Fast Money Now Equals Loss of Fans Later

It’s no secret any more that the pro sports industry’s overwhelming top priority is fast money, no matter how much it alienates the fans.

Whether it’s the outrageous ticket and concession prices or the fact that kids and many adults miss most playoff action because the games begin after 8:30 pm and end way after 11:00 pm.

These types of business practices and principles in sports have been going for some time and, sadly, we’ve all pretty much excepted it and shrugged it off as “oh well, what can you do?”

But as pro sports continues to blindly chase the almighty buck, knocking over any fan in its way, its ironically costing itself more in the long run because its continuing to find ways to ignore the kids who would otherwise grow up worshipping and idolizing its teams and players.

The latest example of this is the New York Mets and their new policy regarding tickets and access for little leaguers.

As a former minor league front office executive, I’ve seen first-hand how powerful it is to allow little leaguers and other young kids (and their parents) cheap and easy ballpark admission along with the invitation to parade around the field before the game.

Think about how exciting it must be for a six or seven-year old to go to a baseball stadium, watch batting and infield practice up close and then, as the stands fill up with fans, get introduced by the public address announcer and march around the entire field with your buddies waving to your parents and all the people? And that’s just for a 5,000 seat ballpark!

It might seem like that’s a sweet gesture by the team and that owner is a swell guy, but what that organization is really doing is making those kids become fans and hooking them for life.

With the opening of their new $800 million stadium, the New York Mets have to find ways to recoup the tons of the additional money it laid out for Citi Field – I understand and appreciate that. But one of the new Mets policies to add or save money is to no longer offer discounted tickets or parades for little leaguers and youth groups.

Local little league, youth and community leaders and coaches who’ve recently inquired about this once sensational opportunity have been told by Mets officials that they’ll have to buy regular group tickets and can no longer bring kids on the field.

I think this sets a really bad precedent for the Mets and sends a horrible message. Forget about how nice and sweet it would be to allow kids this opportunity, the Mets are denying themselves a fantastic chance to grab hundreds, maybe thousands, of life-long fans.

Can you imagine what a kid would feel inside their little heart if he or she walk onto the ball field of a giant stadium and found themselves standing near a David Wright or Jose Reyes? That kid would go berserk! I know because as a kid I got to experience that very same feeling.

The Yankees, by the way, are also running over fans as a result of their new stadium. The way the original Yankee Stadium (including the post renovated version) was designed, fans had the opportunity to arrive early and stand near the players entrance to watch their heroes walk by and possibly get an autograph and say hello. Some of my greatest memories as a kid was yelling to Dave Winfield and Willie Randolph outside Yankee Stadium to come over and sign my baseball (which they both did, Phil Niekro didn’t but I’ve gotten over it after years of therapy).

The new $1 billion Yankee Stadium was built with its team parking lot inside the stadium, allowing players to go directly from their vehicles to the clubhouse without the annoying hassle of ticket-buying and money spending fans telling them how great and wonderful they are.

I hope it’s worth it.