"Insanity: Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results"-Albert Einstein
I'm not writing this post trying to be certain blogger who likes to criticize other fans and thinks he is king of the fan base. (Woop Woop, Thats the sound of da po-lice). I'm just a fan who isn't going to be made a fool of this year. This would have been my 11th consecutive year with a ticket plan since I graduated college in 2003. I dion't need to buy the plans, because my whole life I was able to go to games for free. My grandfather had season tickets in the orange seats at Shea. Several neighbors had plans, and I would get free tickets hand over fist. Playoff tickets, Subway Series tickets...I didn't have to pay a dime. Sometimes I'd get the urge to go to a game and buy my own seat too. But when I graduated, I wanted to be able to have my own tickets. It also helped that you got guaranteed playoff purchase options if you owned a plan. That little privilege that drew me in was used once in the last 10 seasons.....
I'm done being a sucker. Even when the Mets are bad, I enjoy going to games. I like the "night out at the ballpark" experience. I enjoy watching the sport and being entertained. And I'm going to go to plenty of games this season. But I'm not buying in advance anymore. Not until the Mets show me they care, whether by putting a better product on the field or making it more worthwhile to have a partial plan. I have my own personal ticket rep, Jay Velez. Jay is great, and I feel bad that I am not renewing this season, because guys like him or the people working hard and are overlooked in this process. The Mets screw them as much as the screw us. I hope Jay understands.
Last season was my breaking point. This was something I've been toying with the last few seasons. Between getting married, and now having a kid with another on the way, free time is really a rare commodity nowadays. But that's not whats stopping me. Last year, I was bombarded with email after email from the Mets alerting me to all these great ticket deals they were offering. And a majority of those deals were for games I already had tickets to. Whether it was dependent on how many strike outs the pitchers got in a weekend, or some sort of theme night with a cool give away, there were great offers coming in every home stand from the marketing department. I'm hardcore Irish. I would have enjoyed that pretty cool Irish themed Mets shirt, but nope, I already had tickets for that game. And yet, I know I could have bought more and given my plan tickets away, but thats not the point. There's no reward for being loyal.
Year after year, I'm paying full price and showing up night in and night out, while the guy sitting next to me got in for half the price and got a Jay Horowitz bobble head to go with his sweet deal. So I'm gonna but myself some pretty good opening day seats, and then I'm going to let dynamic pricing do the work. I'll wait for prices to drop to go to games. Or I'll go on StubHub and get tickets below market value from fans trying to unload tickets they can't use.
I like what the Mets did this offseason. I think this season has the potential to be entertaining and can toy with .500 if some of their younger pieces step up. But it's not enough for me, not right now. I've waited too long. I had an ongoing internal battle with myself all offseason because of this. I feel like one of those bad fair-weather fans that I hate. But in the end, I'm not. I'm doing what works for me. I'm gonna go to plenty of games, and I'm gonna make it worth my while. I've always wanted to do a 7 Line outing, and now I will because I won't feel overwhelmed by the amount of games I have. I'll see you all at Citi Field this summer, I just can't tell you what nights I'll be there, not right now at least.
You can make very harsh statements to me on Twitter @GetsThruBuckner.
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