The Mets have been "selling season plan renewals at a healthy clip," meaning the team "likely will see attendance rise for a fourth consecutive season" in '17, according to Neil Best of NEWSDAY. After drawing nearly 2.8 million fans in '16, a total of 3 million could be "within reach for the first time since Citi Field's inaugural season" in '09, when the team drew nearly 3.2 million. The Mets "bottomed out at 2.1 million in paid attendance" in '13. Mets Exec VP & CRO Lou DePaoli "declined to get into detail about sales." However, he said the renewal rate for full and partial season plans is "almost exactly to the penny where we were a year ago at this point, but you have to remember, it’s on a much larger (base) number (compared with '15-to-'16 renewals)." DePaoli added, "Last year we wound up being up 9.91 percent in our attendance, coming off of 18.11 percent the year before. That’s two strong years of pretty solid growth. Eventually you start running out of additional tickets to sell." Best notes the Mets will "continue to eschew" 1:00pm ET start times for Saturday games, "opting instead for late afternoons and nights." DePaoli: "All of the data of actual results from 1 o’clock starts, at least at our ballpark, and in all of the survey data, people say 1 o’clock is their least favorite" (NEWSDAY, 11/9).
