The New York Times reports that the average attendance so far this season, after 22 home matches, is 31,892, compared to 38,744 last season. The 18-per-cent drop is puts the Mets second in percentage terms in falling MLB attendances this season. The Cleveland Indians are down 30 per cent on their last year's average, although this translates to a loss of only 6,585 fans a game, less than the Mets' 6,852.
Bad weather and poor performances by the Mets are being blamed.
“The problem is last year the tickets were really expensive and the team stunk and that can really stick with fans for a while,” said Jon Greenberg, the executive editor of Team Marketing Report, a sports industry research company.
Greenberg said a trend of new stadiums boosting ticket sales that was evident in the 1990s had tailed away.
“Stadium fatigue sets in much faster than it did before.”
The Mets cut ticket prices by up to 20 per cent after last season – their first at Citi Field – in an effort to pre-empt the “stadium fatigue”. However its monthly report to the MLB's commissioner’s office in March, showed ticket sales had dropped 40 per cent from the same period a year earlier.
