Blame Fred Wilpon. When the product on the field sucks, esp. in a rough economy, people are not going to spend their hard-earned bucks on poor play, no matter what spiffy new stadium your team's in:
The Mets' ballpark-related revenue, including parking, concessions, stadium advertising and more, has all together dropped more than 30 percent since Citi Field opened in 2009, and premium-ticket sales have fallen almost 50 percent, according to financial records.
Hundreds of pages of documents, which Newsday obtained under the Freedom of Information Law from New York City, provide a partial window into the cash flow of the franchise, whose owners are dealing with financial challenges because of fallout from the $50-billion fraud committed by Bernard Madoff.
The records do not include some line items that would be found in other parts of the Mets' operations and are designed to show only that the Mets can repay their debts to the city. Not included is revenue from the team's television contract with SportsNet New York and minor league operations expenses and the player payroll. Other records show that the player payroll was $142 million last year and is estimated to be $90 million for the new season.
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