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Research Outline

Prepared for Michael B. | Delivered February 5, 2020

Mets Fans Psychographics

Goals

To obtain data on NY Mets fans such as the likelihood that they bet on games, how they feel about a statistics-driven sport, and how habitual they are about watching the games for the purposes of presenting campaign ideas for a partnership between a beer brand and the Mets.

Early Findings

Mets fans are loyal and will continue to support the team even through bad seasons, but a New York State Senator believes that betting on baseball would bring more fans to the stadium. In general, MLB fans believe that statistics have made games too long and have resulted in a loss of passion for the game.

Betting

  • State Senator Joseph P. Addabbo, Jr. wants to bring mobile betting to the New York Mets stadium because he believes more fans will come to the Mets games.
  • He cites the fact that mobile betting will give the fans "another reason to watch sports" and that currently, fans find it easier to "go over to New Jersey to place bets, rather than going to one of the four upstate casinos that have a sports betting lounge."
  • Fans in Nevada, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania can make bets on baseball from stadium stands, but Major League Baseball is hoping to bring betting to more cities to increase fan engagement with prop bets.
  • A Seton Hall University poll found that 19% of respondents indicated they would "follow baseball more closely if they could legally bet on the games." Although this seems low, poll director Rick Gentile stated, "If Major League Baseball could figure out anything that leads to 1 in 5 people to follow the sport more closely, I have to think they’d leap at that."

Mets Fans

  • Mets fans return year after year even when the team is not good because "they have always done it before, and because they’ve found something to love in it, and because at some point it’s just no longer in your hands anymore. You just go back because you know the way."
  • Many Mets fans are fans because they went to the games with their parents when they were little and have grown up with the team.
  • Some Mets fans become fans because the tickets are cheaper than they are for the Yankees and there are promotions that allow fans to go to games affordably.
  • Mets fans are known to support their team through awful seasons, of which there have been many. According to ESPN: "Mets fans are a loyal bunch. They stick it out. They believe that the suffering is worth it and that living their fandom this way is more realistic than the alternative. They accept the embarrassment, knowing that in time it will pass and that in the end, it will be worth it."

Statistics-Driven Sport

  • According to The Conversation, statistics have lengthened the game of baseball and have made it less exciting.
  • Heightened statistics awareness has "made entire seasons miserable for the fans of the low-revenue teams that analytics initially were helping."
  • Statistics have made some fans believe that the "pace of play is too slow and that there are not enough balls in play."
  • Some feel that statistics have ruined fans' passion for the game because they used to be able to follow basic statistics like batting average and complete games, but now the statistics that matter are too complicated for fans to follow.