so on). It would be cheaper to fly somewhere, say Atlanta, and see the Mets play the Bravesm if we were to sit in the upper deck at Tuner Field.

It can't be just me, can it? Where’s the outrage from front-page mooners like Rep. Anthony Weiner? I know why the papers aren’t hitting this: Jeff Wilpon likes to play golf with at least one of the tab’s major columnists and seemingly trades access for a few tidbits that get passed down to said tab’s Ivy-league trained beat guy, sort of a 21st Century protection racket. Where the heck is the media on this? Or has it finally come down to the day when you can only trust the bloggers not bought off by the team?

It’s easy to hammer AIG and Bernie Madoff. But in the words of Bob Dole, “where’s the outrage?”

Maybe the new apple in CitiField should just be honest and say “Screw You” instead of “Home Run.”