I can chime in on this one as a Mets fan.
This year, they had a lousy team on the field, but they were competitive and management kept on the straight narrow.
The few years before that were disasters. Bloated contracts, mismanaged injuries (supposed 2 weeks injuries that ended up being season long), September meltdowns, the owners in bed with Madoff, etc.
If you put a team out there that tries but isn't very good, and you're working on steps to improve the team in coming years, I can live with it. I despise when a team is clueless, classless, attention seeking, full of criminals, more interested in pocketing profits instead of investing it back into the team, etc.