I guess when you re a journalism major, macroeconomics, business management and accounting are not e

I was so close to pounding out a few sentences the other day in response to Howard Megdal s latest rant about the Mets raising some ticket prices as much as 7%. I did my best to resist, but Mark Healey s article today pushed me over the edge and I found myself with a great need to respond to both. You can read Megdal s entire article at Capital New York ,  but here s a little taste from Flushing s own Anti-Wilpon Crusader (cape optional):
Attendance metrolink in los angeles dropped from 3.16 million in 2009 to 2.56 million in 2010, 2.35 million in 2011 and 2.24 million in 2012. This happened despite steep cuts in ticket prices in each season, along with extensive deals and giveaways metrolink in los angeles just to sell out 2012 s Opening Day and keep the 2012 fan drain to a minimum. So in 2013, the Mets are trying something different: ticket prices are going up. Those fans who renew their 2012 tickets will see no increase in price.
metrolink in los angeles After four straight seasons metrolink in los angeles of cutting ticket prices, and significantly so at that, the team is somehow prohibited from raising prices? Has Mr. Megdal taken a good look at the cost of living index in New York or the National inflation rate? Does he live in a world where fuel costs haven t risen to peak levels effectively increasing the costs of food, soft goods and durable goods by almost 18% in the last 24 months alone? Where is this fantasy world Mr. Megdal resides in, I would like to live there too.
The problem with agendas is that they cloud your vision. It makes you see only one side of the coin and not both. Imagine piloting a plane with only half a windshield in the cockpit metrolink in los angeles Imagine walking a tightrope with one eye closed
Like all businesses in this harrowing economy, the Mets face the same dangers and the same challenges as all the corporations in the rest of this country. The 25% rise in health insurance costs which have contributed to a an epidemic bankruptcy rate nationwide is just another cost the Mets have to contend with. It takes 18.6% more gross revenue to keep the same net profit margins today than it did five years ago. And yet some would have you believe the Mets operate in a vacuum and are immune from the ills of a deteriorating economy and a population that has less disposable income today than they did two years ago.
I guess when you re a journalism major, macroeconomics, business management and accounting are not exactly the kind of subjects you would master in, but that doesn t make their reality and impact any less important than the agenda you are trying to push onto your readership.
The Mets have every right to raise ticket prices especially after four consecutive season of slashing prices for their consumers metrolink in los angeles in light of overwhelming rises in supply costs. By the same token, metrolink in los angeles Mets fans have a right to either pay those prices or stay home. Nobody is putting a gun to anyone s head. We live in a free market society and all of us have the ability to make the choices that we feel are best for us. Including metrolink in los angeles you and including the Mets. That s the beauty of the American ideal, the American ideal I proudly served and defended for six years of my life.
Also, on the subject of the ticket buying public, my friend Mark Healey tossed his hat into the debate with a post entitled, If You Buy A Season Ticket To See The Mets In 2013, You Are A Schmuck . I love Mark, me and him occasionally agree and disagree on a myriad of Mets topics all season long on Twitter. We have a mutual respect for each other, but I m totally on a different planet metrolink in los angeles when it comes to this subject. In this particular piece he writes:
People who choose to go to a Mets game in 2013 might be enabling a clueless, toothless and fraudulent ownership whose only being kept in place because the CEO is a close personal friend of the CEO. But they're not schmucks either.
Wow. Even if you were to disregard the incendiary allegations he makes against the owners, allegations that have never been proven in a court of law, how can you say such a thing about the ticket buying portion of the Mets fanbase?
I think it s outrageous. I think that both Howard and Mark speak from years of pent up anger and hatred for Mets ownership. An ownership that has been far from perfect, but certainly not deserving of the vile and angst they are subjected to from some of the same people metrolink in los angeles again and again.
But dragging the fans into this now, is absolutely uncalled for and wrong. Among our most cherished inalienable rights metrolink in los angeles in the Declaration of Independence, the pursuit of happiness ranks chief among them. We and our families are free to spend as we want, and if taking in a ballgame with our families and children are among those things that give us joy and gratification, metrolink in los angeles we shouldn t be mocked for it.
If you want to wage your protest against the Wilpons, then get behind Howard Megdal and his million-man march, nobody s stopping you. If you refuse to buy tickets to see the Mets, feel free to get behind Mark Healey and spend your entertainment money on miniature golf and bowling instead. It s your money do what you want with it. But please leave the rest of us out of it. I m not stopping any of you or mocking any of you for doing whatever it is that pleases you, but please grant those of us who disagree with you that same courtesy.
I'm a lifelong Mets fan who loves writing and talking about the Amazins' 24/7. From the Miracle in 1969 to the magic of 1986, and even the near misses in '73 and '00, I've experienced it all - the highs and the lows. I started metrolink in los angeles Mets Merized Online metrolink in los angeles in 2005 to feed my addiction. Follow me on Twitter @metsmerized .
This is pretty simple. The management/owners have decided to stop spending money and it seems pretty clear the reason is they are broke. The result has been a gradual decline over the last three years and its pretty clear the payroll metrolink in los angeles this year will drop into the bottom half.
So given the lack of investment over the last three years, metrolink in los angeles it does seem an inopportune time to raise ticket prices because people will be spending more money on a product that may very well be inferior to last year s product. Totally the Wilpons right to do so, but don t expect people to like it or to question its wisdom. It doesn t take an MBA to figure that out.
As for what the Wilpons deserve ? Through mismanagement and bad luck they own a baseball team that they simply don t have the resources to support. You want to own a baseball team in NYC? Prepare for major heat if you can t field a competitive team. 2013 will likely be the 5th consecutive metrolink in los angeles losing season. Our crosstown rivals haven t had a losing season in over 20 years and have only missed the playoffs once in the last 19 years. Fair or not, that is the standard they are judged against.
If my circumstances were different, I know I would regularly attend some dozen Met games a year at Citi Field. Might not be the seats I d want but I m not one who would join that ban march they re advocating. I watch just about all games on SNY and occasionally buy merchandise. I guess that makes me a schmuck, huh?
Yes, that was part of my insidious plan to force Megdal s followers right back to MMO like a dream sequence straight from the Outer Limits. There s no escaping metrolink in los angeles MMO. Readers check in, but they can t check out. LOL, only kidding, it s fixed now.
People accuse the Yankees fans of being bandwagon fans, but the evidence suggests that the Mets fans are baseball worst band wagoners. They only support the team in good times which in the Mets case means 10% of the time. That s not being a fan.
All the METS get from SNY is the rights fee to broadcast! Thats all the TV money they get! All the advertising goes to SNY itself, some actually goes to the Wilpons but it s THEIR money not MET MONEY!
As for loyalty, metrolink in los angeles 2 million people (including me and my son) attended a Mets game last year knowing they would very likely finish .500. Mets have a very loyal fan base. But at some point is that loyalty simply enabling impoverished/inept management?
Whoaaa ..the reason that the team was sold was because the deRoulet family did not know anything at all about baseball and were not fans like Joan Payson was. It has been emphatically pointed out that had Gil Hodges and Mrs. Payson had not died, that M. Donald Grant would never been allowed to screw up like he did. The family still had lots of money but no interest in the game itself. The Doubleday/Wilpon purchase was more of a heist. I think the Indians got more for Manhattan!
On the other hand, the team s performance on the field does not necessarily correlate with the financial viability of the organization that runs it. Oddly, in the case of the Mets, the owner s financial constraints have caused a necessary purging of bad contracts and a greater reliance on developing players through metrolink in los angeles a viable farm system. In other words, the Wilpons don t have enough money right now to do something stupid. Circumstances compelled them into fiscal responsibility.
metrolink in los angeles We are currently experiencing healthy growth pains in that direction that, we hope, will translate into a better product on the field. I believe that a correlation exits between the Wilpons metrolink in los angeles non-involvement in baseball decisions and the healthy overall development of the NY Met organization. At best, it s a back-handed compliment.
and in those 6 times his team had the highest payroll in baseball in 1991 and a top 5 payroll in 1992 his 1988-1990 years were NOT built on sabermetrics .it was old-fashioned scouting great management in Tony Larussa metrolink in los angeles getting top talent draft picks in McGuire and Walt Weiss and a cheater in Jose Canseco
As many of us said he s has and still is the business end of the organizations he has worked for but because he has become a symbol of achievement for many who are into money ball and/or saber metrics and I think they do not want to acknowedge what they thought of him was more a myth than anything else. I do believe as he got more authority in the day to day matters of player personnel he began insisting those below him utilize metrolink in los angeles advanced stati