If negativity truly does sell, the Mets and Yahoo Sports should be working overtime to launch their overdue app, which was scheduled to debut on Opening Day.
In February, optimistic executives from Yahoo and Verizon, the website’s parent company, went public with their plans to offer subscribers an app (costing anywhere from $5-$5.99 per month) that would give fans an insider’s perspective on the Mets, including opportunities to interact with players and management.
The Mets are now swimming upstream through a compost heap of controversy and ineptness. What better time for another platform and way to follow the team, right?
But that Mets app is nowhere to be found.
According to industry sources, the new platform is now scheduled to debut in early June, likely no later than June 10. It was originally called The Queens Baseball Club but has already had its name changed to the Flushing Meadows Baseball Club. There is no truth to the rumor that Club Callaway was also another name under consideration.
Seriously though, Verizon/Yahoo has signed the Mets to a three-year deal worth $3 million. If the app is not up and running by July, Verizon pays a lesser rights fee to the Mets. Though, obviously, the site is still on the hook for the writers’ full salaries, whether or not they’re put to work on a functioning app. But the immediate financial elements of the deal were not the sticking point that has delayed the launch.
That issue appears to be the “future” revenue made in the deal. The Mets acted as an independent operator in this deal, going outside the MLB umbrella. Either MLB bean counters didn’t pay attention to what the Mets were negotiating or they were blindsided.
When MLB realized what was going down, it wanted more of its teams involved in a similar deal with Verizon/Yahoo. Finding a way to accomplish this slowed the launch of “TFMBC.” Now the process of getting other teams involved in a similar digital platform has begun. The Rangers, Indians and Angels are all reported to be interested.
Would anyone be surprised if MLB will now also get a piece of the action?
Yahoo Sports has already hired a group of writers to cover the Mets for “TFMBC.” Mike Mazzeo, Wallace Matthews, Matt Ehalt, and Gerard Gilberto have been covering the team since Opening Day. Most of their work has been filed into the Ozone. Some of it has made it on to Yahoo Sports’ website, like a recent Matthews column.
In the piece, Matthews runs down the checklist of misery the Mets delivered to the media Monday afternoon at Citi Field. In part, he wrote: “With that, he (Brodie Van Wagenen) summoned Callaway — who stood awkwardly against a wall as Van Wagenen professed his (slightly wavering) support — to the stage, where the two shared a hearty handshake. If I had had been Callaway, I would have checked to make sure I still had all my fingers….”
Balanced, insightful, and demonstrably not in the team’s pocket. While the app is totally Metscentric, the reporters who were hired are veteran scribes with a history of playing things down the middle. This is what you should want all the time, especially when the only roses coming up for the Mets are withered and smelly.
Besides, there is no way to Simoniz BVW’s roster construction. It contains some players he used to represent when he was an agent. The GM is highly skilled in the art of double-talk, but not many in the media were buying it Monday. There were those who actually gave him credit for showing up to yakk at notebooks, cameras, and a Sports Pope.
Why give him credit? That’s Van Wagenen’s job. That was the least he could do. And it will be interesting to see if BVW actually plays a role on “TFMBC.”
Whenever it finally gets off the ground.