The End Of An Era / Thank You Mets

by Darren Meenan June 14, 2024 0 Comments

It's with a heavy heart that we need to announce the end of an era. After 10 seasons, we'll be moving The 7 Line brand to a new location in the ballpark. After this weekend's series at Citi Field, our kiosk in Center Field will close it's gate forever.

When I signed the deal to make T7L an officially licensed brand in March of 2014, that opened the doors to many great opportunities. One of which was to have a dedicated store at the ballpark. I'd say it was a dream come true, but even in my wildest dreams I'd have never imagined that would even be a possibility. I started printing Mets themed t-shirts in my parents basement back in the summer of 2009, and just a handful of years later, people were buying my merch in the ballpark. Wild times.

Before we moved in on Opening Day of 2014, the kiosk we took over was used for the 5 seasons before it. We re-wrapped it and eventually added a gigantic light on the roof.

I took a lot of pride having that stand in the ballpark. My wife and I were married at Citi Field in May of 2014, and you know we had to snap a photo in front of it.

Of course we stopped by in 2015 during our daughter's first game.

Unfortunately whenever bad weather was in the forecast, the kiosk had to be closed. The wind rips pretty strongly out there, and when rain would get inside, merch had the chance of being ruined.

As time went on, the roof began to leak, so even if the gate was closed during the rain, that became a whole other issue. It was fixed three times by now. The kiosk is now 15 years old, and these things don't last forever.

We had the shop re-wrapped a few seasons ago, but the roof was constantly an issue. I had hoped we'd be able to get through this year without another repair, but right after Opening Day of this season you may have noticed we were closed more often than not.

The Mets had already planned to transition T7L to a larger location in 2025, along with being more prominent in the official Team Store. I weighed the options to fix the roof for a 4th time to get through the next few months of this season, or make the move now. It makes the most sense business wise to just start the move early.

After this weekend, our main location will be the Center Field shop just past the Shea Bridge. Lucky for us though, this is just a stones throw from where our kiosk has been.

The Center Field shop has a big upside for us. The shop is not only larger, it's open every single game. Our brand has grown tremendously since 2014, and we sell as many hard goods now as we do t-shirts. We'll be able to stock more of those goods in the Center Field shop compared to the kiosk.

I'm still very sad to see the kiosk close, but in the long run this is good news for the brand. I can't thank the Mets enough for this opportunity for over a decade now. It's been incredible so far.

If you would like to snap a photo in front of the kiosk one last time this weekend, post it and tag us please. If you'd like to pick up anything one last time, of course we'd appreciate that too.

Thank you to the thousands of fans that have shopped at the kiosk since 2014, and we hope you'll visit our new spot about 150 feet away!