NY Yankees, Mets: What’s ahead following first Subway Series matchup
After the Yankees took two out of three in the first Subway Series in 2025, what can they and the Mets expect before their July rematch.
NEW YORK − When Mets owner Steve Cohen rolled through spring training in Port St. Lucie, Florida, in mid-February, he was in a generally good mood.
The weather was nice, he had landed the superstar of free agency, and ended some tireless negotiations to bring back Pete Alonso. But the mention of attendance at Citi Field in 2024 soured Cohen’s disposition momentarily.
“Yeah, I didn’t like it,” Cohen said in February. “That really bothered me – 18th in attendance when we’re right in the middle of a pennant race. I’ve said this before. The series against the Nationals right before the final Phillies series, I think there were 18,000 fans in the stadium during a great pennant race, and so I’m really hopeful this year.
“I’m told that usually attendance lags performance, and so I’m really looking forward to this year being a year when the fans come out.”
Despite an 89-win season in 2024, including the best record in baseball from June on, the Mets ultimately finished 17th in Major League Baseball in attendance at 29,484 fans per game.
Cohen’s prophecy has come true in 2025.
Through 33 games at Citi Field this season, the Mets overwhelmingly have the biggest jump in attendance. They entered Thursday afternoon’s game averaging 37,801 fans per game — fifth-best in MLB — compared to 24,960 per game through the same number of games in 2024.
It’s an increase of 12,841 fans per game. The next-nearest team with a significant bump — the Detroit Tigers — have drawn 7,720 more fans per game.
Results have followed for the Mets, who boast the best home record in MLB at 27-7.
“Incredible. It’s hard to describe, but for sure, we’re feeling it,” manager Carlos Mendoza said. “And I said it last year toward the end and then from the beginning, I feel like on Opening Day when we first played here, it was a playoff atmosphere. Proud of them. I said it earlier in the season too, I feel like there’s a connection now between the team and our fan base and we feed off that.”
So why do fans believe that there has been a groundswell in support at Citi Field this season? We asked a handful of fans their thoughts:
Mets fans: ‘We like to see a winner’
For Danny Kramer of Bellmore, New York, the spike in attendance simply comes down to performance.
A season ago, the Mets dropped their first five games of the season and stumbled to as many as 11 games under .500 by the end of May. There were some jarring sights in the stands as the Mets saw their lowest-attended game in Citi Field history with 15,020 for a April doubleheader against the Tigers.
But other contests set a harsh tone, with a Sunday afternoon matchup against the Braves on May 12 seeing 18,944 fans in the stands.
“Once they had their incredible run, people started coming and showing up,” Krimmer said. “One interesting thing, and I’ve been a Met fan since 1962, Yankee fans will come no matter what happens. Met fans are somewhat more fickle, although certain Mets fans won’t agree, but it’s true. We like to see a winner.”
There were also tempered expectations coming into the 2024 season. In the first season under president of baseball operations David Stearns, there were plenty of low-risk, high-reward signings in Sean Manaea, Luis Severino, J.D. Martinez and Harrison Bader, but none of the big swings that Mets fans had come to expect.
By the end of 2024, fans got to see that those moves had paid off, plus a shift in vibes in the clubhouse, and the Mets had suddenly morphed into contenders, launching on a dream run to the National League Championship Series.
“How the second half of last year went, it gave everybody hope, in a sense, because in the beginning we were bad,” said Christian Medina of Stratford, Connecticut.
“It came around and it got everybody hyped and everybody wanted to be here, getting that far against the Dodgers.”
Mets owner Steve Cohen is invested in that goal
A shockwave went through the baseball landscape last December and Mets fans took notice.
When the Mets front office, led by Cohen and Stearns, signed Juan Soto to a record $765 million contract ahead of the winter meetings, it provided proof that the leaders were not fooling around in their quest to win.
“I think it sends a message to all Met fans, all baseball fans, that, ‘Hey, Steve Cohen, he wants to win. He wants to win the World Series and he’s willing to pay top dollar for a player like Soto,’” said Tim O’Hanlon, a season ticket holder from Garden City, New York.
“It creates all this energy. We, as the fans, we know, ‘Hey, our owner is with us.’”
With Soto joining forces with Alonso and Francisco Lindor, among others, the expectations vaulted heading into the 2025 season, and it has shown in ticket sales.
The lowest-attended game so far was 28,630 against the Marlins in early June. The Mets have seen 13 games with at least 40,000 fans, including three on a late May weekend against the Rockies, the worst team in baseball.
“It has to go back to the owner, you just feel better,” said Michael Stroud of Nanuet, New York. “Even if he’s not spending, it just feels better for some reason. He can if he needs to. He’s sort of a fan.”
A new era of optimism for Mets
For the first time in nearly a decade, Mets fans got a taste of a deep postseason run in 2024 but there’s still a hint of reality that sets when they’re asked about the goals for 2025.
“If we can beat the Dodgers, that’s my hope,” said Tom Storch of Astoria, New York. “Make it to the World Series. I don’t need anything more than that.”
Fans have appreciated a swell in support at the ballpark that has come with success on the field.
“I know there’s been worse before I was even born, but there was some bad years that I’ve seen,” Medina said. “This is a nice change.”
For O’Hanlon, who attends nearly every home game, simply making the playoffs is the goal, even if winning the National League East would be nice. Get in the playoffs, and it’s anybody’s game, as evidenced by last season’s run.
Either way, the early success and the commitment from the front office had brought added enthusiasm as the meat of the Mets’ season gets underway.
“It’s great to be a Mets fan right now,” O’Hanlon said. “Our owner’s behind us, everybody’s excited to go to the games. Overall, there’s such energy in the ballpark compared to where we were this time last year. There’s such energy and let’s continue it through.”