Clearly that is not going to work for the 2011 Mets. Excitement and winning do not figure to be prominent during the first full year of the Alderson administration. But they haven't given up on the idea of improving the owners' bottom line.
Today the Mets announced some cost cutting measures for 2011:
BUFFALO/BROOKLYN SWITCHEROO
In recent years the Mets have had Buffalo as their AAA affiliate while the Brooklyn Cyclones have been an A ball team for them. Given the Mets' propensity for injuries there has been a shuttling of triple-A players up to the big club and then returned in those rare instances of injured players actually returning to the field.
Having priced out flights from Buffalo to LaGuardia and compared that to the price of a subway token it is clear that making Brooklyn the triple-A team is a clear moneymaker.
WHY BRING DEAD WOOD?
Also to save on travel and hotel rooms the club has decided to only send on road trips those starting pitchers who are scheduled to play. Why bother paying for a plane ticket and hotel room for R.A. Dickey and Dillon Gee on a trip to Cincinnati when perhaps it's Pelfrey and Misch scheduled to pitch in the series? That's pure savings.
THROW BACK THOSE FOUL BALLS
Ever notice how cavalier teams are about letting fans keep the foul balls that go into the stands? And what's with the ball-youngsters handing perfectly good balls to kids down the 1st and 3rd base lines? Do you think these balls cost nothing at all? In the NBA fans routinely toss the "air balls" back onto the court. They don't hand it over to their six year old kid who then grins from ear to ear. So this year all foul balls must be returned.
Not to be too chintzy the club will permit fans to keep homerun balls hit by the Mets at CitiField. After all, a couple of dozen freebies won't hurt the bottom line.
LIGHTS OUT AT 10
What's your electric bill look like? Right, it's not pretty. So imagine lighting a huge place like CitiField. That's big bucks. In 2011 the Mets plan to start all night games at 6:30pm and no inning will be permitted to start after 9:30. This way the building can be emptied and lights turned off by 10pm. After all, with the way the Mets figure to play this season does anyone really want to see them for more than three hours at a time?
KEEP RALPH IN CALIFORNIA
No Mets week is complete without that once a week visit by Ralph Kiner. We all need our periodic reminder of how Dazzy Vance use to spit tobacco during the early 30's. But to fly Ralphie in every seven days so that he can schmooze in the booth for three innings, well that's just wasteful.
Instead the club has sent an SNY tech out to Kiner's home to teach him how to turn on his computer and connect to the booth via a free Skype video conference. The effect will be the same as if he's in the TV booth but at another great savings.
PRICE OF ESCALATION
A final revenue enhancing step will be to charge fans for the use of escalators at CitiField. It has been decided that any fan choosing to use the UP escalators will have to pay a $.50 fare. Use of the DOWN escalators will be free, since there aren't any.
All articles featured on The Apple are fictitious. No Mets were harmed in the writing of this story. Today's story by Larry Smith. You can follow Larry Smith on twitter @dr4sight
No comments:
Post a Comment