A Message From Management

[bmfc1]

Thank you for your support during our inaugural season at Citi Field.

Everyone at the Mets - our Ownership, General Manager Omar Minaya, Manager Jerry Manuel, the coaches, players, front office and staff - shares your disappointment with the 2009 season. We are also determined to get the organization and the team to where you - and we - want to be: a championship caliber team in 2010.

You soon will hear from Ownership and Omar about how we plan to improve the ball club through a combination of player signings, trades, enhanced player development and continued commitment to one of the highest player payrolls in Major League Baseball.

We greatly appreciate your purchase of Mets Season Tickets - in this economy or any other. We are currently finalizing our ticket pricing for 2010. Season Ticket prices will be reduced by an average of more than 10 percent, with several seating areas being adjusted by more than 20 percent. Every Season Ticket Holder invoice for 2010 will be less than 2009.

We will be in touch with you in the weeks ahead regarding additional details and benefits.

As a reminder, we have scheduled a Season Ticket Holder Appreciation Day this Sunday, October 4 which will include an exclusive post-game Mr. Met Dash for you to run the bases at Citi Field.

Thank you again for your business in 2009. We hope to earn your continued support and look forward to seeing you at Citi Field in 2010.

New York Mets

(Note: I didn't get this sent to me--it was transcribed elsewhere so don't yell if it's not verbatim!)

[MFS62]

After the way this season went, they should provide sexual favors on Fan Appreciation Day.

Later

[bmfc1]

After the way this season went, they should provide sexual favors on Fan Appreciation Day.[/quote:2fdqpr7f]

Especially after they sent rubbers to Mariano Rivera.

[MFS62]

He could use them for insulation around his pool.

Later

[TransMonk]

...we plan to improve the ball club through a combination of player signings, trades, enhanced player development and continued commitment to one of the highest player payrolls in Major League Baseball.

This should be interesting.

[G-Fafif]

After the way this season went, they should provide sexual favors on Fan Appreciation Day.[/quote:8q0witve]

Especially after they sent rubbers to Mariano Rivera.[/quote:8q0witve]

Sayeth a FAFIF commenter, "Perhaps I'll send Mr. Wilpon a rubber as well...the one his father should have been wearing on the night he was conceived."

[metirish]

enhanced player development

they plan on putting them on the juice

[Guest themetfairy]

Full season ticket holders got this message.

Apparently partial plan holders don't even merit this lameass apology.

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

You know what? They're cutting ticket prices by 10%. And as the saying goes, you buy the ticket, you take your chances.

I don't see what's so "lameass" about this.

[Guest themetfairy]

It's lameass to only be apologizing to one subset of ticket holders instead of to everyone who purchased an overpriced ticket to this season's games.

I can see them cutting full season ticket holders a deal and screwing the rest of us over.

I'd probably be more sympathetic but for the fact that this year's "Sunday" plan did not include three Sundays but did include five midweek games.

I think they're alienating the fan base in that they're clueless that anyone other than full season ticket holders deserve sympathy after this suckitudinal year.

[Benjamin Grimm]

and continued commitment to one of the highest player payrolls in Major League Baseball

Did they really say this? If so, it's encouraging. (By that I mean, it contradicts all those reports that they were going to "go cheap" this winter. It doesn't guarantee, of course, that the money will be spent wisely.)

[Guest LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr]

and continued commitment to one of the highest player payrolls in Major League Baseball

Did they really say this? If so, it's encouraging. (By that I mean, it contradicts all those reports that they were going to "go cheap" this winter. It doesn't guarantee, of course, that the money will be spent wisely.)

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

It's lameass to only be apologizing to one subset of ticket holders instead of to everyone who purchased an overpriced ticket to this season's games.

I can see them cutting full season ticket holders a deal and screwing the rest of us over.

I'd probably be more sympathetic but for the fact that this year's "Sunday" plan did not include three Sundays but did include five midweek games.

I think they're alienating the fan base in that they're clueless that anyone other than full season ticket holders deserve sympathy after this suckitudinal year.[/quote:3rm0hwqw]

Take it easy on the sense of entitlement, geez.

1) They don't owe you anything.

2) If the tickets were really overpriced, then you're the lameass for buying them, aren't you?

3) All businesses adhere to that 80/20 thing.

4) If you've already seen this message,, it's not as if they're trying to keep anything from you.

5) They lowered the ticket prices. When was the last time the Mets did that?

[Guest themetfairy]

I'm probably lameass for buying them, especially the way that they screwed with the Sunday plan. But IMO management should take a little extra care to make the plan holders feel appreciated after the way they screwed with the plans this year.

Nobody owes me anything. But OTOH it would be good business to make all plan holders feel valued, not just those who were in a position to buy full season plans.

[Guest Kong76]

I think the ultimate gesture (from a purely greedy and megalomaniac
viewpoint) is that the Mets should comp our forum two season tickets
for us to all share and use.

[Guest The Second Spitter]

I'm probably lameass for buying them, especially the way that they screwed with the Sunday plan. [/quote:tyjktqvl]

May I ask how?

[Guest themetfairy]

I'm probably lameass for buying them, especially the way that they screwed with the Sunday plan. [/quote:1cyqj2i7]

May I ask how?[/quote:1cyqj2i7]

Up until this past year, a Sunday plan meant 13 Sunday games. Simple, predictable and logical.

This year, though, a Sunday plan only included 10 Sunday games (they omitted Father's Day, a Sunday in mid-August and the final game of the season). PLUS it included five mid-week games. So if you purchased the Sunday plan in the past because making the trip to the game mid-week is difficult (in my case, it's a minimum of two hours in each direction, and much longer if I miss a train connection), one third of the tickets you purchased were for games that would be difficult for you to attend.

Plus, despite all of the pre-season assertions that every fan at Citi Field would have a lounge area, that was not the case. You'd think that someone who commits to a plan could at least be allowed to purchase a mixed drink in the ballpark, but that's not the case. There are absolutely no perks that go along with being a plan holder.

I don't disagree with Lunchie's assertion that nobody owes me anything. However, as a Sunday plan owner from Shea, I feel that ownership treated the partial plan owners pretty shabbily this year, especially in comparison to prior years, and I personally don't like it.

[Fman99]

I think the ultimate gesture (from a purely greedy and megalomaniac
viewpoint) is that the Mets should comp our forum two season tickets
for us to all share and use.[/quote:2cmhnjg6]

This.

[Benjamin Grimm]

I'd hold out for four tickets.

[Guest Kong76]

Since we're re-visiting some issues with the plans and how they
treat fans ... metfairy and I have seats in the same section for
Sundays. I got to purchase mine about five days before her be-
cause of some seniority system and she got better seats than
I did. Five phone conversations later, I got nowhere with them.
I've had some kind of plan for like twelve years now. Full season
for years, Sunday plans, etc. Wilpie or whoever can write letters
until his wig falls off, they really don't treat their customers all
that well in my humble opinion.

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

That has nothing to do with this particular message's contents however; you guys are just using it as a jumping off point for your beefs.

[G-Fafif]

Page 3 in your amNew York lest you failed to pick one up this morning...

http://longisland.newsday.com/gallery/galleries/amny/pdf/20091002.pdf

[Guest themetfairy]

That has nothing to do with this particular message's contents however; you guys are just using it as a jumping off point for your beefs.[/quote:ybyyjc5z]

I never had an issue with the content of the message - it's simple yyybbb, which is all one can say after such a miserable season. I was pissed off that it was only delivered to the full season ticket holders, not the partial plan holders. And I still feel that it's poor form to only cater to that one segment of the fan base.

[Benjamin Grimm]

That's true enough. They should appreciate all of their fans, even the ones who don't ever attend a game, because they may be subscribing to SNY, buying Mets merchandise, and, through whatever fan enthusiasm they may have, spreading the word and creating other Mets fans, who may become ticket buyers, SNY subscribers, and merchandise purchasers.

[Guest Kong76]

JCL: you guys are just using it as a jumping off point for your beefs <<<

I don't really have a beef, I stopped being pissed off in April.
And I think the letter is stupid and a waste of time.
Wilpon can go fuck himself with a fungo bat.

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

Jeez, if you want to get treated like a full-season ticket holder then buy a full season ticket package. It's not the Mets' fault you didn't do that.

[Guest Edgy DC]

To call a message lameass, and then to complain that you're mainly pissed you didn't get it, is sort of akin to saying the food sucks and the portions are too small.

I realize the Mets have had a dreadful season but it helps nobody if we shoot at them with a blunderbuss.

[Guest Kong76]

The Little Rascals - Pay As You Exit episode just popped into my head.
"Mah Homeo!"

[Guest themetfairy]

Jeez, if you want to get treated like a full-season ticket holder then buy a full season ticket package. It's not the Mets' fault you didn't do that.[/quote:1159tchr]

Yeah, sure. Only the fans with megabucks who live close enough to Queens to be able to attend 81 home games should be treated decently. It's my bad for thinking that the rest of us deserve some kind of consideration as well.

Edgy - perhaps I should have been clearer that the lameassness of the message was in delivering it to just a small subset of the fans and leaving the majority out of it. Maybe that's not lameass to you, but it is to me.

For those of you who haven't dealt with the Mets as a season ticket holder or plan holder, don't be so quick to judge how those of us who have had that experience feel about the way the team treats us. I feel that after the way they handled the "Sunday" plan and after partial plan holders are excluded from lounges, etc., the very least they could have done was to include me in a friggin' e-mail.

[G-Fafif]

What blunderbuss? Implicit in the criticism of the dissemination of the message is, presumably, that the message could have been stronger and the outreach more expansive. And if a regular customer has a criticism, the perspective and spirit in which it is offered is as valid as any other regular customer's.