The Mets owners yesterday “admitted, in a formal and final way, that they had botched the one most important thing in realizing their dream: they got the field wrong,” and for next season new walls for Citi Field “will be constructed in three areas of the outfield to substantially diminish the outfield’s overly large dimensions,” according to Andrew Keh of the N.Y. TIMES. Notably, the “imposing 16-foot wall in left field, often called the Great Wall of Flushing, will now have a new eight-foot wall in front of it, with several rows of seats to fill in the gap between the two structures.” The changes “are expected to make it easier to hit home runs at Citi Field.” Mets COO Jeff Wilpon was asked if the new seats in left field, which “in some ways mimic those installed on top of the Green Monster in Fenway Park, would help offset the unstated cost of the alterations.” Wilpon replied, “We can make a lot more money if Jason Bay and David Wright hit a lot more home runs.” Wilpon said of the original construction of Citi Field in ’09: “I signed off on it ultimately, and if you want to blame anyone, blame me. But I don’t think it’s about blame. This is what we built at the time, and this is what we’re building now.” Wilpon "would not put a price tag on renovations." Mets GM Sandy Alderson said that data compiled by the team “showed that if the planned alterations had been in effect when Citi Field opened in 2009, the Mets would have hit 81 more home runs at home over the last three seasons.” The gap between the new wall in left field and the existing 16-foot structure “will accommodate about 100 seats,” and the space created in right field “will be used for a picnic area” (N.Y. TIMES, 11/1). Wilpon said that because the Mets “came in under their $800 million budget in building Citi Field, the remaining money would cover the construction costs” (WALL STREET JOURNAL, 11/1).
NOT CHANGING FOUL POLES: Wilpon said, “The big thing was to make sure we didn’t change the foul poles, because it would change the geometry for the seating areas.” Wilpon indicated that the “change from a black fence to a blue one will bring more of a Mets feel to Citi Field.” Wilpon: “We decided to change the outfield wall from black to Mets blue, which many of our loyal fans have wanted” (N.Y. POST, 11/1). But WFAN-AM's Joe Benigno said, "I like Citi Field the way it is. There’s a lot of sex appeal and ambiance to the ballpark the way it is, a lot of character” (“Daily News Live,” SportsNet N.Y., 10/31).
MOVING ALONG: Wilpon said the Mets’ revised plan to sell minority shares of the team after the collapse of talks with David Einhorn "is going very well." Wilpon added, "There's an internal timetable that we're not going to share. There's not a deadline, there's not a date circled or anything like that. Some of the people don't want to be public and some might never be public. I don't think anybody knows all the minority shareholders of the other teams" (NEWSDAY, 11/1).
