FanPost

Attendance Update: 2014 vs. 2013

From 2012 to 2013 the Mets saw a decline of over 100,000 paid ticket sales. Hard to know how much extra revenue each ticket sold represents but it seems reasonable to guess that between ticket sales, food & beverage, parking and souvenirs it's somewhere between $50-$100. That would mean 100,000 fewer tickets sold would have cost $5-10m in revenue.

Is 2014 continuing that trend?

The Mets have now played 30 home games or 37% of their season total barring any late season "meaningless game" rain outs/cancellations. With the recent double header they've had 29 "gates" so far this year.

After 29 home dates in 2013 the Mets had just finished their subway series games, played 14 Mon-Thurs home games and 15 weekend home games. In 2014 the subway series dates are also in the books and there have been 15 Monday-Thursday dates and 14 Friday/Saturday/Sunday dates.

So the schedules to this point are pretty equivalent. 2013 saw 80 home "dates" and barring the scheduling of additional home DH's so will 2014.

Year

First 29 - Total Attendance

First 29 - Average per Game

Full Season Average per Game

2013

773,556

26,674

27,539

2014

805,942

27,791

Difference

32,386

1,116

So with pretty equivalent schedules to this point we're running about 1,100 paid tickets/game ahead of the 2013 pace. Not a huge difference but over 80 home dates it adds up to just under 90,000 tickets. What's that mean on the revenue end?

Tickets

$50 add'l revenue/ticket

$75 add'l revenue/ticket

$100 add'l revenue/ticket

90,000

$4.5m

$6.75m

$9m

So if the club can continue this pace relative to last season we're only talking about $4.5-$9 million in additional revenue. Not a ton but on the high end it could help buy another premium player if combined with the departing salary of someone like Chris Young. But what are the odds of the Mets continuing at that attendance pace?

Probably pretty good.

The current Mets are 24-28 after 52 games. At the same point last season the club was 22-30. Not a huge difference so you'd think the rest of the 2014 attendance pattern might emulate the one from last season right? Maybe not.

After game 52 in 2013 the Mets went on a 2-9 slide to drop their record to 24-39, a season worst 15 games under .500. At that point any hope of realizing a "good play" boon at the ticket window was gone for good - all by June 15 as school was ending and the summer attendance window was opening. For this year's version to reach a similarly dismal state they'd have to go 0-11 on the upcoming road trip.

So it's hard to imagine they won't have a better record heading into the summer ticket season than they did a year ago. The question is how much better? If they can get back to .500 they ought to sell summer tickets at an even better rate compared to 2013 than they have to this point already.

Let's play the crazy optimist for a minute and assume the club goes 7-4 on the upcoming road trip to return home one game under .500 and then hover there through the summer. If that happens they could have a shot to draw 2,000 more per home date than they did a year ago.

With 50 more home dates remaining that would mean 100,000 more tickets than last season over the "final fifty." When added to the 32,000 that they're already ahead for the first 29 dates and you get 132,000 for the season. Again using our $50/$75/$100 a ticket projection that would mean an extra $6.6m/$9.9m/$13.2m for the season.

Of course going 4-7 on the upcoming road trip would leave them 7 games under .500 and seemingly buried. So the upcoming road trip could have a huge impact on summer ticket sales not to mention the relevance of the rest of the season. They've won 3 of the last 4 - this would be a really good time to keep up that pace.

Let's hope it happens. First, it would mean the club is playing better and most around here would love to see that. It would also test Sandy's comments about more attendance opening up some payroll flexibility. And maybe that flexibility along with a returning Harvey is enough to make a long winter seem a little shorter and build some off-season momentum to sell even more tickets in advance of Opening Day 2015.

Positive momentum? Wouldn't that be nice for a change?



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