Will NY Mets fans return to Citi Field? They speak on one of MLB's biggest attendance drops

It is often said that Memorial Day offers the first true impression of a Major League Baseball team.

For the New York Mets, that marker will be important, not only for the team, but its fans at Citi Field.

The Mets are approaching a big 10-game homestand that will be revealing for their stature in the National League and their attendance in the stands at Citi Field.

Through 24 games in the 2024 season, the Mets have seen a total decrease of 161,080 fans in their seats compared to the same timeframe in 2023, according to Baseball Reference. The Mets have seen 6,712 fewer fans per game — a drop from an average of 30,782 across 24 games in 2023 to 24,071 so far in 2024.

The Mets' 21.8 percent decrease per game is the second-worst in MLB behind only the Oakland Athletics, who are set to relocate to Sacramento after this season.

Across the next 10 games, the Mets will welcome the San Francisco Giants for three games over the holiday weekend. Then, beginning on Memorial Day on Monday, the Mets will face the Los Angeles Dodgers, one of the most captivating teams in the league, in a three-game series. The homestand concludes with four games against the Arizona Diamondbacks, the reigning NL champions.

Heading into Thursday, the Giants and Diamondbacks are each one game back in the NL Wild Card race and 2.5 games up on the Mets in that race, providing them a big opportunity to move up a few rungs in the standings.

Here are the main factors that Mets fans hypothesized could be to blame for the lack of attendance, and what they're saying about it:

Mets are off to a rough start in 2024

The Mets got off to a rocky start, opening with five straight losses before righting the ship and winning six straight games to move as high as four games over .500 on April 20.

But the results have been mixed, and May has been a month to forget so far. Since moving to 12-8 with a road series win over the Dodgers, the Mets are 9-20. They have lost five of their eight series at home, while splitting one, and they return home this weekend after dropping six of eight games on a three-city trip.

'They gotta execute and meet expectations'

"I’ll preface this by saying it’s early. That’s number one," fan Joe Yoschak of Metuchen said at Citi Field during the final game of last homestand. "Overall, I would say (they're) not as good as they probably thought they would be. They still got the people that I think can get the job done, but they gotta execute and meet their expectations."

Before the season, Mets president of baseball operations David Stearns said he expected the team to compete for a playoff spot but admitted it would be tough to be in the same class as the Braves or Phillies in the NL East.

The Mets did not add many major names this offseason, opting for shorter-term deals with high-upside players such as J.D. Martinez, Luis Severino and Harrison Bader, to fill in the gaps. That shift came after the Mets saw limited success with Max Scherzer and Justin Verlander on record contracts.

"I feel like the fan base is always holding their breath waiting for something to happen, and nothing seems to happen," said Jeff from Red Bank, who estimated that he attends between two and four games a year. "However, there’s slow long-term moves where you’ve seen the organization trying to make those attempts. It’s almost like they don’t want to invest too much in one player."

Now, the Mets are looking more toward the 2025 season when some of their young talent acquired at last season's deadline and through the draft can begin to filter through. It's often hard to preach patience to a fan base, but the Mets are hoping that another year of development can springboard them into 2025.

'It’s hard to bring your whole family out to a game'

Yoschak said he used to love coming to Shea Stadium, but has found the traffic to the ballpark to be more of a hassle these days. He used to love driving, but now he tries to take the train.

To circumvent the traffic or stress of driving, Joe and Joyce Liudzius, of Farmington, Connecticut, sometimes take a trip on the "Fun Bus," which includes the ride and entertainment from their home state.

"It’s always nice when somebody else does the driving," Joe Liudzius said.

Joe and Joyce, who used to come to every Opening Day and attended about half a dozen games per year, brought their grandchildren to their first game during last homestand's afternoon game against the Phillies. They were enticed by a promotion by the Mets that dropped the fees on their ticket price.

"It’s expensive," Joe said. "We actually paid more for parking than our actual tickets. I guess cost would be a thing too. It’s hard to bring your whole family out to a game."

For Bernie and Iris, an elderly couple of Westchester, N.Y., they used to have weekend season tickets but were frustrated when they were unable to change sections. They seek out day games where they can avoid driving at night.

"Well, they better go to the future because what they’re doing now is living the past," Bernie said. "They have a few good players, but their pitching better get better."

'The weather and the traffic'

For the first time since 2018, the Mets opened up their season at home at Citi Field with fans in the seats.

In chilly temperatures that never broke past 53 degrees, according to Weather Underground, the Mets drew a reported sell-out of 42,137 fans. That was the team's lone sell-out of the season.

The previous low number of fans at Citi Field was 19,617 for a rain-soaked game against the Phillies in September 2017. The Mets have now dropped below that figure seven times this season. The new low? 15,020 fans for a doubleheader against the Detroit Tigers on April 4.

In addition to lower-than-usual confidence, some of that could have to do with weather. The Mets have only seen the weather drift as high as 65 degrees in eight of their 24 home games.

"I think they don’t know about the weather," said Patty Staskiel of Landing, Pennsylvania. "I think the weather and the traffic. We’ll come any time but there are people that are literally 'fair weather fans.' They think baseball is summer. I’m happy to come anytime but not everybody’s like that."

But other Northeast teams, like the Phillies and Yankees, have seen their attendances figures slide up marginally, despite a wet, rainy spring.

Whatever the factor for a drop in attendance through nearly two months of the season, whether it be cost, weather or team performance, the Mets will be looking to see an uptick with sustained warmer weather on the horizon and the opponents growing in stature this week.

At least they hope so.

This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: NY Mets attendance has dropped over 21 percent in 2024. What fans are saying