The Mets are 'desperately' seeking a new loan for tens of millions of dollars to cover their operating expenses, according to Josh Kosman, Mark DeCambre and Dan Mangan of the New York Post. The Wilpon family, which owns the team, faces a $1 billion lawsuit and says they are open to selling 20-25% of the Mets.
JPMorgan Chase is working with other companies to put together a loan that would provide the Wilpons with cash until they sell part of the team, according to the Post. The team received $25MM from MLB in November but has exhausted its credit with the league, according to the New York Times.
I think the Wilpons need to cut their losses and sell the team already
This won’t last much longer. I won’t be surprised if they sold the team by June.
doesn´t look good. sad.
Firesale anyone?
I think MLB would take over before that happened.
I see an E-Bay auction looming any day now. It’s one of the few things they haven’t tried. (Hey, it worked for Manny Ramírez….right?!).
Not easy, considering much of the talent is either sunk cost or damaged goods.
Pretty doubtful IMO. They’re not going to damage their already weak product while simultaneously trying to market/sell part or all of the team.
Also, with the kind of debt they’re talking, cutting $50-75m off the payroll isn’t really going to do anything.
…but if they do, Phils GO GET WRIGHT 😛
already weak product? I think the real shame about the past four years, is that our product hasn’t been weak, it has just not come together for reasons that were obvious, just now comming to light, and many we will never know. As a Phils fan you should be hoping the Wilpons continue flounder and somehow hold on to the team, because they could screw up a wet dream.
Having reasons for the product “not coming together” doesn’t change the fact that it DIDN’T come together. I wasn’t referring to on-the-field product by itself – they have a brand new stadium they can’t fill, they’re in the news for all the wrong reasons, etc etc. The Mets’ brand name as a whole is in the dumps right now.
I’m not sure what you mean by “screwing up a wet dream”. If you mean competing for a title, no, they can’t. The offense could be good, but they don’t have remotely the pitching talent level of ATL or PHI, even with Johan.
revel in the Mets percieved “misery” all you want, the fact is, most would take practicaly every postion player we have over the Phillies players. The Mets “brand name” is fine, our fans are die hard, and the departure of Omar and the arrival of Sandy is a great turn of events for our team. Once Bud forces the Wilpon’s to sell the team we will be in even better shape. For our pitching staff being so pathetic, I seem to remember them shuting out a certain pennsylvanian team for a whole series last year without Santana, go figure.
You know, I haven’t said a single thing in thsi thread that hasn’t been said by NY beat writers, bloggers, and objective fans.
You used the word “misery”, not I. I never said the Mets’ staff was “pathetic”; you did.
Yes, the Mets won a series in the regular season. If you need to hang your hat on that, by all means. I’m sorry you see any objective look at the state of your team as an attack on them.
Regardless of your blinders, I don’t hate the Mets – I grew up a CT Gold Coast Mets fan, went to planty of games at Shea in my youth, cheered like mad when they beat the Sox. I hate the Braves.
blinders? objective fans? climb off your high horse Scorates, no one is objective, and repeating or agreeing with what the talking heads on TV or sports “journalists” prognosticate or shill doesn’t absolve you of that. You say “Yes, the Mets won a series in the regular season” well sure, that sounds like a real objective analysis of a three game shut-out by a staff that(forgive me for reading into your insuation), is sub-par. I don’t hate any team, and considering how the Rangers made out amidst financial trouble I don’t see why the Mets are as doomed as you (or anyone else) make them out to be. It’s a blog, just repping my team, nothing I’ve said is not true, no blinders neccesary.
Omar leaving/Sandy arriving is great b/c the Wilpons hopefully back out of putting their hands in the pot.
that being said, it would be in Omars best interest to learn the aspects of talent development and also contract negotiations under Sandy ( a LAWYER )
Omar never had a guru. Started off as a scout…then brought in the mets in 97..he was brought in to help out on scouting. there is a big difference between learning under Steve Phillips and learning under Sandy Alderson
Dear Bud Selig, getting that 25 million back will be impossible. Nice waste of money.
They could sell David Wright. No other players involved, just have a bidding process.
I’m not sure MLB would allow that. Trades involving large money have to be approved by the commish, and straight-up selling of a player isn’t something they want to come back into vogue.
Imagine what the Marlins would have looked like if Huizenga had been able to straight-up sell all the post-WS stars instead of trading them. He decimated the team with TRADES, if he had been able to outright sell players there very well might not be a franchise there.
MLB pretty much forced the Pirates to trade budding superstar 3B Aramis Ramirez for a bag of baseballs in 2003, precisely because of the Pirates’ debt load at the time.
“Under former owner Kevin McClatchy, the Pirates’ debt-to-equity ratio exceeded Major League Baseball’s standard and the club was forced to asked one of its minority partners — Bob Nutting, now the principal owner — for a loan to fund operations in 2003.
That season, the Pirates traded star third baseman Aramis Ramirez to the Cubs for little in return merely to shed his salary and meet the debt-to-equity formula.”
source: m dot si dot com/news/archive/archive/detail/2816666
That’s true, and I not trying to say salary dumps don’t happen, I meant it’s unlikely the league is going to allow the Mets to say, “David Wright on the block – straight cash deal. Bidding begins at X”.
They need to sell the team. I’m a Twins fan that recently moved to NY, and I want to be able to get behind the Mets so I can attend games, but the current regime is terrible. The Wilpons owe it to their fans to swallow their pride, and let this team go. The Mets will never win with the current owners strapped for cash. Get Cuban or Trump in there!
Cuban would be an interesting choice for the Mets when you consider New York media and his intensity.
Mark Cuban would be the best possible thing for the Mets. He will definitely invest in a winning franchise. Donald Trump is the worst possible thing for them; he’s a businessman who only wants to make as much money as possible, by any means necessary (again, I point to the USFL). He won’t care about on-field success.
No chance Trump gets a team anyway. Several of his businesses have went belly up in the real estate market decline of the past few years. MLB would not approve him to buy the franchise.
they don’t care about the fans. They think that if they can make it out of this without selling the team then they can eventually make up the money in revenue. Right.
Yankee stadium is calling you
I’m definitely likin’ this. PostMoComments!!
I doubt the other owners would allow Cuban into the club, regardless of the Mets’ woes. They still have a veto on all team sales.
Marshall Eriksen, is that you?
Stop it, Wilpons. Sell the team. Do yourselves, the fans and the players a favor and sell the team. You’ve done enough.
Sell the whole thing. The idea of selling off a piece of the team to raise some cash will not work. Who would want to spend hundreds of millions to have a non-controling interest of a team in complete shambles.
I think its time for MLB to step in and force them to sell…. You can only help someone so much. Time to sell before they are so deep that no one wants to buy them.
try printing the money yourselves
good idea. thats what the marxist in the white house does. why cant the wilpons?
Ah another person trying to use Communism to spread fear of the President. Go back to the 80s.
I don’t agree with you much in the world of baseball, but that comment was spot on!
So you’re defending Obama?
Sigh, my political views are pointless to this argument and this website. I simply know that the brand of Communism is simply a fear mongering tool used by people who have no idea of the facts. Each major political party runs on the fear of the other which I find to be pathetically telling of them and their followers.
Hey just making sure, I went to Burbank High and McCarthyism was a huge part of English. I don’t think most people understand the difference between communism and a Totalitarianism type government or that lack of one.
is this Luke Scott of the Orieoles? duh, I like sarah Palin ye haw!
wait…exactly when did Obama become Woodrow Wilson?
HEY JEFF!!! HEY FRED!!! LONG TIME METS FAN HERE… BUT HERES A SUGGESTION…
SELL THE DARN TEAM!!!!! ITS WHATS RIGHT AND WHATS GOOD FOR THE METS AND THEIR FANS!!!
Hey Dirty! Long time Sox fan here, but here’s a suggestion!
Get your caps lock fixed! It’s what’s right and what’s good for yourself and everyone else!
Agreed, gives me a headache.
but it’s so irresistibly emphatic…YOU CAN”T LOOK AWAY MWAH HA HA!!!
If it helps the Mets, I’ll gladly loan them $20,000 with 10% biweekly interest. This is Canadian funds people, which is millions in USD.
Maybe sell 100%-100% of the team…
Why sell the team when so many are willing to throw cash at what is apparently becoming a money pit.
Sell Oliver Perez for parts. Body parts, I mean. His organs are worth more than his arm — well, everything but the brain, at least.
So…the Twins traded Santana to the Mets for magic beans because the Twins couldn’t afford to pay him and now the MLB loaned the Mets enough money to basically cover the cost to pay, oh, let’s say someone like Santana, and now the owner of the Mets needs to sell enough of the team so they can *head asplodes*
So how about this, a team takes the Ollie Perez contract, the Beltran Contract, The K Rod contract, and maybe the Johan contract, and in exchange they can have Reyes. Reyes may not be enough but i’m pretty sure the Mets are breaking some MLB rules about being overly leveraged
Maybe the Mets can just fold so that the Reds can be moved to the NL East and the divisions will finally be balanced! After all, who besides Jerry Seinfeld actually likes the Mets?
Haw haw. I hate the Mets and love to watch their ship sink.
For serious? I have no vested interest in the Metropolitans, but I do feel for the fans who will, most likely, suffers most.
MLB would be dumb to force a team in New York to weaken itself by giving away David Wright…a forced sale with payroll help in the meantime makes the most sense.
Or…if every other team in the league found out that the league was playing favorites with the Mets and giving them more loans then any other team just to keep star players….when the owners refuse to sell and have such a horrible financial outlook that there is almost no way they can stay long term owners…it would be a disaster. Every team in the league would be demanding more money to keep star players they can’t afford.
they are already guaranteed to have to give back 300 Mil. clawback suit is going for 1billion and if the previous clawback suit serves precedent, they will lose. See the New Orleans ponzi case they lost from a few years back. I say they settle somewhere between 500-800 mil and HAVE to sell the Mets/SNY just to stay out of the garbage can