Nobody's home: Mets' ticket sales decline

It nearly was time for the first pitch Wednesday night, with the skies over Citi Field a dark gray and the seats inside almost entirely dark green — indicating they were not occupied by customers.

For Dave Howard, the Mets’ executive vice president for business operations, it was another in a series of damp, frustrating evenings in Queens.

“I’ve been saying the last couple of weeks that this is the last week we’re going to have bad weather,’’ he said, then added hopefully, “by mid-to-late May we should be in a much better situation.’’

It already was mid-May, actually, but forgive Howard for losing track. It has been a dreary spring for a number of baseball’s most high-profile franchises, with slumping ticket sales compounded by ticket-holding no-shows kept home by rain and cold.

Unlike most teams with empty seats, the Mets face added scrutiny and financial pressure as they shop up to 49 percent of themselves amid mounds of debt.

A night like Wednesday, when paid attendance is 24,527 but the actual attendance is a tiny fraction of that, isn’t helpful on two fronts.

First, it doesn’t present a pretty picture for potential buyers. Second, it costs money.

Howard said the attendance likely is not a significant factor to buyers, saying, “I think people who are interested realize the value of the asset as a long-term investment.’’

Robert Boland, a professor of sports business at NYU, generally agreed. “I think the New York market is just too powerful, the fan base is too large and potent to have that be a worry,’’ he said.

But declining ticket sales and no-shows have a clear financial impact.

Howard said total tickets sold are comparable to this time last year. That suggests more tickets than last season were sold for the summer months, because through Wednesday average paid attendance was down an average of 3,031 per game to 27,288, according to baseball-reference.com.

(The Yankees are down, too, by 2,699 per game to 42,265. But, like the Mets, they say sales for the entire season are roughly similar to last year.)

Even if the Mets match last season’s total paid attendance of 2.56 million — down from 3.15 million in 2009 — they will not generate as much revenue, thanks to a 14-percent average reduction in ticket prices.

As for all those no-shows, Howard would not say how many dollars the average fan spends on food and merchandise, but baseball teams generally average in teens, and the Mets and Yankees likely do better than that.

Boland said teams shoot for $25 to $40 per person, with the upper range served by increasingly costly and elaborate clubs and dining options.

Modern sports facilities are designed to drive fans up the price chain, Boland said, something that is difficult when the team is struggling and there are many seats to be had.

The Mets have been working for weeks with interested buyers, a process complicated by their debt and the fact the trustee for victims of the Bernard Madoff scandal is seeking to recover hundreds of millions of dollars from the team’s owners.

From the start many analysts have said the Wilpon family would have to include a piece of SNY, the hugely profitable TV network of which it owns about two-thirds, but the Mets continue to resist that.

It is unclear whether such a sale could be executed without the consent of Time Warner and Comcast, cable giants that own minority stakes in SNY.

For now, the primary day-to-day focus is on remaining competitive on the field, and turning empty green seats into ones occupied by fans willing to spend green bills.

Howard said so far he is “satisfied,’’ given the challenges. But summer can’t get here soon enough.

“Once we get the team back to full health and the weather improves and we get to school being out,’’ he said, “I think you’ll get a much better barometer of the way that our fans are receiving this team.’’

Howard can only hope for more fans such as Scott Macgregor of Port Jefferson, who surveyed the mist and empty seats from behind centerfield Wednesday and pronounced himself happy to be there.

“I guess they’re not die-hard Mets fans,’’ he said of the no-shows. “Being here with a cold beer? Much better than sitting at home.’’