Steve Cohen on Mets’ poor fan attendance during 2024 postseason push: ‘I didn’t like it’

PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. — Steve Cohen looked around Citi Field last season and didn’t like what he saw. The empty seats in August and September were shocking to the Mets owner and CEO. The team was in the midst of a heated battle for a playoff spot with their division rivals in Atlanta and the reigning NL champs in Arizona.

How could fans not want to get in on the action?

“I didn’t like it,” Cohen said Tuesday at Clover Park. “That really bothered me. Eighteenth in attendance when we’re right in the pennant race?”

A Monday night game in the middle of September against the Washington Nationals drew only 21,694 fans. It was a tough night with kids back in school, Monday Night Football on the docket and an opponent that had long been eliminated from postseason contention.

The Mets have heard the concerns about $40 parking and traffic near the stadium. It’s why they partnered with the MTA to encourage fans to use public transportation, whether it’s the subway or the Long Island Railroad.

They’ve heard the complaints about high concession prices, so they offered deals on food and drinks with certain tickets.

By the end of the season, with that playoff spot in sight, the team was able to draw nearly 165,000 fans over four days against the Philadelphia Phillies. Cohen came to the conclusion that winning is what people want to see.

“I’m really hopeful this year, he said. “I mean, I’m told that usually attendance lags [with] performance. And so I’m really looking forward to this year being a year when the fans come out.”

When Cohen bought the team ahead of the 2021 season, he was seeing titles in his eyes, but the team fell apart that summer, missing the postseason for the fifth straight year. The next year they won 101 games, only to be overtaken in the NL East by the Atlanta Braves on the final weekend of the season, before being eliminated in the wild card.

It’s the Mets, things rarely go according to plan.

Systemic change is a slow-moving process. The Mets had to change the culture of the club on both the baseball and business sides, but fans who had endured decades of disappointment couldn’t just flip a switch.

Another injured starting pitcher. A clubhouse blowup. A second-half collapse. Mets fans have seen it all.

Even when things were going well last year, it felt tenuous. Kodai Senga was injured in his only start of the year. Francisco Lindor, the heart and soul of the Mets, injured his back with only a few games to play and the team on the playoff bubble.

It’s tough to change the attitude of fans who have been conditioned to expect nothing but disappointment.

“People didn’t show up. I can’t speak for why that is and I think it has a lot to do with, generally, attendance lags with performance, and I think there has always been a little bit of skepticism with the Mets and believing that we’re going to be sustainable winners,” Cohen said. “And I think I said it in one of the clubhouse celebrations, I think Mets have have had this negative perception of the Mets and and their fandom, and one of my goals is to break that negativity and have them believe that we’re going to be a sustainable winner year in and year out. [I want them] to come to the ballpark and enjoy it.”

The Mets rode a hot second-half to Game 6 of the NLCS, coming within two games of a World Series appearance. The team leaned into the humor of it all with Grimace, the many mascots of 2024 and OMG. Fans finally let themselves believe it was real.

Even after the Mets were eliminated by the Los Angeles Dodgers, the eventual World Series champions, the attitude among fans was largely positive. They got to enjoy a wild, winning October right alongside the owner, who felt like one of them. Cohen reveled in the celebrations, having just as much fun as the fans did.

“I mean, how much fun was that?” Cohen said.”I hadn’t felt anything like that. I don’t know if I’ve ever felt anything like that type of emotion on almost a daily basis. When you get that feeling, you want more of that.”

Ticket sales are already up for 2025.

“We’ve seen a significant percentage increase,” Cohen said. “That’s really encouraging. It’s what I was hoping for and frankly, you want a full stadium because you want a lot of noise there, and you want the opposing teams to really feel it when they’re playing us. So it’s important that the fans come out and support the team.”

Cohen doesn’t solely credit Juan Soto for the increase in ticket sales, but he thinks there could be a correlation. Part of his sales pitch to the outfielder was his belief that the Mets could win 2-4 World Series titles over the next decade.

It’s simple: If you build it, they will come.

“We want to create sustainable success,” Cohen said. “If we keep making the playoffs, why can’t we get to the ultimate goal?”

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