It wasn't hard to figure out what the Mets needed to do to keep people coming to Citi Field in the wake of their 2009 train wreck. They cut ticket prices around the ballpark, with an average drop of 10 percent when all was said and done. Not bad as far as admission of a season gone wrong go, but it appears that it will take more than that to make Mets fans a happy bunch.
The New York Post heard from one of those fans who received an invoice for his 2010 tickets in the mail. Thomas Cooney, who has seats in the upper tiers of the stadium, is angry that the total price of his tickets only dropped from $4,050 to $3,955. The paper quotes him as grumbling "Wow, what a discount."
Somewhere, Mr. Cooney's junior high school math teacher is grumbling, "Wow, how did that kid pass my class?"
Most people are aware that the word average means a middle point among various different figures. In the case of the Mets' ticket prices, they were quite clear when they announced reduced prices that prices would be cut by 10 percent on average, but also that there would be some seats that remained the same price while others would be slashed by more than 20 percent. They appear to have lived up to their end of the bargain here, even if Cooney or others are under the impression that the word average means something that it most certainly does not.
Sadly, educating the masses on that distinction wasn't the point of the article. The point was to be outraged at the Mets for screwing over Mr. Cooney and other fans by cutting their prices by smaller amounts than they would have liked. Try again.
There are so many real reasons to heap scorn upon the Mets that this seems like complaining about portion size at a restaurant that gave you E. coli. There's an easy course of action available to those that don't like the cost of the tickets offered by the Mets. It's called not buying them.
Josh Alper is a writer living in New York City and is a contributor to FanHouse.com and ProFootballTalk.com in addition to his duties for NBCNewYork.com.
