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Mets Lose Millions in September Collapse

Chris Isidore, CNNMoney,

Posted: 2007-10-02
07:46:19

NEW YORK (Oct. 1) - The New York Mets lost more than a
playoff spot, their pride and probably some of their fan base this past week.
The franchise lost millions of dollars, while the players themselves lost at
least $20,000 apiece, if not hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Photo Gallery: Bottom Line Baseball

Ed Betz, AP

The cash register is
closed for the Mets, who will lose millions in revenue after leading their
division most of the year and then failing to make the playoffs.

1 of 4

From BloggingStocks: Lost
Revenues and Broken Hearts

The Mets capped one of the worst collapses in baseball
history, having led the National League's Eastern Division by 7 games with 17 to
go, by falling Sunday to the last-place Florida Marlins, 8-1.

They lost
six of seven games in a final home stand against teams with losing records, and
missed out on not only the division title but even the wild card spot in the
baseball playoffs, which goes to the second place team in each league with the
best record.

The exact price of that collapse is impossible to say,
because there's no way of knowing how far into the playoffs the team would have
gone. But even if the Mets had been swept in the first round of the playoffs,
they likely would have seen about $1.5 million to $2 million in additional
profits from its share of ticket sales, concessions and the like.

And if
the team had played the maximum number of games in each round of the postseason
all the way through to the World Series, it likely could have seen about $15
million or more in additional revenue, said Marc Ganis, a sports marketing
consultant.

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But Ganis said the real financial problem for the team
isn't the lost revenue from this October. It's the impact on ticket sales in
2008.

"It creates an off-season discussing disappointment rather than
hope, and that almost always has an adverse impact on marketing," said
Ganis.

Ganis said that one of the other National League teams that fell
just short of the playoffs this weekend, the Milwaukee Brewers, won't have the
same kind of marketing problems, even if their fans are also disappointed.
That's because the Brewers, while they were in first place for much of the
season, came into this year with few expectations of being
competitive.

It's also possible that the San Diego Padres will have
legions of disappointed fans if they don't make it to the playoffs. After being
one out away from a win Saturday that would have eliminated division rival
Colorado in the wild card race, the team lost, and lost again Sunday, while the
Rockies won to force a one-game playoff between the two in Colorado on
Monday.

Ganis said that the Padres don't risk as much of a fan backlash,
even if they lose that tie-breaker game, because they never had as large a lead
in the wild card that the Mets did in their division race. And the Rockies don't
have to worry about fan backlash if they lose the playoff because they weren't
considered to even be in the race a couple of weeks ago until an 11-game winning
streak late in the season gave them a last chance at a playoff
spot.

"Sports are a lot like politics. Spin plays a big role. You can
tell a very good story this off-season for the Rockies and Brewers. The Brewers
have a lot of up and coming players. But with the Mets' collapse, there's no way
to put a positive spin on it, especially in a market like New
York."

Still, the Mets are more protected from a drop in sales than most
teams in this position, since next year will be its last playing in Shea
Stadium, the franchise's home since 1964, its third season of
existence.

Even if some fans are reluctant to buy tickets next year,
their place might be taken by other fans who want to visit the stadium of their
youth one last time. The Mets sold a franchise record 3.8 million tickets this
year.

Another problem for the team's future revenue comes because it is
part owner of Sportsnet New York, its own regional sports network, or RSN, that
carries its games. It could see ad revenue dented next year if ratings are down,
said Lee Berke, a sports broadcast consultant with LHB Sports. But he said that
the damage done to its revenue base is limited.

"If the hurt is there,
and they don't do anything to solve it, that will hurt them from an ad sales
standpoint, maybe 5 to 10 percent," But he said ad sales are no more than a
third of the network's overall revenue, with most of the rest being subscriber
fees from cable operators, which are locked in with long-term
contracts.

So even a 10 percent drop in ad sales only trims overall
revenue about 3 percent. And Berke said having the revenue from the network
might allow the team to make off season moves to mitigate the fan
disappointment.

"I think you'll find them compelled to make a big splashy
move," he said. "That's the saving grace of the RSN, because you have the steady
cash flow, you can get rid of that cast (of players) and bring in a new
one."

The Mets are not sole owner of their RSN. It is also partly owned
by Time Warner Cable. Time Warner Cable is majority owned by media conglomerate
Time Warner (Charts, Fortune 500), the owner of CNNMoney.com.

The lost
sales of division, league and world championship merchandise that the Mets might
have been able to sell if the team had advanced is also limited, because
licensed merchandise revenue is split evenly among all 30 teams. The teams in
the playoffs get some additional revenue for merchandise sold at their stadiums
during the game, but for the most part the Mets will get almost the same
merchandise revenue as if they had avoided the collapse.

Experts in the
field believe that a World Series victory by the Cubs will produce the greatest
licensed merchandise sales. The previous merchandise sales record came in 2004,
when the Boston Red Sox, which like the Cubs have a large national fan base, won
their first series in 86 years. The Cubs haven't won the World Series in 99
years going into this postseason.

The Cubs team is also up for sale, as
part of the leveraged buyout of media conglomerate Tribune Co. (Charts, Fortune
500), although those sale negotiations have not yet started.

One sports
investment banker who has clients who may consider bidding for the team says
that a Cubs World Series victory probably won't do much to raise the sales
price. He points out that the Angels, who were sold by Walt Disney Co. (Charts,
Fortune 500) after that team won the 2002, did not see the sales price there
rise.

"That's an instance where the Angels weren't a great brand at the
time of the sale," said the investment banker. "It's a different story with the
Cubs, it's a great brand. The price is going to be so high, I don't think a
World Series victory would move the needle. If you're buying the Cubs because
you think you're buying a winner, you haven't been looking at history very
carefully."

The Cubs have a relatively small stadium, with Wrigley Field
having just over a 41,000-seat capacity. Only the Red Sox's Fenway Park is
smaller among playoff teams. But that lack of seats won't significantly hurt the
team's revenues if it does advance to World Series. That's because postseason
ticket sales, like the licensed merchandise sales, are shared between players
and the clubs.

While the Rockies will get to keep all the revenue from
ticket sales for their one- game playoff with San Diego Monday, many of those
seats will be given to season ticket holders as part of their packages. And the
seats that are sold to the general public aren't likely to be much more
expensive than regular season seats.

The revenue from the sales of the
expensive postseason tickets, as much as $250 for some of the World Series
tickets, does not go straight to the clubs.

Under the sport's labor
agreement, a pool of money is set aside for the players, equal to 60 percent of
the ticket revenue from the first three games of the first round of the
playoffs, and the first four games from the two league championship series, as
well as the first four games of the World Series. It is only the remaining
ticket money that is split evenly between the two teams playing in the
game.

The money in the players' pool is then split between the players on
the eight playoff teams, as well as the four second-place teams that did not
make the playoffs.

The Mets, as one of those teams, will split 1 percent
of that pool between them. Last year that came to $556,000 for the team, or
about $10,000 per player share. The players who have been on the roster for the
full season vote to determine shares granted to players on the team for only
part of the year, along with support staff such as bullpen catchers and bat
boys.

The teams that lose in the first round of the playoffs get to split
3 percent of the pool, thus a loss of about $20,000 for the Mets. That might not
hurt their best-paid player, Carlos Delgado, who earned $14.5 million this year,
but it probably will be felt by players like John Maine, who nearly pitched a
no-hitter Saturday to keep the team's hopes alive. He only earned $391,000 this
season.

And that $20,000 is what the team lost compared to those teams
that will go out in the first round. If the Mets had been able to go on and win
the World Series, the team would have split 36 percent of the money in the
pool.

Last year's champs, the St. Louis Cardinals, received record series
shares of $362,173. So Maine might have missed a chance to nearly double his
salary for 2007.

2007-10-01 10:39:31

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1 - 10 of 31

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31 comments

tdott56 07:38:40 PM
Oct 02 2007

Report
This!

I can't think of a better bunch of guys for that to happen. Cocky
,arrogant, freakin babies especially led buy that jughead Lodopo. I hope they
dismantle that team. What a bunch of wanna bees. The only one I feel bad for is
Wright he is the ONLY guy in that organization that has class. So hopefully when
he can't fit it that locker room full of egos he'll come down 95. GO
PHILS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

kmh112562 05:07:24
PM Oct 02 2007

Report
This!

what a shame

crom71y2k 12:39:37
PM Oct 02 2007

Report
This!

C O L L A P S E ! LOL LOL LOL KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK

FROM ;
yanks fan

crom71y2k 12:36:45
PM Oct 02 2007

Report
This!

YANKS FAN HERE........OH SO ITS. FIRE WILLIE TIME. I SEE; LAST YEAR
WHEN ALL WAS WELL IN MET LAND EVERONE WAS KISSING WILLIES ASS NOW CAUSE MET
PLAYERS DIDNT DO CRAP NOW ITS FIRE WILLIE WILLIE WASENT ON THE FIELD ITS NOT
WILLIES FAULT IF HIS PLAYERS WERE LAXED AND HAVE NO HEART

bagsamoney 10:44:30
AM Oct 02 2007

Report
This!

The Mets front office may have pulled off the dupe of the century!
They did a tremendous job of marketing this team as world series candidates.
Being in NY certainly helped the mareting blitz. We all took the bait and bought
it. The media bought it, the fans bought it and even the players bought it.
While hindsight is 20/20, we had a tired old team with some big names. The
starting rotation wasn't great, the bull pen was non-existent and the offense
was not consistent. We did not have a batter that other teams feared like Howard
or Bonds. So now the Mets can spend the winter perhaps working on their next
book GOURMETS 2, in the kitchen baking MUFFINS!!!!

paulapooh152 10:39:28
AM Oct 02 2007

Report
This!

IF THE METS FANS WERE'NT SO NASTY TO THE THE OTHER TEAMS THAT COME
TO PLAY AT SHEA STADIUM THEY MAY HAVE HAD A CHANCE, I LOVE THAT THE METS LOST
JUST BECAUSE OF THEIR FANS ARE SO STINKEN NASTY AND THEY GOT THEIR JUST
DESSERTS. NEW YORKERS ARE THE MOST RUDEST FANS IN THE THE WORLD. I ALWAYS ROOT
FOR ANY TEAM THAT PLAYS AGAINST THE METS. AND HERE IS A BIG LOL TO THE
METS.

chermazz 08:09:57
AM Oct 02 2007

Report
This!

With the Mets collapsing...it couldn't have happened to a better
team. I for one am so glad they choked. They're prissy, overpaid, arrogant and
deserved everything they got.

roswellship 07:05:30
AM Oct 02 2007

Report
This!

HA !! HA !! HA!!...what a bunch of choking, overpaid baseball
players...only in nuuu-yawk.

seadogg755 12:38:45
AM Oct 02 2007

Report
This!

Big money Beltran didn't come thru for the great Mets.A 100 million
for Beltran and didn't make the playoffs..I LOVE IT !!!

scpwc12 12:24:31 AM
Oct 02 2007

Report
This!

I live in Philadelphia and I can't say enough how this town is
going crazy right now. Yes, the Phillies needed many wins at the end of the
season and they did just that. However, they wouldn't be in the position right
now if the Mets didn't fall apart. And as a Phillies fan, we must remember that.
This is sort of a "gift". I honestly feel bad for the Mets fans, although we
here have dealt with it for many years. It's tough, but next year the Mets could
be right up there again, and I doubt they will let the same thing happen. To all
the Mets fans: You guys had a good season, don't kid yourself. It simply wasn't
great because of what happened. Only 1 of 8 can win it all, hopefully the Phils
are on a roll, but if not, we had a good season too. It was fun to be standings
watching in the final week of the season. It was good for baseball.

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