Richard Sandomir writes an interesting piece about the down-sizing of Citi Field, the new home of the New York Mets.  For those that may not know, the new stadium holds about 11,000 fewer seats than Shea held.  Sandomir’s piece explores the reasoning for he decision, as the team states its aesthetic, and the long-term effects on the team.  Can I team with fewer seats generate the revenue to support a $100 million payroll year in and year out, and clearly the answer is yes or it wouldn’t have been built.

If it is as intimate as the team seems to imply, then of course, that will generate enough buzz to keep a demand for tickets even when the team isn’t in a play-off race.   One point that Sandomir raises is the effect of a stadium when its full or empty on television, and it could be empty if the team is not in a playoff race.  But the fact that is missed by Sandomir, is that in a city as large as New York, neither the Mets nor the Yankees can ever afford to let their teams wane into mediocrity.  That’s not just because of the present state of the economy either.

The cost of going to a game, even in a beautiful ballpark, will preclude many a father from spending saturday afternoons with their son and talking about their memories of baseball.  That means that son will not learn to cherish the game both for the connection it brings to his father, but for the grandeur of the game itself.  With so many options to spend money on in NYC, if those teams aren’t good, there won’t be fans sitting in those seats no matter what.  In fact, those seats will be empty because the corporations that buy the expensive seats wont be able to give them away, and they will sit empty for all of the television world to see.

The other area that Sandomir doesn’t touch on is the gray area of amenities.  The amenities will be outstanding, I expect, at least a huge improvement over Shea.  Fans will find themselves spending more to get better food, than they did when the bought the basic hot dog at Shea– that will help the bottom line.  But if revenue never makes it to the heights of what it was at the best season at Shea, that will be OK too, because a team’s revenue determines the amount of revenue  sharing they participate in.

If the Mets can make it so in those mediocre seasons their revenue puts them in the middle third of revenue, then they will avoid at least a part of the revenue sharing that occurrs in MLB.  That might make each of us lower the seating capacity of Shea, just a bit.