Another Potential Buyer

[G-Fafif]

Might the Mets be stablemates to the Devils and Sixers?



https://variety.com/2020/sports/sports-stars/josh-harris-mets-bid-1234627896/https://variety.com/2020/sports/sports-stars/josh-harris-mets-bid-1234627896/

The owners of the Philadelphia 76ers and New Jersey Devils are looking to expand their sports empire to baseball. Josh Harris, the billionaire co-founder of Apollo Global Management, and David Blitzer, an executive at private equity firm Blackstone, are among the suitors for the New York Mets, according to people familiar with the matter. The Mets have retained Steve Greenberg at Allen & Co. to oversee the sale process.

[MFS62]

Promising. At least the prospective buyers have experience as owners sports team owners.

Later

[Ceetar]

fyi, Blackstone owns 13% of the YES Network.

[nymr83]

=Ceetar post_id=38374 time=1591646806 user_id=102]
fyi, Blackstone owns 13% of the YES Network.

[Johnny Lunchbucket]

I know Apollo thru my work, they love buying and selling food retail chains (generate lots of cash, and hard to kill). Like all PE firms they do a fair amount of levering up to pay themselves, but have been more successful on the management side than most of their peers.

[Frayed Knot]

Also real fast.



[FIMG=450]https://www.kiro7.com/resizer/6F4iZHwbi28-kqX2_Fz87-RaRIQ=/1200x675/arc-anglerfish-arc2-prod-cmg.s3.amazonaws.com/public/4BAZQDBZCYNO4UJYNDNQSDMJUY.png[/FIMG]

[G-Fafif]

Jeff makes like Republica and swears, “Baby, we're ready to go.”



https://nypost.com/2020/06/11/jeff-wilpon-four-or-five-suitors-interested-in-buying-mets/https://nypost.com/2020/06/11/jeff-wilpon-four-or-five-suitors-interested-in-buying-mets/

“The team will have some kind of transaction, I can't tell you exactly what it's going to be and how it's going to look,” Wilpon told the UJA-Federation of New York, a Jewish philanthropic organization, according to Bleacher Report. “But we're working toward a transaction and there's four or five suitors that are out there to do something with and [there's] a bunch of philanthropic planning and family planning that my dad and my uncle want to do, and that's totally fine.”

[Edgy MD]

So, birth control will be involved? That's an interesting new wrinkle.

[MFS62]

Edgy MD wrote: So, birth control will be involved? That's an interesting new wrinkle.

One generation too late.

Later

[Frayed Knot]

"and there's four or five suitors that are out there to do something with ... ”

OK, Jeff didn't write that but he is quoted as saying it (see above NY Post link).

But today's NYP suggests that "four or five" might be a bit of an exaggeration ... by like two or three



https://nypost.com/2020/06/12/jeff-wilpons-talk-of-four-or-five-mets-suitors-drawing-skepticism/https://nypost.com/2020/06/12/jeff-wilpons-talk-of-four-or-five-mets-suitors-drawing-skepticism/



Jeff Wilpon's statement on Thursday: “There's four or five suitors that are out there” to buy the franchise, is raising eyebrows in sports business circles.

According to multiple sources familiar with the market for the Amazin's, if there are three or more bidders for the team, New York has a real mystery on its hands.

“Four or five?” one person asked rhetorically. “I'd maybe believe three, and I couldn't tell you the third.”



So after including the recent Harris/Blitzer interest and the ongoing J-Rod one, anything beyond that is either a well-kept secret (not too common in this type of transaction

I'd guess) or perhaps Jeffie is just trying to stir up gossip.

“If there's another bidder, I haven't heard of them,” one banker familiar with the situation told The Post. “Maybe Wayne Rothbaum is still out there with a lowball offer, or

maybe Jeff is including Steve Cohen?”

A "Wall Street source following the sale" added: “I'm sure a bunch of people have voiced at least preliminary interest ... And maybe four or five of those people signed

something to get more info on the team, but that doesn't make them a serious suitor.”

[kcmets]

A Jeff 'meeting with photoshopped suitors' thread sounds like it could be fun.

[MFS62]

He's including all the Mets fans who he has heard at one time or another grumble, "I'd love to buy the team".

Hey, Jeffie. I'd love to date Scarlett Johansson.

But it ain't happenin'.

Later

[Ceetar]

A "Wall Street source following the sale" added: “I'm sure a bunch of people have voiced at least preliminary interest ... And maybe four or five of those people signed something to get more info on the team, but that doesn't make them a serious suitor.”

well, sure, but that still makes them potential suitors no?



It was a throwaway comment at an unrelated function in response to, literally, "Are the Mets for sale?" I think preliminary interest counts as far as judging the truthiness of this quote, which we're doing for some reason.

[Frayed Knot]

https://nypost.com/2020/06/16/mets-trying-to-push-back-250-million-loan-amid-potential-sale/Wilpon's Trying to Buy Time



So apparently payment on a big loan is due by the end of July which has the Wilpons are seeking ways to extend that date, maybe by as much as a year.



Essentially what this says, claims "a banker familiar with baseball", is that the owners "aren't expecting a sale anytime soon". Current frontrunners, the

duo of Harris and Blitzer (and Comet and Rudolph) are described as "bottom feeders" so aren't in a hurry to bid against themselves and would be quite

happy to see the sale go to the auction stage, something NYM ownership would like to avoid. So the 'Pons are seeking to get time (aka: future revenues)

on their side as this is most definitely not the optimal climate in which to sell.

But are these bankers they're going to need to deal with for refinancing, some of whom are the same ones currently working with the likes of J-Rod to

arrange financing for their bids, going to be all that eager to extend time and credit which would at least partially be working against their own clients?







Somewhere Steve Cohan has got to be laughing at all this.

[kcmets]

=NY POST]Pushing out the end date on the loan would buy the Mets more time to stay afloat by metaphorically letting some air out of the debt pressure cooker that has become the franchise's financial situation thanks to baseball's coronavirus shutdown

[Ceetar]

the last sentence is funnier-ass? like a bank isn't salivating at the process of financing both sides of that? They'd love to get interest from the Wilpons AND interest from A-Rod knowing that the money they lend A-Rod would then be sent to Wilpon who would repay their loan (so they're not worried about not being able to pay it)

[ashie62]

Kinda like Tinkers to Evers to Chance

[MFS62]

As reported in Marketwatch, CitiField holdings have been downgraded by Moody's to just above "junk" status:

Queens Ballpark Co. LLC, which owns Citi Field where Major League Baseball's New York Mets play, had its credit rating downgraded to Baa3 at Moody's Investors Service--just one notch above "junk" status--from Baa2, citing a "weakened liquidity position" as the COVID-19 pandemic could lead to the "shortest season in MLB history." The outlook was revised to negative from stable, meaning the next rating move is likely to put the credit rating into "junk" territory.

https://www.marketwatch.com/story/mets-stadium-owner-credit-downgraded-at-moodys-yankees-stadium-outlook-now-negative-2020-06-16?siteid=yhoof2&yptr=yahoohttps://www.marketwatch.com/story/mets-stadium-owner-credit-downgraded-at-moodys-yankees-stadium-outlook-now-negative-2020-06-16?siteid=yhoof2&yptr=yahoo



The Wilpons will be feeling the squeeze more and more.

Later

[nymr83]

What does that mean though? likely just that they managed rich guy financial shenanigans such that the particular asset involved is "distressed" and all of the Mets and Wilpons other money is insulated from being attacked by the creditor here.

[Edgy MD]

It is pretty funny to see the team for sale because the owners overleveraged themselves to make the purchase in the first place, and are still overleveraged 20 years later, and all the potential bidders are running around trying to leverage up.

[batmagadanleadoff]

Edgy MD wrote: It is pretty funny to see the team for sale because the owners overleveraged themselves to make the purchase in the first place, and are still overleveraged 20 years later, and all the potential bidders are running around trying to leverage up.

For me, the funniest thing about the Mets pending (I hope) sale is this dynamic where the skyrocketing value of the Mets franchise has become a double-edged sword for the Wilpons: the more money the Mets are worth, the harder it's gonna be for them to buy out the Katz family.

[Edgy MD]

I don't know. If the value of the team is really skyrocketing, then refinancing should be easy. They should be able to take out new loans against the new equity to pay off the old loans, like everybody did with their houses before 2008.



But that may have been a manageable strategy until the next windfall right up until March 2020, but I can't imagine any teams have grown too much in value since then, and I expect that's why the Wilponian position has changed.

[batmagadanleadoff]

But it's not just the debt. So long as the Katzes want to sell, the Wilpons are also gonna hafta come up with the money to buy out their partners -- which becomes more expensive -- and more expensive in exact proportion to the increase in value of the team.

[Ceetar]

the funny part is that the Wilpons always have the worst time. Madoff bubble bursts at the start of the recession (and added Citi Field debt) they try to sell the team just as we've got a pandemic potentially hurting franchise value and a potential work stoppage in 2022 (I don't know how that affects franchise value or even actual value/price, but it's gotta be a consideration)



Though granted most, probably all, of the 2020 losses are on the Wilpons and irrelevant to a new buyer, even if they purchased today. And the franchise value might continue to skyrocket regardless, not really being tied to play on the field so much anyway. And it's 2020, so the rich are still getting richer and the poor are getting poorer, so perhaps rich baubles/assets are unaffected.

[batmagadanleadoff]

Yeah. Poor Jeff Wilpon. A loathsome scumbag mediocrity with zero personality who's been owning the Mets and living the life of a billionaire for his whole fucking life despite accomplishing absolutely nothing meaningful.



I feel so sorry for him. And Ivanka Trump. And Betsy DeVos.

[batmagadanleadoff]

=batmagadanleadoff post_id=39057 time=1592661794 user_id=68]
Yeah. Poor Jeff Wilpon. A loathsome scumbag mediocrity with zero personality who's been owning the Mets and living the life of a billionaire for his whole fucking life despite accomplishing absolutely nothing meaningful.



I feel so sorry for him. And Ivanka Trump. And Betsy DeVos.

Edited June 20, 2020 by Guest

[MFS62]

=batmagadanleadoff post_id=39057 time=1592661794 user_id=68]
I feel so sorry for him. And Ivanka Trump. And Betsy DeVos.

[Ceetar]

you realize my post was laughing at his misfortune right?

[G-Fafif]

[Edgy MD]

Interesting source there, as Rovell not only covers the business side of sports, but has specifically covered the sports drink industry. It's like his little sub-niche.



Whether that makes this a bigger or smaller revelation, I can only speculate, but it's interesting.