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The Mets will look like the best team in MLB, at least visually.
Steve Cohen, entering his second full season as the Mets’ majority owner, has spent extravagantly to bring premier talent to New York and turn the Mets into a World Series contender — including Max Scherzer’s historic three-year, $130 million signing in November, giving the 37-year-old three-time Cy Young Award winner the highest average annual value of any baseball player in history.
The Mets currently have a payroll, for luxury-tax purposes, at a league-high $289 million according to Spotrac — the highest in team history and third-highest in league history.
In order to ensure fans fully experience the fruits of his expenditures, Cohen also has taken his historic spending to the Mets’ home, Citi Field.
The Mets have partnered with Samsung to digitally transform Citi Field. At the forefront of the face-lift, the stadium has added 4K LED screens to the ballpark. Currently, there are four new 4K LED ribbon boards in right field, replacing the four signs that were previously there.
The Mets plan to continue to add large, 4K LED screens across the stadium throughout the season and into the 2023 season in order to provide a more interactive and immersive experience for fans. The screens will allow fans to see enhanced replays, promotions, animations and in-game video features. There will be screens visible from every seat in the stadium — “foul pole to foul pole” — and they have even added some of the new 4K LED technology to the stadium’s clubhouses and concourses.
“It takes that static experience and turns it dynamic,” Oscar Fernandez, the Mets’ vice president of technology solutions, told The Post as the Mets unveiled the new renovations Thursday. “Just like what you want to experience at home, around your phone, people want something to change. The types of videos we’re gonna put out there, the types of animations we’ll be able to put out there, it’s gonna be completely different. It’s going to be a ring-based experience. Everywhere you look, you’re gonna feel at the park. Instead of just some static signs, where you see the same things every single game.”
Citi Field is the only stadium in the league with these 4K LED screens, according to the team.
“It’s really a holistic experience,” Andy Goldberg, the Mets’ newly appointed executive vice president and chief marketing officer, told The Post. “When you think about watching a game, and having the boards work together, and bringing bright lights, and sound, and energy, nothing does that like awesome video boards, and this is the best in all of sports. Nobody else has 4K.”
As part of the stadium’s digital renovation, Citi Field, in partnership with Wicket, has adopted face-recognition technology. The new feature, dubbed Mets Entry Express, will allow fans to opt-in and enroll to upload face recognition similar to that used by iPhones, and then use that face recognition to enter the ballpark instead of a paper or digital ticket. Fans who use the software will have a touchless experience.
The team doesn’t believe Citi Field was technologically behind the times or needed this face-lift, but assures the new 4K LED and facial recognition additions bring the stadium to the forefront across not just baseball, but all sports, and make Citi Field “the place to go if you want to have an elevated technological experience.”
That “elevated technological experience,” as Fernandez explained to The Post, is what baseball fans are specifically looking to experience in 2022 and beyond. Coupled with the new technological advancements, the Mets unveiled the new dining options they will have throughout the stadium, including Upper West Side staple Jacob’s Pickles. In terms of physical renovation, the Mets have added a brand-new memorabilia shop just above the Jackie Robinson Rotunda and have added new exhibits to the Mets Hall of Fame and Museum.
At his introductory press conference, Cohen committed to renovating and improving Citi Field and the surrounding neighborhood. Now in Year 2, he looks poised to honor that commitment.
“How do you constantly stay ahead, from a technology standpoint, to make every fan who enters the stadium feel like they are someplace they’ve never been before,” Goldberg said. “And that’s just constantly staying on top of your game.”
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