Why attendance lagged in 2024

Morning Dose: Wednesday, February 19

☀️ Good Morning:

We have a special edition of the newsletter this morning featuring a column from Peter Kauffmann. There’s plenty of news to catch up on as well.

☕️ Grab your coffee for your morning dose of Mets Fix!

---

During his recent press avail with reporters at spring training yesterday, Steve Cohen was asked about the fact that last year’s exciting Mets team ranked just 18^th in attendance on the season.

“I didn’t like it. It really bothered me,” Cohen said.

This isn’t the first time Uncle Steve has weighed in on lagging attendance. During the stretch run last year, Cohen lamented some of the disappointing crowds for key games. Even legend Howie Rose expressed his disappointment in the attendance during a key game last September – when the red hot Mets drew only 21,694 fans to a key Monday night game against the Nationals.

via @DeeshaThosar

I love taking my daughter to the ballpark, but the reality is it’s really, really expensive. I’m fortunate that I can go to as many games as I do, but I don’t appreciate our billionaire owner taking shots at fans who may not be able to shell out hundreds of dollars to take their kids to a game.

As a kid, I was able to sit in the field level (orange) seats exactly once. I saved up my money from my paper route, and got my dad to take me to the Shea box office in early April so I could buy two field level seats for a game in June (total cost: $22 in 1988 – which would be about $60 today). It was a high school graduation present for my older brother – June 19, 1988. I remember every single detail of that day. Seats about 30 rows up on the third base side, and David Cone, my favorite player, took a no-hitter into the 8^th (damn you, Steve Jeltz!). It was a special experience, and something that wouldn’t live with me today in the same way if we’d been watching at home on our 13-inch screen.

If you love the game of baseball, you love going to the ballpark. In 1988, Mets’ attendance topped 3 million for the season – a full million more than the average MLB attendance. The final three seasons at Shea (2006 – 2008), attendance was 3.3 million, 3.8 million, and over 4 million – well over MLB averages of 2.6m, 2.7m and 2.7m. Last year, the team drew 2,329,290 fans, lagging behind the MLB average of 2,575,382.

So why aren’t Mets fans flocking to Citi Field the way we used to pack Shea back in the day?