The Free-spending New York Mets owner, Steve Cohen, has set his sights on winning championship trophies in a manner reminiscent of the great Babe Ruth. However, achieving this goal while being anything other than New York's second team proves to be a challenging task.

Mets' Quest for Championship Supremacy in the Big Apple

Upgrading the Roster: The Mets' Big Weekend Move

The Mets, who were the National League runners-up to the eventual world champion Los Angeles Dodgers, made a significant upgrade to their roster over the weekend. They came to terms with prized free agent Juan Soto on a reported 15-year, $765 million contract. This huge addition in Queens marks a big subtraction sign just 10 miles away in the Bronx, where Soto spent last season with the 27-time World Series champion Yankees. The Yankees have long ruled Gotham's baseball roost, but the Mets are now positioning themselves to possibly overtake them as New York's better baseball team in 2025.However, while the Mets have strengthened their team, they may never be the more popular club. As former Mets and Yankees slugger Curtis Granderson told NBC News on Tuesday, "The Yankees have been around so long. No matter what the Mets do, they can't compete with that. You just can't beat history and a fan base that's been there from your great grandparents to your grandparents to your parents."

The Shift in New York Baseball: A New Era?

Fordham University professor Mark Conrad believes that a region's second-place franchise can emerge from the shadows if an owner is willing to invest heavily. He cites the NBA's Steve Ballmer, who has made L.A. Clippers games fashionable events. "The focus of New York baseball could be shifting now," said Conrad, who teaches sports law at Fordham's business school. "The Mets were run like a minor league team for years under [former owner Fred] Wilpon. And now you have [Cohen] coming with a Steve Ballmer mentality: 'This is my thing, and I will do what it takes.' It's a new incarnation of a George Steinbrenner."Clive Belfield, an economics professor at Queens College, doubts that the Mets or any other secondary team can overtake an established U.S. pro sports power in its local market. But he also points to the immense worldwide popularity of the English soccer club Manchester United versus the recent dynastic run of archrival Manchester City. "Fans of those upstart teams shouldn't care who sells more merchandise," Belfield said, referring to Manchester United's legendary goal scorer Wayne Rooney. "You just want to see the Mets on that coach going down the parade on the Canyon of Heroes after winning the World Series."

2024: A Tough Year for MLB's Second Fiddles

In Southern California, the L.A. Angels endured their seventh consecutive losing season. Halos fans also had to watch their onetime superstar Shohei Ohtani leave Anaheim for downtown L.A., where he led the Dodgers to their first full-season World Series title since 1988. In Chicago, the Cubs were slightly better than break-even at 83-79, in a mediocre campaign that would have drawn more Windy City rebukes if not for the historically bad White Sox. The Southsiders' 41-121 season was the worst in modern baseball history. In Northern California, the San Francisco Giants stumbled to another losing season in 2024. But the NL West club was still given a massive economic prize as the cross-bay Oakland A's left town, leaving the wealthy nine-county region as a one-team baseball monopoly.Even though the Mets enjoyed one of their best seasons in recent memory, they were still outdrawn at the box office by the AL champion Yankees, who went one step further in the playoffs than their rivals from Queens.

Growing the Fan Base: There's Always Hope

Granderson, who played four seasons for the Mets and four years for the Yankees, said that even if the Mets, the White Sox and the Angels will never be the Yankees, the Cubs or the Dodgers, there are still plenty of wins and dollars to be had. "When we were in the World Series [in 2015], there was a lot of blue and orange in the city. They are wearing it. So there's always room to grow your own fan base."