Although Mets owners Jeff Wilpon and Fred Wilpon have had the franchise on the block for months, the club remains under their control. It does appear that will change sometime soon, however.
During a panel for UJA-Federation of New York on Thursday, Jeff Wilpon said, “The team will have some kind of transaction,” according to Yaron Weltzman of Bleacher Report. “There’s four or five suitors that are out there to do something with.”
Unsurprisingly, Wilpon didn’t reveal who’s pursuing the team. A report earlier this week linked Philadelphia 76ers and New Jersey Devils owner Josh Harris to the Mets. David Blitzer, who also has ownership stakes in the 76ers and Devils, could join Harris’ group. There’s also the famous duo of Alex Rodriguez and Jennifer Lopez, who are reportedly working with senior bankers from JPMorgan Chase to put together a Mets bid. Rodriguez and Lopez are aware of the interest Harris and Blitzer have shown in the Mets, but A-Rod and J-Lo are still confident they’ll be able to submit a legitimate offer, per Ted Holmlund of the New York Post.
It’s not clear how much money it would require to buy the Mets, especially because it’s uncertain whether the Wilpons will be open to giving up any part of the SNY network in a deal. A few months ago, it looked as if the Wilpons were on the cusp of selling 80 percent of the franchise to Steve Cohen for $2.6 billion. Those talks fell through, however, and with the coronavirus having wreaked havoc since then, the Wilpons may not make out as well as they hope on a possible sale.
Just sell …..get lost Wilpons
Wasn’t there some scuttlebutt after the Cohen deal ended, that MLB may not have approved him as an owner anyway?
Or was that a smokescreen put up by the Wilpons?
It was the typical Wilpon hit job. MLB would have LOVED to sell the Mets for $2.6B bc it would raise the value of future possible sales for a team. Now, the MLB is stuck w a toxic ownership in a major media market.
Arod & JLo have no money (comparatively). The sale should go to someone with deep pockets and a willingness to put a winning team on the field every season.
They have tens of millions and perhaps even a couple hundred million. However, MLB has limits on the amount of debt a team can have. MLB owners frequently have outside businesses that they can borrow against in order to fund their team. Not sure if Aroid and JLo have sufficient assets to fund a bid.
They do not. You need billions, they’ve “merely” millions.
Jester managed and he earned much less than A-Rod
It’d have to like the Jeter deal, yes. Most of the money comes from someone else.
The Mets are already highly leveraged, which is why the Wilpons have had cash flow problems in the past. It is also one of the reasons they are looking to sell. Their TV deal is under-market (though it still siphons profits to the Wilpons and other owners/partners on a different balance sheet where they aren’t motivated to demonstrate a loss or break even status). As a result, they are bleeding more money this season because they don’t have ticket sales and other game-day monies coming in to help them tight rope walk their payroll issues. There have been some very good investigative journalism articles in the past 5-10 years (post-Madoff) that have looked into their finances and the club is a mess.
Here is a great fan graph article about what the 2020 season is costing teams….if the owners are to be believed, which is a leap of faith in and of itself.
blogs.fangraphs.com/a-look-at-the-gains-and-losses…
Not surprisingly…the Mets are 2nd to last in all of baseball in regard to expected revenue from games, as well as other depressing stats about how they are bleeding money. Again, I don’t believe these data fully because MLB owners are loathe to open their books. The wilpons in particular have a history of manipulating financials, so take the charts with a grain of salt.
Arod/Jlo will eventually get divorced and be messy and will fight over the Mets. so stay away from them, baseball does not need another McCourts situation.
Plus need to flush A-roids out of baseball, he is a disgrace.
As much as I don’t want him to own the Mets, at least he wouldn’t be on ESPN anymore.
now THAT’S a win.
I agree. The worst thing that could happen to the Mets is to have A-roid as an owner.
I believe he should have been banned from baseball for life. Instead he has all these people trying to repair his image so that he can get into the hall of fame. Its disgusting. I boycotted ESPN the minute they hired him to broadcast games.
Mike Piazza is an admitted steroid user. Do Mets fans feel it is a disgrace for him to be in the Hall of Fame? Or is that different because he’s one of their guys?
I’m not aware that Piazza admitted to using steroids. But I don’t agree with any players that doped being in the hall of fame. And much less with them having positions within MLB where they “mentor” younger players. But for a long time now MLB has not had the guts to do the right thing. Too much $ involved.
Piazza admitted to using Andro, which is a steroid. He stopped doing it when reporters found it in his locker.
metstoday.com/10592/14-15-offseason/mike-piazza-ad…
it wasn’t a banned substance when he took Andro… Hence it wasn’t illegal for him to use it. He played within the rules of the game. Now quit your whining
Piazza also admits to taking amphetamines, or “greenies” as they were commonly called. He preferred Dymetadrine — an asthma medication that sends oxygen to the brain —-That’s ped?? it’s not roids–
Jeter did not have the money to buy the Marlins. The idea is to partner with other investors. Arod and JLo probably would not own a majority share of the team but Arod would probably have a title and receive a salary – like Jeter.
Arod and jlo dropped out of their bid supposedly last month. But they also were trying to bring Wayne rothbaum into the group (billionaire who was part of the Jeb bush group to buy the marlins). They were also taking to a Taiwanese billionaire. The sale will be to a group that has deep pockets, it’s just that the faces of the groups aren’t usually the one with said pockets
It is just like the Derek Jeter situation in Florida….
A local Florida cash rich billionaire investor, Jorge Mas, appeared to be the better fit to buy the Marlins. Mas planned on investing much more money into players and making the Marlins contenders very soon.
The MLB cronies league, allegedly, stepped in to block the Mas bid and gift wrap the franchise to the under funded Derek Jeter bid.
Then, Jeter had a fire sale of Marlins players so he could gut expenses, but still pay himself 5M per year out of team revenues?!
It is very odd how MLB Commissioner and ownership runs its league.
It appears to value cronyism more that what is good for fans etc…
Expect a Mets Fire Sale of players Marlins style if Arod and JLo get their financial hands on the Mets franchise…Arod will demand at least 5M per year out of team revenues etc..
They’re supposedly worth 700 millions. Supposedly
There is no place for those two in MLB. They both want their filthy grips on the Mets for image……..look at me! I matter! It is just about themselves. They are trashy people
Don’t want Aroid. He might be another Jeter & trade everyone making money. I don’t trust him.
Hence the JP morgan bankers partnership
dew it
Please enough drama. Just sell it to some legitimate billionaires and be done with it. I can just see the headline: AROD AND JLO SPLIT
METS TORN!!!
Ugh.
As a Marlins fan, I’d enjoy this headline.
Lmao you said it!
Please sell to folks who want to win.
Yes. The Mets need an owner that cares more than just using the team as a cash machine. Somebody that cares about the team, its legacy, the city, the fans, and winning. Sadly, thats been absent for way too long.
They need a real owner not ARod. The poor Mets have suffered with the current owner for too long a deserve a break.
So, it’s A-Rod and J-Lo up against J-Har and D-Bli?
Whoever provides Jeffy the most fireman’s hats wins.
Well, 4 or 5 is BS. But 2 is fine. Sell to one of them, and put us out of our misery. Anyone but the Wilpons.
I’m just waiting for Cohen to come back to the table with a straight cash offer for $1.8B-$2.0B, and no concessions to Jeff to stay on in any capacity. Dude is a shark, is a lifelong Mets fan, and he has cash to burn. Evidently he got out of the market before it crashed, so he has the $ to write a check. Those finance guys who can buy whatever they want usually like to go big…and other potential buyers know this and don’t want to be used as the stalking horse for Cohen. If Cohen *isn’t* interested in them anymore, that would be a red flag because he is a minority owner and KNOWS the finances aka shell game that the Mets are so secretive about.
Cohen is a shark? Criminal is a better word.
I really love how first Wilpon got conned by Madoff but now he has timed his selling of the team with a pandemic. Dude is unlucky/bad at business
Wilpons appear to be morons in completely over their heads
Yet they have more money than you could even dream of making. Funny how things are.
Funny how inherited wealth isn’t the measure of a person. Do you know how difficult it is to accept money that someone gives you? Not very difficult
I’m not clear… how that has anything to do with then Mets/Wilpons? Fred Wilpon bought them team, didn’t inherit it.
My mistake, I misread when I researched it before posting. I do see that Fred made his money.
That aside, people like the Wilpons having so much wealth is a reflection of the flaws in society, not a reflection of how much better they are than SportsFan0000. The way people so often worship the wealthy makes me nauseous
I was just commenting on the dude calling them names and trying to insult them likely out of just pure jealousy, which is just absolutely silliness
Bud Selig, disgracefully, dropped the ball on the Mets situation letting the Wilpons keep the team after the Wilpons, stupidly, lost huge sums to Bernie Madoff.
The Mets have suffered ever since with the Wilpons “strip mining” the Mets financially to try and recoup their losses from their Madoff debacle..
In the largest media market and most lucrative TV market in the country, the Mets spend like the Oakland A’s or Rays?! Where the h*** is all the money going?! Mets should be forced to open their books starting with Madoff scandal..
Clearly, the Mets and the Wilpons have been underfunded at did not meet the MLB ownership threshold for financial stability for years….
The league forced former ownership of the Astros into bankruptcy Court. Current owner Jim Crane purchased the Astros in bankruptcy Court.
If Bud Selig had been doing his job as MLB Commissioner, the Mets also should have been forced into a bankruptcy court sale years ago after the Madoff disaster.
MLB Commissioners office put cronyism between Selig and the Wilpons ahead of the interest of MLB, and of NY fans….
If you mean to spend on free agents, the Mets do plenty of that. They just spend on the wrong players. Besides, that’s no way to build a steady contender. The Yankees aren’t better than the Mets because they spend more money on free agents. It’s because they have a better organization top-to-bottom. It’s similar to the Dodgers being better than the Angels. Arte Moreno has brought in some high-ticket players in an effort to build a winning team around Mike Trout. The Dodgers, meanwhile, have built their nucleus with homegrown talent, smart acquisitions, and player development. Same thing with the Yankees’ last dynasty run: a core of farm-system players, supplemented by shrewd trades.
I have to agree. The Mets have not been cheap, they just have not been smart with the loads of money they have spent. Those bad contracts have precluded them from going out and spending like fans want because the team was not in a position to win and as such spending big and digging a bigger hole to climb out of made no sense. Whether you accept/like it or not, those are the facts
And, no well funded, savvy, potential ownership group would buy the Mets without the Sports Network included. The Wilpons,being the terrible businessmen that they are, would not and should not be accepted as a thorn in the side of new ownership and Mets fans.. If the Wilpons are allowed to keep any part of the Mets and their TV rights, they will find a way to F*** it up….
How long is the contract with SNY