“We welcome your feedback and suggestions,” stated Leigh Castergine, hired last December to manage ticket sales for the New York Mets, in an April letter to season-ticket holders.
How”™s this for feedback: “Trade Fred, not Jose.”
Meet the Mets”™ worst nightmare, and by extension that of the team”™s controlling owners Fred and Jeff Wilpon: a season-ticket holder fan base that is not balking at taking the question of the team”™s fate into their own hands.
OK, nightmare may be an exaggeration for a team that has spent the past year contending, er, dealing with injuries to stars like Johan Santana, David Wright, Jose Reyes and Carlos Beltran; the insult-to-injury investigation of the Wilpon”™s dealings with Bernie Madoff; actual insults hurled by fans and columnists alike despite the team staying in contention in the first half of the 2011 season under new manager Terry Collins; and punches reportedly thrown last year by the team”™s star closer Frankie Rodriguez.
A small group of season-ticket holders in Fairfield County are now pulling no punches as they wear their thoughts openly on their sleeves ”“ or more accurately, their chests as they sell T-shirts emblazoned with “Time to Sell the Team” and other slogans directed at the Wilpons.
And that”™s just for starters: Another shirt reads “Two Down. Two to Go,” followed by the names Omar and Jerry crossed out in red (after last season, the Mets replaced general manager Omar Minaya and manager Jerry Manuel), and Fred and Jeff remaining.
Other offerings include:
- “Shea Goodbye ”¦ To Fred and Jeff”
- “Who Mad-off with my team?
- “Ya gotta bereave” and
- “Hey, where”™d everybody go?” accompanied by a photo of empty stadium seats.
The idea for a T-shirt first germinated a year ago, after Stamford resident and businessman David Lewis organized a talk to his CEO Roundtable by Peter Shankman, founder of Help A Reporter Out who discovered his entrepreneurial spirit following the release of the hit movie “Titanic” in selling T-shirts emblazoned with the words “It Sank. Get Over It.” Hawking the shirts in Manhattan, Shankman sold thousands in just a few days.
It did not take Lewis long to raise a little “friends and family” money in hopes of duplicating that success. Available at www.timetoselltheteam.com and via a linked Facebook page, the shirts are priced at $19.86 in reference to the last time the Mets won a World Series title.
If that may lose the group sales to a few Red Sox fans who bemoan that loss to this day, Lewis is not worried about that crowd ”“ just the crowd in the vicinity of his section of Citi Field, along with the stadium”™s other corners.
Lewis has worn the shirt to Mets games without incident, beyond chuckles, polite comments and queries on how to get a hold of one. One of his children did likewise ”“ Lewis said a Citi Field security guard asked where the shirt came from, but that was all.
Even as his ad hoc group sells shirts, they are stitching together a virtual petition that Lewis says he plans to deliver to the Wilpons in the coming months.
As of June, more than 235 people had “liked” the group”™s Facebook page ”“ Citi Field has a capacity of nearly 42,000 fans.
A sufficient number of shirts were printed to cover the former number, but Lewis hopes a second run will be in order ”“ even as he cheers for the team to make a run in the second half at a wildcard playoff berth.
“I would hope to break even,” Lewis said. “Right now I would put the odds at even money that we”™ll make money.”
