Pride Night welcomes all at NBT Bank Stadium

SYRACUSE, N.Y. (WSYR-TV) — The Syracuse Mets’ ninth annual Pride Night at NBT Bank Stadium on Thursday night, June 13, was more grand than ever.

“Every year that they do this, it gets bigger and bigger, and we’re just seeing more and more people,” Jimmy Monto, who is the President of CNY Pride and also a Syracuse Common Councilor, said. “It matters for a lot of reasons, but visibility is important, and you know you can kind of feel the love inside of here tonight.”

It’s about so much more than just enjoying the baseball game but welcoming everyone to do so.

“For the people that are out there that are worried about coming out or worried about finding a family, you know, a crew, they see us, and they say there is a place for me and there’s a crowd for me to join,” Monto said.

Lex Leounis agreed, feeling that Pride Night is a safe space.

“Personally, I always feel at home at Pride Nights, so it’s definitely really welcoming seeing everybody kind of like in the same realm as I am all supporting each other. Everybody’s just having a good time,” Leounis said.

It was an event filled with great pride with people from all walks of life. Many attendees had cheered on the Mets at a previous Pride Night and enjoyed it so much that they came back this year.

“We had done it I think one or two years ago and had a good time with it, actually played dizzy bat on the field. We’re visiting back in town. We now live in Bismark, North Dakota if you’ll believe it and figured it’d be a good way to spend a Thursday night,” Matthew Grzenda said.

It was also an event to give back to the community that has always been supportive of so many.

“There’s a lot of people alone out there whether they’re four, 14, or 94. They can see that we’re here and we’re not going anywhere,” Monto added.

Afterall, in this community, everyone is welcome.

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