Toldja: The Mets Are Taking Over This Town From the Yankees

For the past year, I have written multiple times about how the Mets were gaining in popularity, while the Yankees were losing in popularity. And I repeatedly said that the team from Flushing was poised to take over this town from the Bronx Bombers. And I got a lot of grief for saying so — mostly from fellow Yankee fans in denial!

Well, after the Mets not only made it to the World Series, but are competing for first place this year, while the Yankees are a sub-.500 team, guess what? The Mets are becoming the team to beat, to use a Jimmy Rollinsism, in New York.

Since I run and walk in the city all the time, plus I have a long commute from Manhattan to Staten Island where I see a lot of New Yorkers each day, I think I have a fairly good sense of what is popular in town. Until last year, I rarely saw Mets gear outside of Citi Field, while the Yankee cap was ubiquitous. This season, the roles are reversed, with orange and blue everywhere. Also, I see fewer Red Sox caps, even though the team is at the top of the standings, which tells me that some of the New York Boston fans were really Yankee-hating Mets fans in hiding!

I recently have been planning on writing on this subject, but I wanted to see hard data to make my point. Finally, the New York Post has compiled the ratings info I’ve been seeking all year, as well as some other metrics.

First up: the TV ratings. The Yankees’ ratings have dropped another 10 percent this year, to 233K per game. That’s down around 50 percent from their peak, which was over 400K a game.  Granted, the fight with Comcast has something to do with this, but still. The ratings have been going down for a while now, something I’ve noted in this blog before.

The Mets were inching closer to the Yankees’ ratings last year. Now this year, they have finally surpassed them,  garnering an average of 280K a game in TV watchers.

The Post also notes that the Yankees have not had a player in the top 20 of jersey sales since Derek Jeter retired, while Matt Harvey, David Wright and Jacob deGrom are now on that list. Back in 2011, the Yankees had four players in the top 20 jersey sales: Jeter, Alex Rodriguez, Robinson Cano and Mariano Rivera. And the Mets had none.

And finally, the Post points out that the Yankees are no longer a top road draw, while the Mets are moving on up. The Yankees used to be tops in road attendance; now they are 17th, with a 28K average. Truly shocking. Meanwhile, the Mets are 10th in road attendance.

The Post’s article didn’t talk about home attendance, but the two teams are inching closer to each other on that as well. The Yankees are now averaging 38,457 — 4th in MLB. And the Mets are at 34,978 — 9th in MLB. Also, don’t forget that the Yankees have a bigger ballpark, too.

Anyhow, I have said for years that the only thing that will make Prince Hal get rid of the powers that be in Yankeeland is if the Mets took over this town. And it looks like the Mets are on their way to doing so. Maybe this Post article will get Hal Steinbrenner out of his slumber.