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Wednesday, November 12, 2014

An open letter to New York Mets ownership

Editorial by: Joel Noe
Editors Location: Lyon, France
Written in response to: Mets Merized Online | metsmerizedonline.com





Dear Mr. Wilpon,



I am talking to you as a die heart fan of the ballclub you own, I am talking to you as someone who majored in finance and accounting, I am writing to you as a web developer of many e-commerce sites and online marketing strategist of ten years, and mostly I am writing because I love the team with my soul and think all the above mentioned traits have led me to the following logical statements.



Over the last few years you have publicly stated that you are broke and keep losing money because of a lack of ticket sales and so on. To satisfy a crumbling fan base you lead us to believe that we are rebuilding for the near future and indeed we are now in a position to do so if only we get more power and better defense up the middle. Furthermore, you have started out this off-season with a reasonable signing of a player that will most likely return more than the actual dollars spent to get him here and I applaud you for that.



However, as a fan who has stuck around for the hard times and a painful rebuilding process that is only now starting to bare fruitful moments I do know that many fans as I are afraid that you are not willing to trade or take on a significant amount of dollars to get us in position to win a championship in the next few years. Similarly, ever since you have been burnt by high price deals with some hefty seasons attached to it you are gun shy to pull the trigger and get us someone who can help us now as well as in the near future and further ignite the passion the burns in all of us that call ourselves Mets fans. Therefore, I am here to think this trough with you and see what business practice is best for a brand like the Mets to gain economically and in productivity.



First one needs not even state that the best way to gain revenue is by putting together a product that is a winning brand. Why? For what you gain by peaking people’s interest in your product is enormous. Take for example the English soccer team of Chelsea and the number of merchandise sold that increased by 62% after the team was sold to Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich in 2003 and he invested over £100 million on new players and thus Chelsea became a winning brand. Perhaps you would argue that this is due to the popularity of the English Premier League and while that might be true to some extend I’ll ask you if you know how much merchandise sales have increased for Russian football team Rubin Kazan which in 2006 under new president Alexander P. Gusev have shelled out money to bring in big name international players and for the first time in its history made it into the EUFA League as a formidable team? The answer to that is: 88% increase and around three million jerseys sold worldwide.



Should you want to narrow this to just baseball and look how much winning teams sell worldwide in a sport that is just now getting its bearings in European markets, well, you have found the right person. I live in France ever since 2011 and when first arrived here I have seen almost everywhere people wearing either Yankee caps or Tigers jerseys. Moreover, I have seen less and less people wearing Yankee caps over the last few seasons. When I stop and ask someone why the Yankee cap most people say they know nothing about baseball but they were in NY and they bought it since it seemed to be the most popular item. Why dear Mr. Wilpon should a young kid in England who wants to be up to style want to wear a Yankee cap and the beautiful blue and orange of the Mets? Why do I see the rabbi who does not want to expose his Kipah in France wear a Yankee cap and not a Mets cap?



Let us shift focus on the actual product on the field. We do have some up and coming stars which will be the cream of the best for the next few years to come. Harvey, deGrom, Wheeler, Familia, Mejia, Duda, Black are all coming into their own and few are to come the same way. Now please assess when the best window to win a championship or at least make it to the World Series for this group is.  It is either in the next few years with the help of a major power bat or in the longer term with time when your finances will be in order and then either retain the core in addition to signing some big free agents then. Now, what would you say is more logical? Spend the 20 million plus for one impact player now and win a championship in the next few years or be forces to let them go in free agency in a few years? If you wish to return profits on the Mets it is clear that we Mets fans will never let get away with not winning a championship with this core and then lose all our stars without winning anything. You got away with it when Reyes left but can you imagine if you have let Wright go? All this transpired while we had no chance of winning anything but I can assure you if you think that we will be a silent as the Marlins fans think twice.



Therefore, 20 million now and a championship is much cheaper than having to sign four or five to maximum contracts that you will be forced to do so if you wish to have the fan base support behind you and turn the Mets into a profitable entity.



I do not care who that player is as long as it is a 70% chance that he has the impact Mike Piazza had for the team. Remember how overpaying for Pedro has turned out to bring in sales in tickets and merchandise? Hear the call of your fans or I can guarantee you that you will never again make a profit of us Mets fans.



Sincerely

Joel [Rocky] Noe a die-heart fan.

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