PORT ST. LUCIE — After a season that was decidedly not fun on the field, the Mets are trying to make games at Citi Field more fun for fans.
Meet the Queens Crew, a co-ed dance hype team comprised of 19 members (about 10 will perform on game days) to entertain before games and during breaks in the action.
The Mets are not the first team in MLB to create a dance team, and vice president of brand marketing Trisha Donlin studied the groups formed by the Braves, Astros and Marlins.
But she also researched the local dance troupes that add to the atmosphere at Knicks and Nets games.
The sports are different, but they both involve pauses in the games that can be filled with different kinds of performances.
After auditions at Citi Field in January in which a field of nearly 250 male and female dancers competed, Donlin helped create what she believes will be a unique team that represents Queens.
“I had to think about what makes Queens, Queens and what makes New York, New York,” Donlin said over the phone Sunday. “That’s where I thought about diversity, different performance styles, street dancing. Looking at subway performers, looking at the fact that we have the greatest talent pool in the United States with Broadway. All of that played into the identity of this team.”
The team — led by head coach Gina Mormando, a choreographer and dance mentor for more than 20 years on Long Island — will perform before games and between innings, including during the T-shirt toss and seventh-inning stretch.
There will be times when the dancers are in the aisles with routines more freestyle than choreographed.
When word reached social media about the dance group, the reaction was mixed. There are fans who simply want to watch baseball.
Donlin’s response: Give them a chance.
“Of course you’re going to have long-standing fans that don’t want change,” Donlin said. “But we’re really optimistic that people are going to embrace this because the talent is really undeniable. This team sucks you in in a big way.
“It’s going to rally the crowd in a big way. … I think fans will see what we see.”
When one fan complained on X, formerly Twitter, about the necessity of a dance team in a sport without halftimes, Mets owner Steve Cohen responded: “Excellent point. I forgot how serious baseball is relative to other sports.”Donlin said Cohen’s tweet was symbolic of how supportive he has been throughout the process, saying Cohen has challenged “us and the front office to think different, especially when it comes to the fan experience.”
Cohen and the Mets want to engage with their fan base and entertain at Citi Field.
Winning would help, but the games can be viewed as not just a competition but a performance.
“We wanted to break the boundaries honestly of traditional entertainment when it comes to Major League Baseball,” Donlin said of a group she hopes will “bring Queens to life.”
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