According to Adam Rubin, for ESPNNewYork.com, the Mets are in the planning stages of developing a pricing strategy for 2011.
Ticket sales are down 16.5% this year over last year. I would accordingly expect a 16.5% drop in ticket prices. That follows the law of supply & demand. It is not a theory but a law that successful businesses understand. It’s also not a law I expect the Wilpons to follow.
Failure to follow this law could alienate your customer base and judging by the turnout I have witnessed at recent Met games, the fans are speaking with their wallets and staying away.
Demand is low so ticket prices must come down to reflect that. The Mets have the 6th highest ticket price in the majors at $32.22. A 16.5% drop would set the average new ticket price at $26.90. This is much closer to the major league average of $26.74.
“Because attendance is based on tickets sold, and not actual turnstile count, the Mets’ drop-off in Year 2 at Citi Field has not appeared as precipitous as anyone inside the ballpark has observed.” ~ Adam Rubin
But many of us have watched and witnessed the significant drop-off in attendance. You don’t need to attend, you can see it on TV but attending is truly an eye opener.
Fan enthusiasm is incredibly low and the Mets do not have the payroll or budget flexibility for 2011 that will allow them to make a big offseason splash. Offseason splashes have been the formula that has generated fan interest in the past.
How do you generate interest now? Just field a winning team. We already have a winning team but the nagging injuries need to be managed better as well as hiring a manager who is a disciplinarian to get the clubhouse in order.
The Mets are loaded with talent and should consistently rank among the top teams in baseball but the same formula of nagging injuries and poor management have dragged this team down for far too long. Solve those two problems and you have a very exciting and winning team. A team we briefly saw in May.
The current strategy has been to sign big talent to justify increasing ticket prices. The correct pricing strategy should be, losing season, lower prices. Winning season, higher prices.
But do the Wilpon’s understand this and if so, are they listening?
The Mets Report 
I'm actually impressed by the number of people at the game in the above photo. I'd love to see a shot of what last night's game looked like.
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Check out twitter. There are some people walking around snapping shots of citifield and posting them. There were a few from last night.
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