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In baseball, wins matter. But the New York Mets set a bigger goal: make every fan’s experience great—regardless of the scoreboard—and use that momentum to grow fandom on and off the field. Craig Swaisgood’s team knew they needed consistent, credible voice‑of‑fan insights they could trust week in and week out.

The challenge

• Season realities: In‑season, teams are in “full‑go” mode; slow moving insights risks irrelevance.

• Inconsistent cadence of “voice of fans” insights made it hard for departments to rely on regular reads or track trends over time.

• Actionability: Insights had to translate to ticket sales, concessions, and in‑park behaviors, not just interesting charts.

The turning point: building a fan voice at scale

Recognizing the value in quick and consistent feedback from fans, the New York Mets launched Amazin’ Advisors on Harris QuestIC—a flexible, vetted insight community they could recruit through Mets Connect loyalty. The appeal: a direct line to fans without adding league‑level delays on every outreach, and a way to turn ideas into solutions within days.

The engine behind the story

• Data backbone: Craig’s Data & Analytics organization manages 11B+ data points across 20–25 sources. Early in the Amazin’ Advisors launch, Mets engineering partnered with Harris to ensure structured, labeled exports (question + answer columns) that can be joined to fan profiles to provide a holistic view of the fan.

• One fan, many signals: Community responses are linked to ticketing, concessions, digital behavior, and demographics—creating a richer fan view that can be sliced by  segments.

• AI‑assisted synthesis: LLMs summarize open‑ended feedback so researchers can ask richer questions and get back deeper insights, faster.  

How the New York Mets overcome challenges

• From noise to narrative: The New York Mets Data & Analytics team curates insights into bite‑sized, stakeholder‑ready updates—resisting the urge to dump 20 findings when five will drive action.

• Viewing the full fan experience: Amazin’ Advisors skews toward core fans. The Mets analytics team triangulates with broader Voice of the Customer (post‑game) surveys and larger one‑off studies to keep “casual fan” truth in view.

• Governance & consistency: A defined monthly cadence with ~4 priority departments, daily‑refreshed dashboards, and quarterly exec briefings build trust and make insights integral to business operations.

Key wins fielded by Amazin’ Advisors

Amazin’ Advisors help surface the frictions fans feel in real time — and the club moves. Beer lines, fans remarked, were pulling them out of the game. Through this, and additional supporting data, the food and beverage leadership arrived at a series of fixes: for example, shift more taps to cans (quicker than a pour) and open additional points of sale. The change was immediate — shorter waits, more minutes in seats, fewer missed moments.

Another key theme that surfaced: fans sometimes thought dietary options were missing; in reality, the issue was discovery, not availability. Some guests assumed dietary choices weren’t available. The problem, as the community made clear, was finding them. The New York Mets rewired communications—clearer emails and wayfinding—so fans can quickly get what they need and get back to the action.

Thanks to Amazin' Advisors, more fun has been injected into the fan experience. When the new mascot race debuted, fans loved it and wanted more. Ballpark operations expanded appearances from a single inning break to pregame plus multiple innings, and brought mascots onto the concourse for photos—a fast, visible shift fans noticed right away.

“They think [the mascot race] is hilarious… they just wish that it was more than just one inning break… They want to take pictures with them… so that was something the team was able to immediately do.” - Craig Swaisgood VP, Data & Analytics, New York Mets

Key insights shaping strategy

These quick turns ladder up to a larger truth: fandom extends beyond just the game itself. As Craig puts it, “Are you creating core memories?” The aim of Craig’s team is to turn the casual baseball fan into one that wants to go to even more games. That’s why community data is joined to the Mets’ segmentation work: an RFM model across 18 clusters, enriched with psychographics from Amazin’ Advisors. Through this, Craig’s team is able to engage the fan at each stage of their fandom with tailored outreach (Family Sundays for parents, rivalry games for baseball loyalists, kids’ club moments for the next generation). Another area of emphasis for the team is creating family-fun experiences. Today’s kids become tomorrow’s season ticket holders. Investing in family experience now pays compounding dividends across future seasons.

“Are you creating core memories? Regardless of what is happening on the field, we still strive to ensure fans are having the best possible time at a game.” - Craig Swaisgood VP, Data & Analytics, New York Mets

Surfacing the right signals

Craig’s team built consumer‑insight dashboards that refresh daily and make exploration intuitive:

• Theme & department tagging: Every community question/answer is tagged (e.g., Marketing, Ticketing, In‑Park Ops) so leaders can open a role‑specific view.

• Question/survey explorer: Stakeholders can drill into any study, read verbatims (AI‑summarized as needed), and filter by key segments (e.g., parents vs. non‑parents).

• Blended lenses: Community insights sit alongside VoC post‑game responses and broader database surveys—so execs see one story, not three disconnected data feeds.

• End‑of‑season “Wrapped”: A Spotify‑style digest per department (e.g., Marketing, In‑Park, Ticketing) rolls up the year’s most consequential insights and decisions to business stakeholders to showcase wins of this season and prime next season.

And just so fun to have the longitudinal data to be able to see and look at the differences. Have you made strides in identifying how to turn somebody from attending the one game to two? Or how do you increase the game frequency? - Craig Swaisgood, VP, Data & Analytics, New York Mets

What’s next?  Library over time: Year‑over‑year benchmark questions (questions/areas of inquiry) to turn snapshots into trendlines and prescriptions.

ROI

• Speed‑to‑insight: Many decisions now move from 2–3 months to ~1–2 weeks via quick‑turn community reads.

• Operational wins: Low‑lift changes (serving format, points of sale, mascot touchpoints) deliver immediate guest experience gains.

• Lower research friction: Amazin’ Advisors provided an always-on resource of willing respondents to gather faster insights without the need for lengthy research processes.

• Better targeting: Psychographics + behavior offer relevance and lift experience of the next visit.

“The consistency… gives us a better seat at the table because people know that we’re going to come with this library of information and a megaphone from our fans to our executives.” - Craig Swaisgood, VP, Data & Analytics, New York Mets

Extending the fan experience past the ballpark gate

Craig’s team will scale the Amazin’ Advisors community from ~8,500 toward 15,000, balancing breadth with response quality and a clear view of who’s represented. Just as important, they’re crafting fandom outside game day—tightening communications, supporting neighborhood watch parties, and piloting year‑round touchpoints that turn everyday moments into New York Mets moments.

“We’re making the Mets experience as incredible—and as immersive—as possible. Not just ‘see you when you’re back at Citi Field,’ but engage online, talk with friends, get excited for a postseason run, host a backyard barbecue to watch together. It doesn’t have to happen in the ballpark; we want fans engaging with us all over the place.” - Craig Swaisgood, VP, Data & Analytics, New York Mets