Today at 12:26pm the New York Mets released the following statement on their site.
Fred Wilpon, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the New York Mets, and Jeff Wilpon, Chief Operating Officer of the New York Mets, issued the following statement:
As Sterling Equities announced in December, we are engaged in discussions to settle a lawsuit brought against us and other Sterling partners and members of our families by the Trustee in the Madoff bankruptcy. We are not permitted to comment on these confidential negotiations while they are ongoing.
However, to address the air of uncertainty created by this lawsuit, and to provide additional assurance that the New York Mets will continue to have the necessary resources to fully compete and win, we are looking at a number of potential options including the addition of one or more strategic partners. To explore this, we have retained Steve Greenberg, a Managing Director at Allen & Company, as our advisor.
Regardless of the outcome of this exploration, Sterling will remain the principal ownership group of the Mets and continue to control and manage the team’s operations. The Mets have been a major part of our families for more than 30 years and that is not going to change.
As we have said before, we are totally committed to having the Mets again become a World Series winner. Our fans and all New Yorkers deserve nothing less.
Fred Wilpon, Jeff Wilpon, and Steve Greenberg will be available to discuss today’s announcement with members of the media on a conference call at 2:15 p.m. (ET). – Link
Take some time to digest this. Come back later for more news on this major announcement.
15 comments
stickguy
1/28/2011-1:10pm at 1:10 pm (UTC -4)
things should be a lot clearer after the conference call.
and for kingman, none of us know how much revenue they are actually generating through BB ops last year/this year, and if it is enough to support the payroll and other costs. And the team is supposed to be self supporting of course. A much bigger indicator of that is if they respend the money coming off the books at the end of this year!
but, they did not see the need to slash payroll (to the extent they could) right now. not sure how much they could move, but something. 10mill? gotta be at least that.
so maybe they need to generate some spending money (operating cash) for this season. It happens in a business, and the best cure of course will be to win with a fun team and put more fannies in the seats.
but again, none of us know how many tixs and asses in seats it takes for them to break even in a year (with SNY factored in). maybe 2 mill is enough?
The biggest issue though has to be the madoff payback (~50mill). Now, I have no clue if that is due immediately, or they get a payment plan, but that is a huge amount of money to come up with at one time. And they likely do not have near that laying around in cash. Sterling is invested in assets, and like anyone with a big unexpected bill, you need to sell something to raise the money.
Right now, selling a stake (10%? 20%?) in the mets has to be easier than selling a bunch of NY real estate!
and key is that the madoff money is 1 shot. sell a stake, get your 50mill + some extra to tide them over for 2011 ops, and by 2012, the team is once again just needing to support itself.
njstuckintx
1/28/2011-1:53pm at 1:53 pm (UTC -4)
Yanks are only 70% owned by the steinbrenners, if that matters at all.
Ceetar
1/28/2011-3:47pm at 3:47 pm (UTC -4)
The question is, is it just the 50 million profit, or are the people cheated out of money by Madoff entitled to parts of all the 500million they had invested in the pot? In other words, the Wilpons basically gave Madoff that money, and he used it to show and woo other people. He likely told them it was theres too. Was it within the Wilpons right to then pull that money back out and claim it as their own? Do the losses get spread around more evenly? That’s part of what the lawsuit is about. someone tweeted a number of 1 billion, which is likely the Lawyers asking for the moon.
The Wilpons also said they’re working on settlements as well which would avoid a lawsuit. A lot of it depends on that, and the sale of part of the team is to fund/prefund that cost. Without that money, if they were to have a judgement against them and couldn’t pay, wouldn’t they then have to sell off assets to settle it? Doing it preemptively gives them that measure of control, and keeps them from having to sell more, or having to cut payroll to 70million and not use the 60-80 million they could’ve spent on the team from within the “Mets box” of Sterling to pay the lawsuit. The idea here is that they’re using the sale to keep from affecting the Mets in any way.
Obviously things could change. the lawsuit could go through, could be closer to the 1 billion number floated. They could be totally overwhelmed by an awesome offer and decide “hey, why not take on a full partner and give up some control” but as of right now they have zero intention of letting it get that far, and that’s part of the reason for the sale.
Anything they’ve said about finances and not being hurt by Madoff isn’t really releavant here, as that was all pre-lawsuit, which changed things.
wannybackstra
1/28/2011-1:14pm at 1:14 pm (UTC -4)
let’s take up a collection and then install gravedigger as the chief executive of our interest.
metsfan4decades
1/28/2011-3:32pm at 3:32 pm (UTC -4)
hahaha!
I miss Grave….
njstuckintx
1/28/2011-2:01pm at 2:01 pm (UTC -4)
Maybe this is a blessing in disguise. Maybe those who hope to have new ownership may see the door of opportunity slightly crack open. Contact Mark Cuban, STAT!
metsfan4decades
1/28/2011-3:38pm at 3:38 pm (UTC -4)
I read this and I’m thinking so?
Since the Mets are probably one of the only teams – if not the only one – owned solely by one family, that Madoff payback is probably the straw that broke the camels back for keeping it all in house.
I don’t think it had an impact one way or another this off season. I believe the Mets have a self imposed budget ceiling and they weren’t going over it. Don’t know if the budget ceiling was imposed b/c they impending 50MIL they’re going to have to shell out or not. Either way, I didn’t have much of a problem with this off season strictly based on the fact that it’s probably time to stop throwing good money after bad and the FA market was for the most part ‘eh’. Nothing out there that was our missing piece, unless you all thought signing Lee was the answer. The more I read about that signing with the Phils, the more I’m convinced he would have never signed here anyway, unless we really upped the ante. And that’s not something I wanted to see given his age.
Now….mid season if we’re in contention and they do nothing to help down the stretch? Yeah, I won’t be happy.
End of season if they don’t spend some of that money coming off the books to improve the team? I’ll be pissed.
stickguy
1/28/2011-4:07pm at 4:07 pm (UTC -4)
I know that this puts me in the serious minority. But regarding payroll, I DON”T CARE. I hope they manage to not spend most of the money coming off the books. It could be a good thing.
I want to see a good, winning team on the field. And if they can do that with a lower payroll, fantastic, because it means that young (cheap) guys from the system are producing, and that they should have money in reserve to snag an expensive bargain when/if it becomes needed and available.
per Cot’s, the 2006 payroll was ~101mill. I will be perfectly happy if the mets clear out expensive dead wood and win 96 games again with a payroll near that, or 120mill, or whatever it takes.
stickguy
1/28/2011-4:13pm at 4:13 pm (UTC -4)
more rambling.
the mets could not spend the expiring contracts for 2 reasons basically. 1 is they can’t/won’t, and 2 is they don’t have to.
and not spending any (as is spending all of it) is probably not likely.
think of it this way. Beltran is a big chunk of the $$ coming free. But, if pagan has a big year in CF, and one or more of the young guys (Duda!) steps into RF and does well, the OF is set without spending real money. Same thing if emaus/murphy lock up 2B (or havens steps in).
But if those spots are barren, they may have to spend a lot to get decent players. in this case, spending more may not be good.
same idea if K Rod leaves. if they find a cheap closer, fantastic.
just resign reyes, and redirect ollie/castillo $ into at least 1 upscale SP, and I won’t care if they pocket the other 10-20 mill being freed up, as long as they are willing to make moves during the year.
Ceetar
1/28/2011-4:17pm at 4:17 pm (UTC -4)
Yeah, I mean if the team crashes and burns, if Beltran’s knee explodes and Santana never recovers and Murphy doesn’t stick at second and all of the OF prospects are a year away and Frankie doesn’t vest and Ike/Niese don’t take that next step in development then there’s lots of holes and no way to fix them all in 2012.
But if one of the outfields prospects steps up, 2B is managable and they resign Reyes and keep Frankie and Santana finishes the season successfully and Gee or Meija looks poised to step in? gravy.
stickguy
1/28/2011-4:02pm at 4:02 pm (UTC -4)
man, ST needs to start, and quick. I am completely over discussing finance/cheapness/etc. And snow. Totally over snow.
I like the team overall (including some of the often derided moves that I think will become valuable players this year), and really want to see the players in uniform, on the field.
Think how much nicer it will be to discuss actual performance, not endless speculation about who’s arm is going to fall off.
Ceetar
1/28/2011-4:04pm at 4:04 pm (UTC -4)
and the same stories over and over again. although this one’s semi new, it’s not overly exciting.
But you’re not pysched for t hree weeks+ of NFL CBA discussion?
stickguy
1/28/2011-4:08pm at 4:08 pm (UTC -4)
that I will just ignore and not participate in.
oh, we will have the same story beaten to death in ST, at least until Ollie is released.
Ceetar
1/28/2011-4:14pm at 4:14 pm (UTC -4)
yeah, but I listen to talk radio on the way in/out of work. I guess Z morning zoo is an opiton in the morning..
yah labor disputes..
i’m sure Car Melo. talks too.
stickguy
1/28/2011-5:15pm at 5:15 pm (UTC -4)
one nice thing about XM when I had a long commute, they have a station that is all baseball talk, all the time. No need to sit through calls about sports that dont interest you!