Big News! (update: Mets Minority Stake For Sale)

[Benjamin Grimm]

The trustee would sell the reorganized assets to the highest bidder (Selig has zero say who) at what would likely be a discount to valuations seen now.

The "Selig has zero say" thing could be interesting, if it's true. Baseball hasn't worked that way in a very long time. What if a casino company, like Harrah's, was the highest bidder?

[ashie62]

Benjamin Grimm wrote: The trustee would sell the reorganized assets to the highest bidder (Selig has zero say who) at what would likely be a discount to valuations seen now. The "Selig has zero say" thing could be interesting, if it's true. Baseball hasn't worked that way in a very long time. What if a casino company, like Harrah's, was the highest bidder?

The trustee has a fiduciary responsibility to get the best price for the creditors, just like Picard does for Madoff victims. If a Casino Co. or some entity Selig doesn't like is the highest bidder we would need a BK attorney to answer what Bids could be denied.

800 Million dollar Company with over 500 million in debt. Yikes.

Keep in mind, Queens Ballpark Co. which issued bonds for the building of Citified has the debt rated at a junk level of Ba1. The debt service on those bonds pushes about 9 1/2 percent annually.

If they are downgraded further default at some point becomes "likely."

[Guest metsguyinmichigan]

Klapisch this morning piles on the Wilpons like only Bob Klapisch can.

[Edgy MD]

Must not read.

[Guest LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr]

Post says the Mets have handed over information on 12 serious prospective buyers-- minority, that is-- to MLB for vetting (including the Scaramucci/Bobby V group). Because, y'know, you don't want someone who doesn't have the money to pony up buying a part of a major league club or nothin'.

The heavy hitters include groups comprised of New York financiers, an informed source said yesterday.

One group includes David Heller, the co-head of Goldman Sachs' securities unit, as well as other former and current Goldman partners. Sources said that group has met at least twice with Steve Greenberg, the managing director of Allen & Co., who has been hired by the Mets to find a buyer. Another group includes Steve Starker, co-founder of the global-trading firm BTIG, Ken Dichter, the co-founder of Marquis Jet, and other New York investment professionals, sources said. A third group, which includes ex-Met skipper Bobby Valentine, is being led by Anthony Scaramucci, the general manager of asset manager SkyBridge Capital, sources said.

And just because it's the Post, they've got to toss in a bit of unconfirmed-but-buzzy something-something.

In addition to the candidates whose bona fides are currently being checked by MLB, the current majority owner of the Tampa Bay Rays is strongly considering taking a crack at buying the Mets -- but not just a small piece, sources said. Rays owner Stuart Sternberg -- a Brooklyn native, St. John's grad, and current Mets season-ticket holder --last night told The Post, "The Wilpons have been great owners, and I have no interest in buying the Mets." But sources said that if the Wilpon family is forced to sell its majority stake -- against its current wishes -- Sternberg would be interested, and is a logical choice to buy the team given his strong existing ties to both baseball and Wall Street. Sternberg's candidacy would be helped by having baseball Commissioner Bud Selig as a strong ally. But he would have to sell the Rays as a prerequisite to purchasing the Mets.

[Benjamin Grimm]

I would think that if the minority stake up for sale becomes a majority stake, the field of interested buyers will multiply.

[Edgy MD]

Well, twelve is a pretty impressive field from my seat.

[Willets Point]

Kind of wondering how this would be covered if it were the Yankees caught up in this situation. Probably would be stuff about how the Yankees are like the "common people of America" bilked by the big banks and that crook Madoff and how we need to rally around the team. Perhaps they would even say the Yankees are "too big to fail."

[Guest LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr]

To be fair, WP, the treatment the Mets/Wilpon have gotten from MLB has a gigantic, implicit "too big to fail" all over it.

[Willets Point]

LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr wrote: To be fair, WP, the treatment the Mets/Wilpon have gotten from MLB has a gigantic, implicit "too big to fail" all over it.

True, but the media coverage has been largely negative of MLB trying to aid one of its franchises.

[Guest LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr]

Well, yeah... 'cause it's not really the sort of thing a non-interventionist, administrative league office SHOULD be doing. The HuffPo article batmags posted yesterday might be a little throw-it-up-and-see-what-sticks in terms of its composition, but the main thrust is dead on.

[Benjamin Grimm]

Is the negativity focused on MLB for lending the money? Or on the Mets for needing the loan? My impression is that it's tilted towards the latter.

[metirish]

There was plenty written about the Rangers getting a sub from MLB last year , if this were the MFY's it would be a bigger story probably and Mike Lupica would have a column every day about it , and all of them would start like this

" This was back when the Boss roamed the hallways at the old Yankee Stadium at E 161st Street & River Avenue ........."

[G-Fafif]

metirish wrote: There was plenty written about the Rangers getting a sub from MLB last year , if this were the MFY's it would be a bigger story probably and Mike Lupica would have a column every day about it , and all of them would start like this " This was back when the Boss roamed the hallways at the old Yankee Stadium at E 161st Street & River Avenue ........."

And there was an accountant named Murray. Can't remember his last name, but Murray always looked worried. The hubris in the House of Steinbrenner was unmistakable, but Murray didn't share it. "I dunno," he said one day to nobody in particular. "I just dunno." Now, thanks to some sharp-eyed functionaries at the Fifth Avenue offices of Major League Baseball, we do know what Murray meant. And so do Hank and Hal, the sons who were left a set of books that didn't quite tell the whole story of what their father sold for so long as Power and Pride in Pinstripes.

[batmagadanleadoff]

The Mets are tapped out. Even their lender of last resort, MLB, has cut off their credit. Multiple sources report that the team won't be able to finance basic operating expenses unless they are approved for yet another loan in the $25 - $50M range -- this, the sports franchise equivalent of, say, one of us needing to borrow $500.00 from our neighbor to maintain basic phone, gas and electric services.

Yesterday, the NYT reported that more panic has gripped the front office because the early returns on 2011 ticket sales are dreadful. Today's WSJ reports that the Mets financial losses for this season are "expected to climb significantly".

So my questions are ... can all of this be reconciled with Alderson's repeated comments that his operating budget won't be affected? How can this be true when the Mets can barely keep the lights on, it seems? Or are Alderson's comments wordplay ... that his operating budget won't be affected because it's already been reduced, and that it's the reduced budget that is still intact? How many of the dozens of millions of dollars that come off the payroll for 2012 will be reinvested into new player salaries, given the heavy debt service that will burden the Mets next year, just like this year? "Cause it seems to me, that the team has to pay the electric bill before they can think about re-signing Jose Reyes and any other big name, and if they're struggling to borrow money to pay for the basic necessities, than they won't be re-signing Reyes even if they'd like to.

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

I didn't put much stock initially in the idea that Bud directed the Mets to hire Alderson, but knowing now that MLB would have understood the seriousness of their financial troubles, it's kinda easy to see Alderson as the equivalent of a "turnaround specialist" brought in to lead a company when its lost its way financially. Coming to realize then that the Mets got this guy not because they got religion about baseball metrics but because he's got a rep for making it work under difficult financial circumstances is a real blow to my fandom.

[ashie62]

I am looking forward to free Mets tickets on Stubhub.

[Edgy MD]

I didn't put much stock initially in the idea that Bud directed the Mets to hire Alderson, but knowing now that MLB would have understood the seriousness of their financial troubles, it's kinda easy to see Alderson as the equivalent of a "turnaround specialist" brought in to lead a company when its lost its way financially. Coming to realize then that the Mets got this guy not because they got religion about baseball metrics but because he's got a rep for making it work under difficult financial circumstances is a real blow to my fandom.

I don't know. Six of one, half dozen the other way. His professional responsibility and the crisis that necessitated it will likely (it now seems) cost the team Reyes, but in general, saving the Mets' financial ship and getting the organization to perform better should certainly dovetail.*

I mean, nobody gets religion like those who've hit bottom.

*Just, maybe not particularly soon.

[TransMonk]

Edgy DC wrote: I mean, nobody gets religion like those who've hit bottom.

Word.

[Theoldmole]

Group With Link to Rays Is Said to Show Interest in Mets

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[Valadius]

I think ticket sales would pick up once the team is no longer in the hands of bumbling ownership.

[Edgy MD]

That may be wishful thinking.

[Valadius]

Fans like a "Plan" and stability. They don't like flying-by-the-seat-of-their-pants ownership that can't pay their bills.

[Willets Point]

Show us the PLAN!

[metsmarathon]

i'm surprised they never put that old hotdog wrapper up for bid with the rest of the shea memorabilia.

[Benjamin Grimm]

Fans don't buy tickets to see plans, they buy tickets to see winning baseball.

If the team is good, they'll sell plenty of tickets. If it's not, they won't.

[Edgy MD]

Valadius wrote: Fans like a "Plan" and stability. They don't like flying-by-the-seat-of-their-pants ownership that can't pay their bills.

Come on.

[metsmarathon]

i think htey like plans and stability as they would seem to be prerequisites for a presumptively successful season.

and presumptions of successful seasons is typically what drives season ticket purchases and advance ticket sales.

if they mets start playing real baseball and start playing well, nobody will care. but nobody will have already bought those tickets if the promise isn't there.

[Theoldmole]

Of course, the Mets have had successful seasons under the Wilpons.

[Edgy MD]

And I've never heard their ownership described as "flying-by-the-seat-of-their-pants."

A change may happen. And if it does, it's becaus eof Bernard Madoff's criminal behavior. It can be cartainly argued that they only won the team thaks to Bernard Madoff's criminal behavior, but I still can't bring myself to root for them to go down like this, or to believe the next owner, by definition, brings deliverence.