Sell the Team AGAIN!!!!

[Centerfield]

No restrictions on the team sale says Bloomberg.



https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-02-09/new-york-mets-are-for-sale-again-the-price-may-have-just-soaredhttps://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-02-09/new-york-mets-are-for-sale-again-the-price-may-have-just-soared



Which begs the question, if they were willing to cede control, why did the Cohen deal fall through?

[Benjamin Grimm]

I'm wondering that too. Maybe the fact that the Cohen deal fell apart made them realize that they needed to cede control, but that realization could have simply allowed them to reopen the Cohen deal. So there must be more to it.

[Benjamin Grimm]

I don't know enough about Mark Cuban to have an opinion regarding him, but I wouldn't be surprised if his name came up, at least from the fan base.



What do we think? Is it likely? Is it desirable?

[Johnny Lunchbucket]

Watch them sell for $2,600,000,001 then take 5 years to close the deal

[kcmets]

Something is stinky about this whole thing. Why is Cohen deal dead if wants to buy

the remaining 92% of the team and has the money? Offer $2,650,000 and un-dead things.

[Centerfield]

It doesn't make any sense. The only guess I have is:



1. Wilpon and Cohen agree on their 5 year deal.



2. Wilpon or Cohen, or both, thinking they have the leverage, start changing the terms.



3. It ends poorly. Cohen leaks to the press, Wilpons run to Manfred. It ends with the Cohen being blacklisted and daring the Wilpons to find a higher bidder.



4. The Katz family finally wakes up and tells Jeff to stop fucking up their money. They tell Fred and Jeff to lose the five year control period, and go find a higher bidder, but if they can't, to go crawling back to Cohen. Cohen sits and waits and hopes that no deeper pocket shows up.



5. If someone bids a dollar over $2.6 billion, the Wilpons "win". If not, they have to go back to Cohen, tail between their legs. I think there's no chance the Wilpons would do this, so they will throw in SNY, or Syracuse, or whatever it takes to have that reported number be higher than the Cohen price tag.

[Ceetar]

Maybe the rumors about Cohen not getting approved were true. Maybe the years of control were a workaround of sorts, once you own 80% of a team, you figure they can't say no?, but he did in fact get a 'no' or a "we'll see" to that?



Or maybe there really was a 'right to purchase' option in the minority shares and it was all a ploy to open it up and get a higher value. A franchise value, as much of that is basically a made up finance term, of 3.5 billion seems absurd, but it almost happened.



I'd be surprised if it didn't end up going for more than that now though, not that they've "set a value". Curious if they're still sell 72%.

[kcmets]

=kcmets post_id=31386 time=1581352573 user_id=53]Offer $2,650,000 and un-dead things.

[86dreamer]

The Bloomberg article said the team lose $50 million a year excluding SNY, and SNY is not on the table. In other words, Wipons want to sell the team but keep their share of the profits. I dont see them finding anyone rich enough or stupid enough to play their games.

[kcmets]

Just my opinion, but there's no way the Wilpons are losing $50 million a year on

the Mets. Maybe on one set of books, but no way on the most accurate set.

[86dreamer]

agree that the consolidated entity including SNY is likely profitable. But not hard to imagine the baseball club losing money if they are not receiving full market value for the broadcasting rights from SNY. Wilpons are trying to sell the expense vehicle and keep the revenue vehicle.

[kcmets]

I also doubt SNY is a gold mine. They run infomercials in the morning.

[Lefty Specialist]

=86dreamer post_id=31395 time=1581359856 user_id=97]
agree that the consolidated entity including SNY is likely profitable. But not hard to imagine the baseball club losing money if they are not receiving full market value for the broadcasting rights from SNY. Wilpons are trying to sell the expense vehicle and keep the revenue vehicle.

[kcmets]

My guess is in the end the whole shabang will go bundled up with a bow.



For the right, over-inflated price.

[86dreamer]

https://www.espn.com/blog/new-york/mets/post/_/id/80341/mets-faring-ok-in-new-tv-landscapehttps://www.espn.com/blog/new-york/mets/post/_/id/80341/mets-faring-ok-in-new-tv-landscape



this article from 2014 says the Mets receive $52 million per year from SNY versus Phillies receive $100 million/year and Dodgers $340 million for their local rights. Cross-ownership muddles up all of this but one thing seems clear - Fred & Jeff are dreaming if they think they can sell the team for full price without opening up the local rights deal.



They want to sell you the house, keep the keys and charge you rent.

[LWFS]

Lefty Specialist wrote: =86dreamer post_id=31395 time=1581359856 user_id=97] agree that the consolidated entity including SNY is likely profitable. But not hard to imagine the baseball club losing money if they are not receiving full market value for the broadcasting rights from SNY. Wilpons are trying to sell the expense vehicle and keep the revenue vehicle.

Precisely. I'm not so sure someone will pony up the money they're looking for without SNY.



The Cohen deal was kind of like having your cake and eating it too, plus eating someone else's cake.

[Frayed Knot]

Maybe the rumors about Cohen not getting approved were true.

Except it never even got to that point.

The last article by those NY Post guys who were doing most of the reporting on this story merely speculated about whether this incidence of "bad faith" bargaining might mark Cohen as a guy

not to be approved for any future deals he might want to make, Mets or elsewhere, especially considering how his past financial dealings may have already had him on the fence for approval on

this deal. I suspect MLB would have approved him -- He specifically wasn't blamed for his company's irregularities but others under him were -- but we'll likely never know now.



Not sure what the Cohen/Wilpon(x2) relationship was going into all this - minority partners can likely go years communicating with other minority or chief owners by text or by phone or through

lawyers rather than face to face -- but I suspect the negotiations might have started to turn personal over the whole control thing. Eff & Jeff want the five year farewell tour. Cohen agrees to

the clause but thinks of it as a more informal 'seat at the table' kind of thing rather than as an official stamp of final-say power. They get into over that during the dotting-i's/crossing-t's phase

of the deal and suddenly a bunch of 'Fuck You!!' and 'Eat Shit!!' are flying back and forth across the table (at least that's how I like to think it went). The 'Pons figure that there are other fish

in the sea and if they're going to be forced to sell it doesn't have to be to this guy just because he happened to be closest, especially not after he just insulted your intelligence over the Madoff

deals which put them in the position to sell in the first place and also called Jeff nothing more than a member of the lucky sperm club.

[Centerfield]

https://www.espn.com/blog/new-york/mets/post/_/id/80341/mets-faring-ok-in-new-tv-landscapehttps://www.espn.com/blog/new-york/mets/post/_/id/80341/mets-faring-ok-in-new-tv-landscape this article from 2014 says the Mets receive $52 million per year from SNY versus Phillies receive $100 million/year and Dodgers $340 million for their local rights. Cross-ownership muddles up all of this but one thing seems clear - Fred & Jeff are dreaming if they think they can sell the team for full price without opening up the local rights deal. They want to sell you the house, keep the keys and charge you rent.

I remember seeing an article a few years ago that had the Mets in the middle of the pack in terms of television revenue. The Yankees, and the two LA teams, were predictably, at the top. I searched but couldn't find it.



It's pretty clear that even though they are selling the team itself, they want to keep reaping the benefits by signing themselves a sweetheart deal, and then artificially keeping the Mets' revenues depressed for the life of it.



All while lining their pockets.

[Centerfield]

Per this article, the SNY contract runs into the 2030's.



https://www.newsday.com/sports/baseball/mets/mets-sale-steve-cohen-sny-1.39252944https://www.newsday.com/sports/baseball/mets/mets-sale-steve-cohen-sny-1.39252944

[G-Fafif]

The beloved COO has issued a statement that clarifies nothing.

"As spring training begins, on behalf of ownership, we would like to share more information explaining why the proposed transaction has ended, however due to confidentiality and non-disclosure agreements we are unable to do so at this time," Wilpon said. "So right now, I believe we need to focus on the future and not in the past and that's what we intend to do. We would like to assure our fans that we will continue our commitment to winning in 2020 and beyond and we'll work hard to earn and maintain everyone's confidence and trust. We'll be moving forward to find a new transaction. We will not be giving details or updates on the timeline or process until we are prepared to make a public announcement. Thank you, that's all I can say for now."

[kcmets]

=The beloved COO post_id=31432 time=1581384202 user_id=55]... we'll work hard to earn and maintain everyone's confidence and trust

[Edgy MD]

I haven't followed this closely, but if this transfer was supposed to be taking place in stages over time, am I correct in assuming that Cohen was intending to finance the team rather than paying out of pocket?

[LWFS]

Edgy MD wrote: I haven't followed this closely, but if this transfer was supposed to be taking place in stages over time, am I correct in assuming that Cohen was intending to finance the team rather than paying out of pocket?

See, it sounds silly, but you don't know the whole deal. He knows this guy who can promise 46 percent returns, monthly. And you can withdraw at any time

[Ceetar]

Edgy MD wrote: I haven't followed this closely, but if this transfer was supposed to be taking place in stages over time, am I correct in assuming that Cohen was intending to finance the team rather than paying out of pocket?

it was going to be 5 payments over 5 years the last 'leak' said. I'm sure there were discussions towards how best to make those payments in order to pay the least amount of taxes though.

[Centerfield]

Some interesting stuff here if you can stomach listening to Fox Business.



https://video.foxbusiness.com/v/6131369541001/?playlist_id=938507328001#sp=show-clipshttps://video.foxbusiness.com/v/6131369541001/?playlist_id=938507328001#sp=show-clips



I'll summarize for those that don't want to listen.



*Wilpons have set the price near $3 billion.



*Einhorn is not in the game. He's taken hits since 2011 and this price is too much for him.



*interest is "scant" as there aren't many that can hit this price tag



*Mets owners are warring with each other and need to sell



*thinks Cohen could eventually re-enter the picture. The match is too good for something not to happen.

[Johnny Lunchbucket]

They're not making any more National League baseball teams in New York, so I'm sure lots of people will want one. If it means taking less than $3B so be it.

[Ceetar]

I imagine interest is 'scant' now but if you give some guys times to put together a group to buy, it might pick up. Or maybe not.



Either way you might worry that a buyer spending that much would end up like Einhorn (or Jeter's group) and be basically tapped out. Especially if the Wilpons sell in a way that still has them syphoning off the SNY money. It might be 10 years before the owners and re-capitalize on that.

[86dreamer]

https://nypost.com/2020/02/14/alex-rodriguez-emerges-as-potential-mets-buyer/https://nypost.com/2020/02/14/alex-rodriguez-emerges-as-potential-mets-buyer/



God help us

[Ceetar]

It'd be amusing to see the Mets go from a manager that should go into the Hall of Fame with the team, to an owner.

[86dreamer]

=Ceetar post_id=31723 time=1581707457 user_id=102]
It'd be amusing to see the Mets go from a manager that should go into the Hall of Fame with the team, to an owner.