ARod, J-Lo trying to buy the Mets?

[Frayed Knot]

=HahnSolo post_id=35690 time=1587579037 user_id=63]JRod will replace the 42 in the rotunda with this.

[Frayed Knot]

NYPost -- "According to multiple sources, Alex Rodriguez and Jennifer Lopez are no longer interested in buying the Mets. That decision was reached after negotiations with potential partners failed to

materialize and it became clear that the Wilpons' reluctance to part with SNY makes it almost impossible for anyone without many billions of dollars to afford owning the team."



https://nypost.com/2020/05/07/alex-rodriguez-jennifer-lopez-end-their-quest-to-buy-the-mets/https://nypost.com/2020/05/07/alex-rodriguez-jennifer-lopez-end-their-quest-to-buy-the-mets/

[Benjamin Grimm]

Good. I only want someone with "many billions of dollars"

[Frayed Knot]

https://nypost.com/2020/05/29/alex-rodriguez-jennifer-lopez-taking-second-shot-at-buying-mets/I'm not sure if we should consider this good news or not



The fact that 'JRod' are apparently interested in getting back in isn't by itself a downer, but some of the 'plans' sound maybe like more glitz and glamour than bats and balls ... but of

course most of that is still speculation and there's no specific reason that it couldn't be both.





Various bits of tid from the piece by Thorton McEnery who has been covering this story all along:



- Multiple sources close to the situation tell The Post that Alex Rodriguez and Jennifer Lopez are now working closely with very senior bankers at JPMorgan Chase on a new bid to buy the Mets after

their initial approach failed to come together earlier this month.



- A strong signal of [the Wilpons'] desperation [to sell] is the inclusion of SNY, the Mets' television network, in a new deal. As The Post has reported, the Mets operate at a major loss, relying on TV

revenues to bridge the gap. That makes owning the team without the network prohibitive. People close to the deal now say that the Wilpons are willing to part with enough of SNY to make a deal

work but are insistent on keeping at least a slice of the network for themselves ... “Someone has shown the Wilpons the light here,” one person close to the deal said. “Some heavy hitters are getting

involved here and it seems Fred and Jeff are listening.



- While no specific names have emerged regarding who will be staking J-Rod's latest Mets bid, Chase Private Banking boasts a deep roster of billionaires with whom the bank can play matchmaker.

Three people close to the situation confirm that the bank has made real progress for its clients. “The money is there,” one said. “A bid is coming.”

[Benjamin Grimm]

Has anyone explained why the Mets operate at "a major loss"? It's not still the Madoff thing. And it's not the Bobby Bonilla thing.

[kcmets]

Benjamin Grimm wrote: Has anyone explained why the Mets operate at "a major loss"?

Not only why but 'how' after all these years? Besides the MLB bailout that was made

public and I guess was repaid, how are all these years of supposed deficits off-set

each yearif they're always 'broke.' They can't print money like congress can.

[MFS62]

IRRC, according to the IRS ruling that forced the Wrigley family to sell the Cubs, if a sports team loses money for seven consecutive years, it is considered a "hobby" and losses cannot be taken to offset profits from another holding (e.g.- SNY or real estate holdings). I'm not sure when their last (accounting-wise) profitable Mets year was, but it seems they've been saying they've been losing money for a long time.

Its time to answer for [CROSSOUT]Santino[/CROSSOUT] Madoff, [CROSSOUT]Paulie[/CROSSOUT] Freddy.

Later

[Frayed Knot]

Well one theory is that you intentionally skew the rights fees that the team gets for televising their games which shifts potential profit from the team to the station even as the owners of both are at least partially the same.

Other factors include debt service for the building of a stadium and even going back to the buying out of Doubleday and old Cablevision contracts; the paying back of loans that were needed when the new stadium hit at the

same time as a major recession so that the anticipated windfall wasn't nearly as high as expected; the Madoff disaster both when lots of on-paper wealth disappeared and again when they were caught by surprise at the

aggressiveness of the 'spread the pain' actions to claw back past monies that they had previously realized.



If one keeps borrowing against the value of the franchise to finance various things you can wind up digging yourself a hole so deep that it's tough to ever climb out since you're forever paying for last year's projects with

next year's money. And paying for things with borrowed money is also an expensive way to run things.

[Edgy MD]

Benjamin Grimm wrote: Has anyone explained why the Mets operate at "a major loss"? It's not still the Madoff thing. And it's not the Bobby Bonilla thing.

They carry a lot of debt that they continually have to service. And even apart from the Madoff disaster, it's still quite easy to bank on revenue that doesn't materialize.



Like any revenue from 2020, for instance.

[MFS62]

Frayed Knot wrote: since you're forever paying for last year's projects with next year's money.

So, in other words, a Ponzi scheme. The Wilpons know what those are, and they are now running one themselves, but the "pigeons" are their lenders and, maybe, the IRS.

Lock them up! Lock them up!

Later

[Edgy MD]

That's not really what a ponzi scheme is.

[MFS62]

Edgy MD wrote: That's not really what a ponzi scheme is.

Close enough: Substitute"Ticket buyers" for "investors"

fraudulent investment operations that pay out returns to investors from money paid in by subsequent investors, rather than from any actual profit earned from the operation of a business.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Ponzi_schemeshttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Ponzi_schemes



Later

[Ceetar]

Benjamin Grimm wrote: Has anyone explained why the Mets operate at "a major loss"? It's not still the Madoff thing. And it's not the Bobby Bonilla thing.

short answer: "it's a lie."



longer answer: creative accounting, mostly. Counting loans against the stadium as deficit, while not counting name rights as revenue, that sort of thing. Only a direct 'tickets sold against payroll' type calculation.



It's how you cry poor and beg players to take pay cuts.

[Lefty Specialist]

short answer: "it's a lie." longer answer: creative accounting, mostly. Counting loans against the stadium as deficit, while not counting name rights as revenue, that sort of thing. Only a direct 'tickets sold against payroll' type calculation. It's how you cry poor and beg players to take pay cuts.

This. The Mets count the money they pay SNY against the team revenue. Even though it's going into the same pocket. It's also why they desperately want to hang on to SNY.

[Frayed Knot]

Edgy MD wrote: That's not really what a ponzi scheme is. Close enough: Substitute"Ticket buyers" for "investors"

No, it's not even close to being close to being a Ponzi scheme.

fraudulent investment operations that pay out returns to investors from money paid in by subsequent investors, rather than from any actual profit earned from the operation of a business.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Ponzi_schemeshttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Ponzi_schemes.

[MFS62]

Maybe not Ponzi per se, but still improper. Maybe just good old fashioned robbing Peter to pay Paul.

I feel they defrauded past years' ticket purchasers because they did not want to make a profit, so they did not make sound baseball decisions to build a winner. Then they used those losses to offset profits from their other businesses in order to reduce their taxes. So they intentionally did not make moves the owner of a sole business would have made to produce a contending team to make each of those prior years profitable. Then they used revenue from next year ticket purchases to make just enough to keep the loss engine moving year to year.

I'm neither an accountant nor a lawyer, but I feel it violates the spirit of the law if not the letter of the law.

Later

[Edgy MD]

I'm not sure what pissed me off most about the Wilpons — when they bled me dry with a romance scam or when they sent me that e-mail from Nigeria telling me that somebody with the same last name as me died and they wanted to wire me the money he left behind.

[MFS62]

Edgy MD wrote: I'm not sure what pissed me off most about the Wilpons — when they bled me dry with a romance scam or when they sent me that e-mail from Nigeria telling me that somebody with the same last name as me died and they wanted to wire me the money he left behind.

And I'm still wondering about Fred's whereabouts when JFK was shot. He looks like descriptions I've read about the gunman on the grassy knoll.

Later

[Edgy MD]

This may not get anywhere.

[kcmets]

Edgy MD wrote: This may not get anywhere.

Gosh, I hope not.



J-lo, she's the gal-celeb with the grand caboose but not a Kardashian right? I

get confused sometimes. #lgm #ygb #ymdyf

[dgwphotography]

Lefty Specialist wrote: short answer: "it's a lie." longer answer: creative accounting, mostly. Counting loans against the stadium as deficit, while not counting name rights as revenue, that sort of thing. Only a direct 'tickets sold against payroll' type calculation. It's how you cry poor and beg players to take pay cuts. This. The Mets count the money they pay SNY against the team revenue. Even though it's going into the same pocket. It's also why they desperately want to hang on to SNY.

Actually, I think SNY pays the Mets for the rights to broadcast the games. IIRC, the rights fees SNY pays is far below market value, so the Mets can claim a loss. Why do they do this? MLB revenue is shared, and SNY revenue is not.

[Edgy MD]

Yeah, why would the Mets pay SNY?

[kcmets]

All the big market teams do this though, no? The Sawx own part of NESN with

either the Bruins or Celtics and of course we know what the Y stands for in YES.

[MFS62]

This story says that Wilpon hates Cohen and it looks like the A-Rod has the inside track on the sale of the team:

https://bleacherreport.com/articles/2905101-report-jeff-wilpon-hates-steve-cohen-wants-alex-rodriguez-group-to-buy-metshttps://bleacherreport.com/articles/2905101-report-jeff-wilpon-hates-steve-cohen-wants-alex-rodriguez-group-to-buy-mets



Later

[ashie62]

Alex Rodriguez has developed an excellent business mind over the years. Cohen is basically a d-bag who by a court ruling cannot put his name on any financial firms in the industry, just sayin...

[batmagadanleadoff]

This story says that Wilpon hates Cohen and it looks like the A-Rod has the inside track on the sale of the team: https://bleacherreport.com/articles/2905101-report-jeff-wilpon-hates-steve-cohen-wants-alex-rodriguez-group-to-buy-metshttps://bleacherreport.com/articles/2905101-report-jeff-wilpon-hates-steve-cohen-wants-alex-rodriguez-group-to-buy-mets Later

Cindy Adams, who's still alive, sez differently:



[FIMG=77]https://pagesix.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2013/08/cindy-adams.png?w=76&h=69&crop=1[/FIMG]

Bidding's down to billionaire Steve Cohen from Great Neck, LI (likely); the duo Josh Harris and David Blitzer, who own basketball's 76ers and hockey's Devils (less likely); and a group of investors fronted by A-Rod and J.Lo (not a chance). J.Lo should stick to her NBC reality show “World of Dance,” which just wrapped its fourth season.

https://pagesix.com/2020/08/17/mets-owners-to-keep-a-piece-of-the-team/https://pagesix.com/2020/08/17/mets-owners-to-keep-a-piece-of-the-team/



Only in New York, kids. Only in New York.

[Benjamin Grimm]

I've read that final bids are due on August 31. Have we heard a timetable for when a decision might be made?

[MFS62]

Benjamin Grimm wrote: I've read that final bids are due on August 31. Have we heard a timetable for when a decision might be made?

As soon as it is sure that the check will clear?

Probably as soon as the other owners vote their approval of the new owner(s). (If that hasn't already been done through the vetting process)

Later

[TransMonk]

Man, I feel like we dodged a big bullet on this one.



https://twitter.com/nypost/status/1382674054256193538https://twitter.com/nypost/status/1382674054256193538

[Ceetar]

I think Alex likes baseball a lot more than Steve though. Maybe 'friend' owners is a lot better than lover owners.