I like Jason Bay. I have always liked Jason Bay. I was sad for Pirates fans and happy for Red Sox fans when he went to Boston. For heaven’s sake, Eddie Vedder once campaigned for him to be in the All Star Game. For once I do not feel like we are getting the bottom scrapings of the free agent barrel. However, the dragging of the feet, and the “Jason Bay would rather play in Beirut than go to the Mets” and the “hey, let’s have MIKE FRANCESA give you HOTT new Mets news!” was all a big pin in my fan balloon.

It could have been different, though. Let’s go visit the gypsy woman and look into her crystal ball for a moment….

Jeff Wilpon sat at his desk in his office at Citi Field, busily tapping away on the computer. There is a knock at the door. He ignores it, and continues to tap. The knock is louder, and he ignores it again. Finally, the knocking gets insistent.
Jeff: “Dammit!”
The door opens and a head appears. “Mr. Wilpon?”
Jeff: “Who are you?”
Barry the intern: “I’m Barry, the intern? You said you wanted to see me.”
Jeff: “Yes, but not now. I was just about to kill this game on Sporcle… come in, come in.”
Barry walks in the room, clutching a report in a clear binder.
Barry: “Is it about my report?”
“You wrote this?” Jeff holds up a copy.
“Yes.”

“You do realize that the holiday season is upon us. The office is supposed to be closed for the holiday. There’s a lot of – work – in this report of yours.”
Barry looked excited. “Well, it looks as though Jason Bay is going to be the only big-name signing the Mets get this year, and it seemed like a great opportunity to show the fans some goodwill by announcing him properly. I put together an action plan that will allow us to leverage some good news, pick up fan morale, and generate some positive press. I don’t know if you’re noticed, but we’re not getting a lot of good media lately.”
“Pshaw,” Jeff said. “I don’t know what you’re talking about. There’s just a bunch of disgruntled beat writers who are jealous they can’t have Omar’s job.”
“I think that was last year,” Barry said, as politely as possible.
“We are announcing him properly,” said Jeff. “Didn’t you hear? We’re going to have an exclusive on WFAN.”
“By letting Mike Francesa do it?”
“Exactly.”
“Mike Francesa hates the Mets and Mets fans.”
“Wherever did you get such an idea? He is one of the top personalities at our flagship radio station.” Jeff pointed to the autographed photo of him with Francesa on his trophy wall.
Barry takes a deep breath. “That’s right, Mr. Wilpon, but I’ve been listening to him for years, and he hates Mets fans, and they hate him. Doing it this way is going to be the equivalent of spitting in their faces.”
Jeff opens the report to a random page. He didn’t want Barry to figure out that he’d never listened to Mike Francesa on the radio. “What’s this here about the Jason Bay Foundation?”
“Well, Jason Bay kind of got on the bad side of Mets fans with dragging his feet, and the comments about how he would rather play anywhere but Flushing. So I thought it would be good PR strategy if he could talk about the charity work he hopes to do in New York to try to soften that. We could get David Wright to come and make an appearance. Everyone loves David Wright.”
“I see that, I mean the part about the Wilpon family matching his donation efforts?”
“Well, I thought it would help dispel the rumors about your family’s financial situation. Kill two birds with one stone and all that.”
Jeff squints at him. “Of… course. Of course.” He flips through a few more pages. “And what’s this about announcing the Mets Hall of Fame at the Bay press conference?”
“I thought you could show some of the artist renderings of the Hall of Fame. It would give the media something else to focus on besides the signing, so they have something else to report on. Have it there as a distraction.”
“Well, we don’t exactly have any artist’s renderings, Barry – it’s going to be in a corner of the team store. There are still some Billy Wagner bobbleheads and JJ Putz camouflage shirts we need to clear out before things can get going there, and, well, things have been very busy around here.”
“Of course,” Barry said, nodding as convincingly as possible. “Absolutely. But if we had something to show the media and the fans, it would be something tangible to prove that you intend to do it right this time.”
“We intended to do this all along, Barry. Please get your story straight. This was always our plan. Just needed to get around to it. Dave Howard has assured the media and the fans of this countless times. I don’t think anyone questions our sincerity.” Jeff closed the report. “Anyway, thank you for your suggestions, but–”
“What about my other suggestions?” Barry said, suddenly feeling brave.
“There were no other suggestions in your report.” Jeff skims through all the pages. Barry didn’t want to tell him he was holding it upside down. Instead, he opens up his copy and lays it on the desk, pointing at a pie chart.
“What about the analysis at the end of the report? My research study regarding the top 20 requests from season ticket and plan holders, and my recommendations for which ones you should adopt and announce at the end of the Jason Bay press conference?”
“Oh, that was a study? I thought that was a project for your creative writing class. No, Barry, we are going to find out what Mets fans really want. We are calling them right now.”
“But this is what Mets fans really want. I took that information from years and years of account notes in the ticketing office, from Twitter searches, Facebook comments, and every Mets blog of note. The notes in each plan holder’s account in the computer was rather comprehensive. You’ve got a gold mine of data right there.”
“What’s a blog? Nevermind, that’s something on the AOL, isn’t it? We are busy talking to ticket holders to find out what they really want. For example, we know what they really want is for us to paint the stairwells orange and blue, and we are doing that.”
“What about offering a discount to plan holders?”
“Oh, the fans don’t want that. The fans feel that they are receiving excellent value for their investments. Plus, we are going to let them into the stadium early on weekends so they can be first in line at Shake Shack!” He leaned forward. “I’ll share a secret with you – that one was my idea.”
Barry nods enthusiastically again, and then points to a line in his report. “327 of the most recent callers in the past six weeks have pointed out that we are the only team in MLB that doesn’t offer a discount.”
“See, Barry, this is why you’re an intern, and I’m sitting here. That’s just what the fans say that they want. They don’t really want that. Discounting the tickets will give the impression that they don’t have any value.”
“Last season, there were tickets on Stubhub for 97 cents.”
“An edge case scenario.”
“No, actually, there were–” Barry flips through his report. “9 games where that price was available.”
Jeff looks at his watch. This had taken far longer than he had budgeted for, and he was starting to get a headache. “Barry, how did you get this job?”
“I’m an intern, Mr. Wilpon.”
“Right, but how did you get this job?”
“I’m in the MBA in Sports Marketing program at the University of Oregon. It’s the top Sports Marketing graduate program in the country.”
Jeff shrugs as if to say “so”?
“I”m in the top five in my class.”
Jeff looks helpless.
Barry sighs. “Fine. My grandfather went to school with your grandfather. He wanted me to go work for the Red Sox, but it’s been my lifelong dream to work for the Mets, so he made a phone call.”
Jeff nodded, and stuck out his hand. “Thanks for your hard work, Barry.”
Barry shook it carefully. “You’re welcome, Mr. Wilpon.” He picks up his report binder and walks out the door.
Jeff looks at the computer, and then at the photograph of him and Francesa. After a second, he picks up the phone.
“That Barry kid that works in the front office? Yes, he’s a real go-getter. A firecracker. Very ambitious. I completely agree.” He pauses. “Fire him immediately. Oh, and send his grandfather an autographed picture of David Wright.”

Disclaimer: none of this really happened

We did not renew the weekday plan. The schedule is terrible. We will buy some extra games, Twins and Tigers for sure, and will look to the secondary market for Opening Day.

The fact that we renewed one plan is probably why we haven’t gotten a call from the Mets asking us why we aren’t renewing one of our plans. Here’s a comment from a friend from yesterday:

So I got a call from the Mets asking about my Sunday plan renewal. This morning. At 9:30 am.

I happened to be up. But I did comment that it was a bit early to be calling people on a Sunday morning.

I went on to tell the guy that I was unhappy about having to buy weekday games with a Sunday plan, with the seats, and with being refused club access/being treated like a second class citizen despite ponying up money in advance. I also said that if Dave Howard says he wants to hear outrage, I wanted to note my outrage on the record. The poor guy on the phone, who seemed like a nice enough kid, did say that they have indeed heard a lot of outrage.

He said the Mets are looking into how to improve things for their fans. I commented that they should treat their fans as well as other teams do.

I wasn’t eloquent. Then again, for 9:30 on a Sunday morning, I wasn’t bad either.

Yes, they are “looking into” how to improve things, just like they’re “looking into” the Hall of Fame they planned on “all along,” just like they’re “looking into” branding the ballpark WITH THE NAME OF THE TEAM THAT PLAYS THERE… I’ll stop now.

Anyone else get a call? I know about the guy who got called a “bad fan” (which doesn’t surprise me, as I believe that is truly what the organization thinks of us). Would love to hear your comments if you got a call and if you did, what you told them.

This was the scene out at Citi Field early this afternoon. Mr. Met was posing for holiday photos, which was a task we prioritized ahead of running to the grocery store. I told Santa Met that I wanted Matt Holliday and Jason Bay for Christmas. He got very excited and clasped his hands together in the prayer position.

(Yes. I am five years old.)

We were just happy we weren’t the only adults who were there without children.

The new cream-colored jerseys were out, but the lighting was abysmal, and I couldn’t get any photos that were representative. (And to be honest, we were trying to get out of there as quickly as possible before BLIZZARD OF DEATH 2009.) Also, they have emptied out about 2/3 of the store, which we’re guessing is because that’s where the Hall of Fame is going to go. You know, the one they planned on having all along. Other than that, the place looked about the same as usual.

(In case you’re wondering why our photo isn’t on here, we’re saving it for the holiday card!!)

Sorry, I forgot I had turned commenting off while I was on vacation. It’s back now.)

This comment I received on the other post sums it all up the best, I think, so I wanted to reprint it separately, for emphasis.

Posted by: sbj
Location: Forest Hills

I used to be one of those guys who would camp out at Shea for 24 hours to get seats. There was no reason for me to get a plan as I could get virtually ay seat location I wanted as I was usually first at a window. The same held true for playoffs. Once they started to put the best games and the playoffs in a lottery I decided to go with a saturday plan.

I started to get really fed up with the incompetence of the Mets FO when they would lottery out the playoff and best regular season tickets to anyone. As a partial plan holder they offered me upper and Mez reserves (no matter where my seats were). But the lottery winners had access to the best seats. The people who support the team in the regular season should be given first dibs while the ebay sellers from Nebraska who win the lottery should at best get whatever is left over. That’s a no brainer and when I asked my exec about it I got some canned response. This is what the Yankees do. The partial season holders get access to everything in a lottery (it’s not guaranteed but when you sell 20,000 partial plans what can you do).

So last season I decided to go with a full season plan. I liked the off season moves and I thought the team was going to compete – plus the new stadium made me feel I could avoid eating any games I couldn’t go to. OK so I was wrong. But with the way the orgaiozation has run the club I just decided I couldn’t support it anymore. Not when I’m being asked to fork over cash for 40 year old catchers when I’m doing holiday shopping. When the Wilpons come out of denial let me know.

I didn’t renew and I didn’t even get a phone call from the Mets.

This is just pathetic. Instead of continuing to sustain an income stream from someone for years to come, they lose not just the ticket plan profit, but this person’s continued attendance, money spent on concessions, money spent on merchandise. Forget emotion, it’s just horrific business strategy.

Once again, they are either oblivious, or doing damage control. Based on the results of the entirely unscientific METSGRRL.COM 2009 METSFAN SURVEY, I can share with you the results of our study below. Out of 33 respondents, 26 said they were NOT renewing, and 7 said they were renewing their ticket plans.

I personally was surprised by the reasons given for not renewing. We hear about the economy as a reason and the lack of star power as a reason, but the reasons for not renewing are actually things the Mets could control – if they were bothered to do something about it. Let’s break it down.

• FINANCES: Two respondents indicated financial reasons – not due to layoffs but rather due to the payment being due in December instead of January as usual, and one due to a lack of Christmas bonus
• UNSATISIFIED WITH SEATING LOCATION/QUALITY: No one wants to sit in the top four rows of the Promenade, which is where partial plan holders were stuck. 3 respondents mentioned this specifically.
• UNSATISFIED WITH PLAN SCHEDULE: This broke down into two categories – weekend plans giving you four games that weren’t on a weekend, and weekday plans being unevenly constructed. Many people who buy Saturday plans travel a distance to be there and weekday games aren’t an option. One person noted that last year they were able to sell those games because the stadium was new, but that they had no confidence in being able to do so this year. 4 games in a 15 game plan is a little over 25% of the plan!(I am told that the Saturday plan has 10 Saturdays and FIVE weekdays!) In the non-weekend plans, there is no rhyme or reason to the schedule. If you bought a Tuesday/Friday plan at Shea, you got to see one game in every series over the course of the season. You saw every opponent. The plans now are over-weighted with too many repeats and too many omissions.
• AVAILABLE SEATS WERE BETTER THAN PLAN SEATS: Getting a Flushing Flash offering 50% discounts was insulting to people who had paid in full six months earlier.
• NO DECREASE: When the Mets said the magic words of “10%,” everyone expected to open their invoices and see reduced ticket prices. Very cleverly, the Mets had neglected to mention that the discount was because they downgraded games from Silver to Bronze, not because they dropped ticket prices. That may have worked with a small portion of the fanbase but most people figured out the bait and switch fairly quickly.
• INVOICE DUE IN DECEMBER: In this economy, this was probably the final straw for a lot of people. Yes, they let people break up the payments and the second one wasn’t due until February, but that still didn’t change the fact that the payment was due in DECEMBER, right before the holidays. And, for some people, long before any moves were made to improve for 2010.
• NO ADVANTAGE TO BUYING A TICKET PLAN: There’s no discount, there’s no post-season rights for partial plan holders even at the 40 game level, any hot games are sold in public lottery with a password like OMARSUX. Why lay out a chunk of cash when you couldn’t give tickets away last year? Painting the stairwells blue and orange doesn’t quite cut it, guys.
• SEATS ARE OBSTRUCTED OR PARTIALLY OBSTRUCTED: “Every seat in the house is great,” says the SNY talking heads. *rolling eyes* They will never admit it or do anything about it but fans are not going to buy the same seats they sat in and couldn’t see right field out of last year.

The signing of, say, Matt Holliday will assuage some of these people, the ones who are on the fence, but not all of them.

The Mets could fix this. They could bring back the old plans, they could provide additional benefits, they could waive the invoice due date, they could improve people’s seating locations without requiring them to pay their invoice first. But they are arrogant and will remain arrogant until their treasured PAID ATTENDANCE number drops for a few years running.

Twitter has started to make its mark on the Winter Meetings. If you’re on Twitter, and follow beat writers, your head is spinning. I follow beat writers for a handful of teams so I am starting to feel like like an owl. In between all of this are bloggers trying to make their mark, and whose desperation is so far resulting in stupid rumors being written about and Tweeted instantaneously, without any attempt to run down veracity. The ability to follow along in real time is seductive, and it’s fun, if you care about the behind-the-scenes machinations. It’s also frustrating, and infuriating, and heartbreaking, as the image above illustrates.

The Yankees get Curtis Granderson, and the Mets, to paraphrase Charlie Brown on Halloween, so far have a series of rocks. Jerry gave a statement today to Baseball Digest that the catcher position had to be sured up, so that’s why they went after catchers. They namedrop Torrealba and Molina and expect this to impress us. I am waiting for this episode of the Emperor’s New Clothes to end so we can get started with the baseball already. At least when this is all done I can still go watch baseball.

We have not yet decided if we are renewing one of our ticket plans or not. I very much appreciate the dialogue here over the past week and I think it has been helpful to a lot of folks. I will compile the responses shortly, but roughly 85% of people who commented said they would not be renewing, for a whole host of reasons (most of which have nothing to do with offseason roster moves).

Good articles:

• It pains me to say this, but the Phillies are 1,000,000 better than the Mets in selling tickets and treating their fans right.[via @howardmegdal]
• Great photos from last weekend’s private tour for Season Ticket Holders ONLY [via @nymetropolitans]
• “Luis Castillo has been offered to every team but Miguel’s Taqueria softball team.” [via The Eddie Kranepool Society]

Reasons for NOT renewing the ticket plan:

1. No post-season rights. The Mets claim there will be a “presale” for partial plan holders but they can’t tell you how it will work because (and I quote) “We’ve never done one.” Given that the general presales route involves assigning a password so simple a Phillies fan could guess it, please forgive me if I have zero confidence in this providing me with a way into the post-season. And yes, I realize it is ludicrous to discuss the post-season given the last few years but it’s a reason people buy plans.

2. No discount. EVERY TEAM IN MLB INCLUDING THE YANKEES GIVES A DISCOUNT TO PLAN HOLDERS. Every single one. I’m not going to go into the other discounts offered by other teams to repeat customers because I understand that this is New York City. Why should I buy in bulk?

3. I can buy better seats than mine for most games. I understand how it works, you’re saving the lower rows for full season ticketholders and then when no one buys them you release them to the general public. But there shouldn’t have been so many, and you shouldn’t have been continually sending out Flushing Flashes and Club Mets and whatever else you did to offer tickets for 50% off throughout the season.

4. The 15 game plans are unevenly structured. The Tuesday-Friday plan guaranteed me 24/25 games and that I saw every team that came through. Buying two 15-game plans (which is what we did last year) guaranteed that there were weeks I had to be at the ballpark Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday (Tuesday/Wednesday from the weekday plan that got us into Opening Day, and Friday from the “Friday Plus” plan). Furthermore, you wouldn’t even give me the same seats for both plans. I couldn’t deal with a rep, I had to go through the automatic ticketing system and take my chances. It was sheer force of will that got us in the same row in the same section for both plans. What I really want is a 40 game plan IN THE PROMENADE RESERVED, not on the field level, but that’s another story. There is no way I would commit to a 40 game plan in 2010.

5. No additional benefits. There are no benefits for plan holders except the waiving of the service charge for tickets purchased for additional games. The service charge is making Irving Azoff look like Mahatma Gandhi so this is not a trivial benefit, but it’s the ONLY BENEFIT. Would it really kill them to let all plan holders have rights to the Acela Club? Or one or two of the new, improved privileges they are extending to full season ticket holders (like early access to the ballpark on weekends)?

6. The tickets are not resellable even at face value. Buying the games in advance means we are locked in to either going to those games or forfeiting the money we spent on them, because the upper four rows in the Promenade are not resellable. Our seats were selling for 97 cents last year at one point. So if something else comes up we end up passing on it and going to the game instead. Last year, we just didn’t go to the games towards the end of the season when there were conflicts because being there was so excruciating.

7. Payment in December instead of January. They want the money the day before I have to finish my holiday shopping. Greedy.

8. Price decrease is a joke. They were right that people bought the line and looked at the numbers on their invoice instead of figuring out that the decrease came from the fact that they stopped jacking up games as Silver when they should be Bronze. There were no ticket price decreases in the Promenade level, they just changed some games from Silver to Bronze to make it look like your plan was cheaper.

Reasons FOR renewing the ticket plan:

1. We have a baseball budget, we like knowing in advance what games we are going to, we like having our tickets for the year.

2. We like sitting in the same seats every time. We are picky and don’t like sitting in the outfield.

3. There might be some kind of seniority later at some point that could work to our advantage.

4. We like being plan holders. It means something to us to be able to say that. (Or at least it used to. Right now it just seems to say, “Sucker.”)

5. We’d have to plan the season more specifically than we already do.

I deliberately did NOT include “not impressed by post-season moves” because we still like watching Mets baseball, if that makes any sense. We don’t need Omar to sign Halliday/Holliday in order for us to be compelled to renew.

That’s all I got. What am I missing?

The blog Yankees Universe was served with a cease and desist today and were given a week to comply. (A WEEK. AT CHRISTMAS TIME. AWESOME.) True, they are using a phrase that the Yankees sell, and they did use Yankees logos all over their site. But still. No one is going to confuse their site with the official Yankees site.

I wouldn’t be that worried, because I tried very hard to stay away from branding, didn’t use a photo of the Mets or the stadiums as my logo, don’t use the Mets logo anywhere, use all my own photos, etc. However, remember my John Maine MAINE-TALLICA shirts? They got pulled by Zazzle.com with no warning because MLB served them with a cease and desist. I didn’t even know they got pulled until John Maine’s uncle tried to order some for Christmas presents (100% true story). Those shirts had no color branding, no logo, and got nailed because the player’s name is a trademark (and probably the name/number juxtaposition). I didn’t even have time to retrieve my artwork, which Zazzle destroyed.

Although there have been no reports of MLB going after anyone else, I am getting ready for the worst and looking for a new domain name. Truth is, I picked this name without even thinking about it and have kind of outgrown it at this point. I have some ideas, but don’t love any of them, so I thought I would make this into a contest:

First prize: 9 DVD 1986 World Series Collector’s Edition set
Second prize: 1 DVD MLB Vintage World Series Films – New York Mets 1969 & 1986
Third prize: Mets logo iPhone case from Coveroo

I will give these prizes away to the best three entries even if I don’t end up using any of them.

You must use a valid email address in your comment if you want to be eligible for the prize. If you are horribly shy and don’t want to post a comment, I will accept suggestions via email. The contest will run from now until 1/2/2010.

Here’s the email that came in from the Mets yesterday for partial plan holders. I am comforted and, nay, INSPIRED by the confidence and enthusiasm conveyed here. (If there was a sarcasm font, I would have used it.)

Monday, November 30, 2009
Renew Your Tickets
Dear Mets 15-Game Ticket Plan Holder:

Many thanks for your continued support of the Mets. We greatly appreciate your loyalty.(Okay, that’s what the consultant said we had to say.) With the return of our key players (Translation: we aren’t going to sign anyone big so get used to it) and the necessary changes we will make to our roster (like ex-Phillies who begin their career with a move immediately alienating them from the fanbase), we believe we will field a championship-caliber team in 2010. As Ownership (This is the weirdest part of the email to me. Why not say “Fred and Jeff Wilpon”? Otherwise, why not just say Big Brother? Because that’s what it feels like) recently said, we demand and expect better, and you deserve better. (This was the best quote you could get?)

Click below to access your 2010 Ticket Plan invoice. (Please click below, so I don’t have to keep talking, because I’m running out of things to say.)

RENEW NOW »

We have reduced prices for Ticket Plans and your invoice for the upcoming season is less than it was in 2009. (BECAUSE WE SAID SO. These aren’t the Droids you’re looking for. Don’t actually do the math pleasepleaseplease)

To retain your seat location, payment is due by Friday, December 18, 2009. You can submit full payment online at Mets.com by MasterCard, Visa, Discover or American Express.

This season, we are offering a convenient, payment plan alternative, if you pay by credit card online at Mets.com. (My kingdom for someone who can advise them on the correct usage of the comma.) If you select the online payment plan option, pay just half of your total invoice amount (including any credits already applied) by December 18 and your same credit card will automatically be charged the balance of your payment on February 1, 2010. (The only one this is ‘convenient’ for is the Mets.)

Accounts that have not made any payment as described will be cancelled after December 18.

RENEW NOW »

If you have any questions, please call our Ticket Services staff at (718) 507-TIXX for assistance.

On behalf of everyone at the Mets, thank you for being a Plan Holder and best wishes for a Happy Holiday season. We hope you continue to make our new home your home, and we look forward to welcoming you back to Citi Field for our comeback in 2010.

RENEW NOW »

NOTE: All payments are non-refundable. Accounts choosing the split payment option whose credit cards are declined or otherwise not good for payment when processed on February 1 will be subject to cancellation, with all prior payments and credits forfeited.

Only three calls to action in the note. And kind of low to say you will FORFEIT your deposit or your credit. Because, you know, in this economy, people don’t have anything to worry about, or anything, and coming up with the first half of the deposit before Christmas isn’t kind of unreasonable or anything.

I honestly don’t even have the energy to get worked up any more.