You may have missed the announcement from the Mets displaying that the team does sometimes listen to its fan base. That’s not what the team announced although I would not put that past them.
From the NY Post January 31:
The Mets announced Wednesday that all Saturday home games between March 28 and May 25 will feature a 1:40 p.m. start time.
Between June 1 and Sept. 21, the start time for Saturday games at Citi Field is scheduled for 4:10 p.m.
Previously, the Mets shifted between late-afternoon and night games on Saturdays at Citi Field.
The change this season, according to the team, follows the results of a Mets fan survey that indicated nearly 90 percent of respondents favored earlier game times on Saturdays to bring children, family and large groups to the ballpark.
There will be NO scheduled night games at Citi Field on Saturdays this season. The team will also play mostly day games at Citi Field on Sunday. There are no doubleheaders scheduled in 2024, just as in recent years.
The only scheduled Sunday night game is on May 12th vs. Braves. That’s 25 Saturday and Sunday afternoon games this season plus four Wednesday afternoon games (three at 1:10PM and one at 4:10). Including opening day there are four Thursday afternoon games, four Wednesday afternoon games, 12 Saturday and 13 Sunday afternoon games. There is a Monday afternoon game (Memorial Day) and a Tuesday afternoon game for whatever reason (May 14). In total there are 35 afternoon games at Citi Field this season. 43% out of the 81 total home games will be played during the daylight hours.
This is great news for day baseball fans and fans that prefer to get home earlier from the ballpark than what occurs after a night game. The team did move its starting time for home night games to 7:10 PM from 7:40PM a few seasons ago, and with the overall game average taking 2 hours 39 minutes in 2023, fans got home earlier from the ballpark than they had in many years, whether it was a day game or a night game.
How has the number of day games changed over the years?
In 1962 the Mets played 56, day games at the Polo Grounds. By 1976 the day game number was down to 43 games at Shea. The trend toward fewer day games continued and by 1986 the Mets only played 33 afternoon home game. This included a rare Friday afternoon game on July 4.
In the World Series losing season of 2000, the Mets only played 28 afternoon home games which meant nearly 2/3 of Met home games were played at night. Thinking fans wanted even MORE night games, for the NL Pennant-winning season of 2015, the Mets played a paltry 26 afternoon games.
This season the Mets will play 35% more, day games at Citi Field than they did in 2015. That’s significant. And welcome.
It makes sense for many more reasons than the simplest one, which is that the fans wanted more day games. Today’s fans are not reduced to carrying around a transistor radio or reading a newspaper to learn what happened in a game they could not follow in real time. Fans will follow their team whenever the game is played. It might not be actively watching every pitch, nor maybe even seeing or listening to any pitch sometimes. MLB games can be viewed after they’ve been played whether it’s in their entirety, or a truncated highlights version of the game shown in the evening when people, often, have more time to watch.
Maybe more significantly there’s the impact to a younger fan who can’t stay up until 10PM or later to go to or watch games. The opportunity to see, watch, or listen to more day Met games live is just better for young fans and the future of baseball. It’s better for old fans too!
