SPORTS
Mets to Host Pride Night
First 12,000 fans get free T-Shirt
The Mets will host their annual Pride night during the team’s doubleheader on June 25.
BY MATT TRACY
The Mets will host their
annual Pride night on
June 25 when the team
faces the Philadelphia
Phillies in a doubleheader.
The Mets fi rst hosted a Pride
night in 2016 and have continued
to host it every year except last
year — when there were no fans in
the stands due to the coronavirus
pandemic.
The Coca-Cola sign in right fi eld
with be lit up in Rainbow colors
and the fi rst 12,000 fans will get a
Mets Pride T-Shirt. The LGBT Network
will be on the fi eld before the
game for a pre-game ceremony and
Donna Vivino, will perform the national
anthem.
Between the fi rst and second
game of the doubleheader, Callen-
Lorde Community Health Center
— which serves many LGBTQ clients
— will receive an honor as the
“Mets community hero of the day,”
the team announced.
In the Big Apple Reserved section,
fans can purchase tickets
specifi cally for Pride Night. Those
tickets begin at $40, and $5 of
each ticket will be steered towards
the LGBT Network. Fans can purchase
those tickets at mets.com/
USA TODAY/BRAD PENNER
pride.
In previous years the team
has offered commemorative Mets
Pride T-Shirts and pre-game entertainment
outside of the Jackie
Robinson Rotunda. Same-sex
couples have typically been featured
on the kiss cam on Pride
night.
While the Mets have drawn
praise for hosting the annual Pride
event, the team has also sparked
criticism for its ties to the fast food
chain Chick-fi l-A, which has donated
millions of dollars to anti-
LGBTQ politicians and organizations.
In 2019 the team placed large
Chick-fi l-A advertisements on each
foul pole in a move that prompted
fans to blast the team — not only
for embracing an anti-LGBTQ fast
food giant but also for obstructing
the view with the bulky ads.
The team’s Pride night event
is scheduled one week to the day
after the Yankees welcomed the
recipients of the annual Yankees-
Stonewall scholarship program for
fi ve LGBTQ high school students
across the city.
The fi rst game of the Mets’ June
25 doubleheader will begin at 4:10
p.m. and the nightcap is slated for
7:40 p.m.
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