It is either a good time or a bad time to be a fan of the New York Mets, depending on one's perspective. The team's Opening Day tickets are starting at $21, which is an unbelievable mark for a prominent team in a big market's first game of the new season.
Opening Day games are usually pretty expensive, but the Mets and whoever is setting their ticket sale prices do not expect the team to be as good as they have been in recent years. To entice fans to actually come see them play, they've set the prices at a much more affordable rate.
The opening day tickets, per Statista, have been hovering around $28 on average for the last few seasons. They've dropped substantially for 2024 and it remains to be seen whether or not it will convince fans to attend games when almost everyone expects the Mets to struggle once again.
This is what a rebuild usually entails, and the Mets are fully committed to being a good team again one day. That day just isn't coming yet.
Mets not anticipating playoff run in 2024
If the season ticket prices weren't enough evidence that the New York Mets don't quite expect to be a dominant team this season, their free agency inactivity should be.
They did make a massive offer to Yoshinobu Yamamoto, but they were outbid. The Mets have been missing every other major free agent. Even Cody Bellinger, Blake Snell and Jordan Montgomery, who are still available, have not seen much interest from New York.
It's no surprise that the record-setting spending spree in the build-up to the 2023 season was a failure, as it resulted in a missed playoff appearance and they had to trade off assets at the deadline.
Justin Verlander, Max Scherzer and a couple of other massive contracts are coming off the books after this season, so the Mets are aiming for 2025 as their first competitive season again.