Wednesday, March 07, 2007

Teenage Kicks

aka, what Mets Grrl bought herself for her birthday...TA DA!!! I could not take photos and model these for you, so imagine, if you will, a small fashion show:

My very own customized Converse Chuck Taylors, tricked out MG-style!!! I am a total Chuck Taylor fiend, I have at least half a dozen pairs in different colors (TBF is pointing out that there are far more than half a dozen, I wave that a way as a mere detail.)

I don’t know what Bono claims as his baseball affiliation, but even he would approve, since they’re part of the Product (RED) line.

Not to start on one of my favorite rants again, but I can’t resist: I’ve seen the ‘official’ Mets sneakers—they’re ugly and boring and lame. What a huge opportunity MLB is missing out on here - if I could have customized shoes in Mets colors AND included the Mets logo? I would’ve gladly paid more than what I did for these shoes (which were not at all expensive, considering).

So when you see my shoes at Shea or in Port St. Lucie… say hello. To me, not the shoes. :)

Shea to host Live Earth festival?

Because the place isn’t beat up enough already, we need a concert there right before/during the All-Star Break…

Read here

And here

My word, I don’t want this at Shea.

What does it mean that the first thing that sprung to my mind was: Damn. I don’t want this f**king up the turf for the rest of the season.
NOT: Man, that lineup sucks. [That was the second thing.]

[thanks to H., who roots for the Cubs but we love her anyway, for the tip]

Monday, March 05, 2007

presales are a joke

[to the tune of “911 Is A Joke"]

Ah, the Mets finally come over to the hyperbole of the concert industry and the much-dreaded “presale”. This term is as worthless and abused as “sold out” these days: today, “sold out” only means “we sold out of the tickets we chose to make available for this sale.”

e.g.:

Limited ticket inventory for Opening Day and the Subway Series at Shea (May 18-20) is available in Mets Season Tickets, select Ticket Plans, and select Seven Packs. Single Game tickets for these four games sold out through an online random drawing that generated in excess of 400,000 registrations in February.

Hey, MTO: “sold out” means: THERE ARE NO MORE TICKETS. Not: we have plenty of tickets. We just won’t sell them to you unless you buy seven games from us.  If there is such ‘unprecedented’ demand for Mets tickets, then why not sell the Opening Day tickets - either to plan holders or just to anyone - because you certainly don’t need the seven packs to sell those games, right?

[Oh, here’s another tip: this six ticket limit is also a load of hooey. Why not just send the ticket brokers an engraved invitation? Events that are in demand limit the quantity of tickets one can buy in each sales transactions to make things fair. Isn’t that the whole reason for the ticket lottery, to make things fairer for the fans? That’s what you said, right?]

“Presale” is even worse manipulation than “sold out”. For years, I have watched music fans run like lemmings to the sea that is the concert presale, begging and pleading for presale passwords, and then complaining that “all they could get” was Row Z of the third tier, while I wait until the public onsale and score a seat in the second row. The whole point of a presale in the concert industry (with some exceptions for those bands with fan clubs worth a damn, like Pearl Jam or Dave Matthews as an example) is to move the crappiest seats first by attaching a value and a sense of urgency: wow, I’m in before EVERYONE ELSE. So what if all I’m getting is row M in upper reserved 28 - this is the best that’s available since I’m in on the PRESALE and I’m SPECIAL!”

Bullpucky.

So today, my good friend the Mets Ticket Office sends me an email today:

So this is a presale for Flushing Flash subscribers, all 1xxxxxx of them, AFTER the ‘presale’ for Mets Account Holders. All day long, people have been hitting metsgrrl.com with Google queries, looking for a presale password. The presale password for account holders was “WRIGHT” or “REYES”. I mean, COME ON. Was that really supposed to keep non-account holders out of the presale? Today’s is similarly ludicrous; it’s so easy to guess that it can’t be meant as more than ceremonial.

It’s low, it’s manipulative, it’s toying with people’s emotions, it’s not be honest about what’s available and what’s not. I’m not talking about a ticket drop that happens the day or week before the show, where extra seats are released because they’re not needed, or to combat scalpers. I’m talking about the deliberate manipulation of the ticket pool to defraud consumers into thinking what’s currently for sale is the best that they’ll ever be able to do.

MG’s rule with buying concert tickets has always been, I refuse to spend money on a seat I won’t be happy sitting in. If I don’t like what’s in the presale, I don’t buy. If I don’t like what’s offered in the public onsale, I don’t buy. There are exceptions to every rule, of course - the hot tickets that I know will sell out - but again, it goes back to the first rule: if it’s a hot ticket I’ll be happy to be in the building so I don’t mind.

Which is why we are likely coughing up $130 to StubHub to make sure we’re in the building for Opening Day. I’m not going to sit in Section 28 and pay for four games I already have tickets to, just on principle. A helpful reader offered the suggestion that at least buying the seven-pack would mean we might get post-season rights, but right now I would bet any sum of money that the post-season considerations offered to seven-pack and saturday or sunday plan holders will not be an option this year should the Mets (deities willing) once again be playing baseball in October. I don’t trust them right now. I don’t believe they have the fans’ best interest at heart. Which is fine - it’s a business - but then say so, dammit. I mean, I don’t expect the Rolling Stones to act like Phish because they never made any bones about the fact that they were in it for the Benjamins. And yes, I realize this is professional sports, but isn’t there some pretense somewhere? I’m not asking for a plan holder lunch with the team, or a fan fest every year, or all the other wonderful perks that other parks and clubs offer their fan base - I know, this is New York.

This ticket thing irks me because do they really think we’re that dumb? For years, we would moan that there is no way fans of professional sports teams would let themselves be treated the way concert ticket buyers and concert goers are treated.

Mets Grrl is Officially Cranky.

Sunday, March 04, 2007

citifield construction update

TBF and I were out in Queens on Saturday to visit the Robert Moses exhibition at the Queens Museum of Art. (Yes, we dorkily made all those “This is Tom Glavine of the New York Mets. Discover Queens.” jokes.) While we were in the area, we made a small detour over to Shea to check out what was going on with construction at Citifield, and I brought my camera along. The construction crews were busily at work, even on a Saturday.

[Tip: be sure to click through to see the larger versions of these photos.]

This will be the view from left field towards the stands.

In this closeup from the same vantage point, you can see the beams for the seating levels, and how it’s starting to curve toward right field:

And here we are on the other side, from behind the stands. You can see the flat area that will become the concourse, and the seat levels sloping down:

Also over on this side, here’s the beginning of the entrance rotunda starting to be built:

Some perspective:

And before some wisenheimer writes in to say, “Why didn’t you just get up on the subway platform to take some photos,” trust me that I planned on that, but the bridge over to Shea is closed in the off-season.

It’ll be interesting to have these as a baseline, and track progress throughout the season into next year. I was also glad to get some photos of Shea with the 2006 signage, and some different perspectives (like the 1969 mural, which I never, ever see) which you don’t get running from the 7 train to the mezzanine at 6:55pm.

Oh: if you thought parking was bad last year, you ain’t seen nothin’ yet. There’s pretty much nothing left.

Friday, March 02, 2007

Law & Order, Mets Grrl style

The defense rests.

So, in order to go to Opening Day, what do we do: do we pay the $100+ to buy the “Opener Pack” 7-pack that has four games we already bought tickets to? Or do we just bite the bullet and buy a $100+ ticket to Opening Day from someone on StubHub?

It irks especially because some of those blocks of 6 you KNOW someone bought with the code they got from the lottery, and none of those people would have bought tickets for resale if they would have had to wait in line at Shea.

Wednesday, February 28, 2007

BASEBALL! BASEBALL!!

THERE’S BASEBALL TODAY!

AND IT’S NOT THE CARIBBEAN WORLD SERIES!

THE METS ARE PLAYING BASEBALL TODAY!!!!!!

This is of course about the time I lament that my current desk is, essentially, in the middle of a hallway (we’re having space problems at work).  And given that THE ENTIRE OFFICE aside from three people are all Yankees fans (die-hard, if you’d hear them talk), it would be a little obvious.

BASEBALL!!! TODAY!!!!!

Tuesday, February 27, 2007

reprise on the city of brotherly love

Some of you may have noticed that I had a post about Brett Myers, and that it was removed. You may have noticed that I changed my snackbar quote (the one at the top of the sidebar over there) instead. I stole that from TBF, and when he shared that with me (he posted it somewhere else), only THEN did I realize that Brett Myers was That Guy. I read my post and it sounded totally shallow - yes, tickets.com sucks - but it made me seem like a total lightweight. So I took it down.

In an email discussion with Bob Sikes yesterday (who I still offer much gratitude towards as one of the first folks to acknowledge Mets Grrl), I shared part of this thought process with him. And then today, he came back and suggested that I needed to offer my thought process to the rest of you. Combined with this some levity in the blogosphere at a MetsMerized headline entitled, “Brett Myers Can Beat His Wife, But Not The Mets,” and my discomfort as a female at 1) the headline and 2) the humor around it, I decided that he was right.

I only learned about Brett Myers last year when I was doing some research online, looking for other blogs by female baseball fans. I found a blog written by a Phillies fan (which I cannot find any more - it was on MLB blogs), an older woman who was distressed at the Phillies for a lot of reasons, but whose ire turned into moral outrage over what she perceived to be their non-handling of the incident in Boston between Brett Myers and his wife. None of which I knew about, because it happened when I was not yet clamoring to watch Sportscenter every night.

However, Google is your friend. I typed a few words into the search box, and bingo. Within 15 minutes I was sharing this woman’s outrage. I understand PR, I understand spin, I understand damage control. But there are some things that are inexcusible.

There are things that are funny, and there are things that are not funny no matter what. I can make off-color jokes, and laugh at things I shouldn’t laugh at, I’m not saying that I’m perfect. I’m not trying to start a First Amendment debate here - I’m not proposing that we legislate that you can’t make jokes about certain subjects. But on a personal level, there are things that aren’t funny to me: racism, anti-semitism, misogyny, and assholes who beat the crap out of their wives. I’m not going to laugh at wife beating jokes, and I should be able to say that I think that people who are making them and are laughing at them are wrong, and maybe they should think about it a little and perhaps make the choice to not do so.

Which is what I’m doing here.

There is no shortage of pejoratives one can direct at Brett Myers. I issue a challenge to the rest of the blogging community to avoid this particular direction and take our humor up a level for the rest of the season.

Thursday, February 22, 2007

on a positive (sort of) note

I forgot to mention my letter from the Mets yesterday, inviting me (as an account holder, or rather, a “valued patron” *snort*) to purchase single game tickets (excluding, of course, opening day and the Subway Series) before the rest of the world.

[The fact that the password is so freaking obvious as to be completely worthless, therefore ensuring that everyone’s going to get in on it somehow (no, REALLY. It might as well be ‘METS’) was a subject for additional derision. And no I’m not telling you. xoxo]

However, what I missed in my initial pissed-off, fling-of-worthless-letter-onto-MG-desk was THIS:

“Highlights on our home 2007 schedule include… (blah blah blah about the Cardinals that would be appropriate for any team except the Mets, because it feels like it was written by some intern who somehow FORGOT who BEAT us last year) and--”

--wait for it--

“Great giveaways, including Mr. Met T-Shirts, PAUL LO DUCA BOBBLEHEADS (emph. mine), David Wright Jersey Bags and Build-A-Bear Workshop Day...”

There is no way in heck that Lo Duca bobbleheads are For The Children.

Right?

“We are sorry to inform you…”

”...that your entry was not selected in this drawing.”

TWO SECONDS after I received this (and TBF confirmed that he, too, got shut out), I went on Craigslist… to find that people were *already* selling their PIN numbers.

Just for fun, I wrote to a few of them to ask how this was going to work - and all three of them responded back that they had already closed deals and that their codes were not available. I wouldn’t have bought one no matter what - I mean, I might as well buy a Ticketfast ticket from someone on eBay - but WTF?

How on earth does this make things fairer for fans? Two of the people who had ads up explicitly said they weren’t trying to rip people off, but they just didn’t have the cash right now. There’s *no way* that type of person would have gone and waited in line at Shea to buy opening day tickets. So, instead of letting the fans earn the privilege of attending Opening Day, they let anyone with an email address sign up, whether or not they actually really want to go, probably with the hopes of making a quick buck instead.

I ask again: how on earth does this make things fairer for fans?

::sigh::

Tuesday, February 20, 2007

AN ACTUAL CONVERSATION.

TBF holds up a slip of paper: “Mega-millions.” His office has a weekly pool.
“Uh-huh.”
“It’s $151 million now.”
“Uh-huh.”
“Even if they took half of it, that’s still a lot of money.”
“Yep.”
“The first thing I do would be to call the Mets ticket office.”
“But of course.”
“Do you still want to sit behind the visitor’s dugout, or the Mets dugout?”
“Visitor’s dugout.”
“So I call them up and say, ‘I want the best seats you got, and I don’t mean mezzanine box.”
“And I want four seats.”
“So we can take friends?”
“And so we can donate to children’s charities when we’re not using them.”
“Right. They can take the kids, or sell the seats.”
“Exactly.”
“Then, I look for a place to live.”
“I’m glad we have our priorities straight.”
“Hey, it’s going to take us time to find a place to live. The season starts soon!”

Labels: shea tickets

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