Simple, yet colorful. Blue and Orange.
ScoreBig: New Ticket Marketplace
It’s run a little like Priceline’s name your own price feature in that you pick a pricing category and then select how much you’re willing to pay. You enter your info and click submit, and the site lets you know if your price is accepted, or if you need to adjust your selections. Simple and easy really.
I purchased two tickets to the Saturday Mets game in May featuring the David Wright Canvas Print giveaway and the process was painless. I picked the 4-star section and when my bid was rejected I dropped down to the 3-star section and had success. At each level there is a seating map with the sections represented so you know roughly what type of seats you’re bidding on.
My seats ended up being about 20% off face and I suspect I could’ve gotten them for less; the site actually tossed me an additional savings after I successfully had an offer accepted. My advice would be to check the sections against the face value price on mets.com/tickets and make an educated bid.
Some quick facts:
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You are guaranteed to save on each and every ticket on ScoreBig.com
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Tickets for sports, concerts, theater, Broadway, family shows, and attractions
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No fees – free delivery
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Choose Your Seating Area – all seats ordered together will be next to each other
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Tell us what you want to pay – you have all the control, it’s thrilling!
- Get an instant answer – you find out right away if your offer has been accepted
eBooks, Podcasts, Tickets
Shannon Shark of Metspolice.com has released an eBook entitled Send The Beer Guy.(Hey wait, aren’t I the beer guy?) I haven’t gotten a chance to read it yet, got a library book under the gun, but it’s on deck. I’ve heard it’s good, and Shannon was teasing some of the stories at the Mets Police awards in January.
I’ve joined Jeff Paternostro and Rob Castellano on the Amazin’ Avenue Audio the past two weeks. This week we talked about a whole bunch of stuff, from Sandy’s culpability for the current roster, the catchers, Stub Hub, some Mets prospects, and a bunch of other things. Check it out. If you haven’t been paying attention, I’ve been writing for Amazin’ Avenue a bunch too, so check that out as well.
Opening Day tickets will go on sale next Friday at 10am. There will be various pre-sales earlier in the week as well, and while most games won’t be that high in demand it’s still nice to get your tickets in hand sooner rather than later, especially if you know you want to get to one of the promotion dates such as Banner Day or David Wright Bobblehead Day. Of course, Opening Day tickets will be expensive as well given that it’s one of three premium games. Expect the cheapest seats to be at least $50. Dynamic pricing may make the price spike as tickets go on sale, and certain sections may drop in a couple of days after the initial rush dies down. Last year’s Opening Day was a record crowd though, so if you’re set on Opening Day or the Subway Series, don’t hesitate.
I’ve been kind of quiet this offseason, but baseball season is so close I can smell the Shake Shack so expect more posts, both here and at Amazin’ Avenue, which you can find a link to my posts on the right sidebar. Follow me on Twitter (Follow @Ceetar), and you can find Optimistic Mets Fan on Facebook and Google+ as well. I’ve also been known to post a lot of Mets pictures to Instagram.
Waiting On Line (Not Online) For Mets Tickets
It was winter 2000 and New York was in the middle of a freezing cold stretch of weather. Wind chill estimates had the temperatures at subzero on the day that the Mets started selling tickets. This was before you could buy them online, and me and a couple of friends decided to camp out at Shea Stadium to buy tickets for the 2000 season.
We bundled up with blankets and layers and thermoses of coffee and hot chocolate and drove to Shea Stadium. We made record time since it was the middle of the night, parked, and got on line. We were by no means first; there were dozens of people already there, maybe as many as 200. It was frigid and we were basically standing around shivering with hundreds of dollars in our pockets because you had to pay cash. The warmest part was when you got to move a little bit to use the bathroom.
Eventually they moved most of the line inside. It cut down on the wind a little bit, but it wasn’t any warmer. As it got closer to the time tickets were actually on sale a couple of players, and manager Bobby Valentine, came out and were shaking frozen hands and signing autographs as the line started to move. Someone, presumably with WFAN, was handing out the keychains in the picture here. Eventually we were able to purchase our tickets, which included tickets to the epic 8th inning comeback against the Braves on Fireworks Night, climbed back into the car, blasted the heat and drove back home and fell asleep.
Nowadays online ticket sales have done away with this camping out, which is definitely a good thing for those of us that aren’t 17 anymore with free time to wait outside a baseball stadium for hours, but there’s a certain nostalgic machismo to having braved the elements to root for your team.
Mr. Mets Landing and Pyrotechnics
The Mets announced this weekend that they will have Pyrotechnics night again this year. They also announced that they renamed the last two sections of the Left Field Landing seats to Mr. Mets Landing, and will be discounting them.
Mr. Met’s Landing is a new, specially priced area of the ballpark.
Sections 338 and 339 in Citi Field’s Left Field Landing are priced at $10 for kids 12 and under and $20 for adults ($20 and $30 respectively for four Marquee game dates)
Mr. Met will visit both sections during every home Mets game.
I sat in the future Mr. Mets Landing section late last year. That post has some pictures, and I’ll share some here as well. What I was most shocked about was how much I actually enjoyed the seats. I’d previously been under the assumption that the Landing may have been the worse section in the ballpark due to the overhang above you making it tough to see the scoreboard, and the Landing itself blocking you from seeing the left fielder. This is still probably the case if you’re beyond rows 5-6 or so, but otherwise I think Mr. Mets Landing will end up being pretty popular. You get a view of the game from nearly dead center, which is similar to the view you get on the TV cameras at home. You get the view from behind the pitcher as he throws his pitch, as opposed to watching from behind the batter. You’re more a part of the team on the field than the team at the plate, and I think this is one of the best things Citi Field has going for it that we didn’t get to experience at Shea Stadium.
I was at the inaugural Pyrotechnics night last year, and I had a good time. I was initially skeptical; Fireworks night had been my favorite promotion growing up and I was sad to see it go. I turned out to be pleasantly surprised; given the name change I did not expect fireworks, but the Pyrotechnic display that we did get was pretty good. Not that there weren’t issues with it, but it was new and exciting and I had fun. I’m planning to go again this year.
Did Wednesday’s Lost Cost the Mets Millions?
How much money did Wednesday’s loss cost the Mets? The different between 15-13 and 16-12 is huge, as is bouncing back from a bad series with the Phillies with a winning one against a lesser team. The Mets after their awesome home stand had a ton of good will brewing in the fan base, but they threw it all away with a miserable road trip.
Even if the Mets split the road trip, I think most fans would still be feeling good about the team. They’d buy tickets, they’d head out to Citi Field to see the Giants, and more importantly, to see the Mets. The Nationals come in again next week, and who really wants to see the Nationals if the Mets are playing poorly? (Besides die-hards like me, who’s probably going to two of those games)
So, how many fans are going to now stay home for this stretch of games? 5000 a game? 10000? The Mets haven’t been drawing well, it’s not yet summer, and they’re coming off some bad play. Between ticket prices, parking, concessions, and souvenirs the Mets are going to end up missing out on a lot of money that they may have gotten just off one more win.
I’m sure the Mets are aware of this. They know what the perception of the team is, and they have access to their own records and attendance figures. While the answer isn’t as simple as a player move, or a bad lineup, you wonder where the Mets would be and how we’d feel about the team if they’d cut Gary Matthews Jr, Frank Catalanotto, or Fernando Tatis for Chris Carter, Nick Evans or Jason Pridie. How much better would we feel if Jerry Manuel rested relievers better, didn’t rest Castillo for Cora one game in each of the last three series, or didn’t stick with guys like Gary Matthews or Mike Jacobs when everyone else realizes they have nothing to offer?
So the Mets are aware of the problem, and know some of the problem areas. It seems unlikely they’ll wise up and get a decent manager in here, but I’d definitely bet on the roster being shaken up a bit. I think the Mets trust a guy like Carter over some kind of center field replacement like Jason Pridie or Jesus Feliciano, but I’ve been wrong before. Maybe the Mets are leaning towards sparking excitement through young players, such as they did with Ike Davis when Chris Carter may have done. Could it be that Fernando Martinez could be the starting centerfielder on Friday against the Giants?
Mets Opening Day Pack
It appears that if you haven’t acquired tickets to Opening Day in some manor, the Mets are offering a 5-game pack that includes the game. However, it looks like these are games are slow-selling seats from the other packs. It’s only available for baseline box, and field box seats. This means you’re going to have to spend at least $400 a ticket, for five games, to buy this package. Chances are if you can afford this, you’ve already spent the money on a package for the season.
I’d love to do this, but at $75 a ticket++, I just can’t afford it. You can add any other four games from April and May, which could be two Phillies games if you so choose. You’d probably spend almost this much money buying similar seats on stubhub for just Opening Day.
However, it does mean that there are unsold tickets to Opening Day. If this package doesn’t finish them off, they’ll have to put these tickets out there somewhere. There is probably an outside chance that we can get lucky and get these tickets through some sort of second-chance lottery, or just dumb luck.