$20 Million Can Get You Lots

[metsmarathon]

but how could he be in two places at one time?

i mean, maybe he could send a helper, like santa for all the mall visits...

[Guest themetfairy]

When I wanted to book Mr. Met for MK's Bar Mitzvah on the afternoon of the 1969 40th Anniversary celebration, I was told there is only one Mr. Met.

[batmagadanleadoff]

ESPN Sportscenter vid at bottom pf page -- talking jock and analysts riff on the $20M term sheet. http://www.sportsgrid.com/mlb/sportscenter-clowns-mets/

The real treat comes at end of video -- a link to color film footage of '62 Mets, including highlights from game against Mil. Braves, (I determined that game was played on 6/20/62). Highlights include a Marv Throneberry HR and an opposite field single by Richie Ashburn that provides a good visual sense for just how shallow (279 feet away straight down the line) the Polo Grounds left field corner was. Rod Barajas would've broken Maris's HR record in that stadium. By the All-Star break.

[Ceetar]

Another one is Mr. Met on call Mets thought process: "What if two of our minority share owners wants Mr. Met at the same time?" Mets not realizing: "We can probably coordinate it so we have one Mr. Met here and another Mr. Met there without the unwashed masses being any the wiser. We do have a closetful of gigantic heads, don't we? "Don't we?"

Well Mr. Met is only on call within the stadium. You don't get him to come to your house. So there only needs to be one. I suspect there are more though, unless they got laid off.

Ownership privileges. Not the sort of privileges you get when you join a club. But the sort of privileges you get when you join a CLUB. I agree that too much is being made of this, as is often the case when it comes to zinging the Mets. But one has to acknowledge that the itemization seems drawn up as much to make the prospect appealing as to make clear to uppity wannabes what they're not getting. Formerly treated himself as an uppity wannabe, Fred Wilpon knows this game.

Presumably you're not really joining the CLUB, just the club. You're being invited to pledge the fraternity, not being inducted. You're invited to apply, you're not given the job.

There is also the Allen & Company "STRICTLY CONFIDENTIAL" please do not distribute statement on there that someone obviously broke. Not that the Mets should've assumed no one was going to leak it, but hey, it did take a couple of months.

[Edgy MD]

Yeah, I'd want to be in the CLUB.

[Benjamin Grimm]

For $20 million? You bet. That certainly deserves the full red carpet treatment.

(And that's just a little less than the Doubleday/Wilpon group paid for the entire franchise back in 1980!)

[batmagadanleadoff]

Did The Met Fairy buy into the Mets? She has access.

http://www.businessinsider.com/hang-out-with-mr-met-and-other-details-of-the-mets-term-sheet-2011-12

[Guest themetfairy]

batmagadanleadoff wrote: Did The Met Fairy buy into the Mets? She has access. http://www.businessinsider.com/hang-out-with-mr-met-and-other-details-of-the-mets-term-sheet-2011-12

Damn - I was trying to keep that a secret from the rest of you....

[ashie62]

Somehow I doubt the interest in these shares is high..

Lousy investment..pays no interest or dividends..Dead money..

A vanity purchase, thats all.

[Edgy MD]

Well, they come with a guaranteed return. That's something.

[Ceetar]

Edgy DC wrote: Well, they come with a guaranteed return. That's something.

plus interest. plus guaranteed not to depreciate.

there is reportedly interest though. Interesting that this would end up selling off MORE of the team than the Einhorn deal would've.

[ashie62]

Does pay 3% over six years. Is the principal guaranteed?? Low risk for sure..but..

[batmagadanleadoff]

What guarantee will the minority owners be given for their respective $20M investments against a bankruptcy?

[ashie62]

that

[Ceetar]

batmagadanleadoff wrote: What guarantee will the minority owners be given for their respective $20M investments against a bankruptcy?

I don't understand the legal mumbo jumbo, but I'm pretty sure that's protected.

[nymr83]

Ceetar wrote: batmagadanleadoff wrote: What guarantee will the minority owners be given for their respective $20M investments against a bankruptcy? I don't understand the legal mumbo jumbo, but I'm pretty sure that's protected.

I really wouldn't assume that.

[Ceetar]

Nymr83 wrote: Ceetar wrote: batmagadanleadoff wrote: What guarantee will the minority owners be given for their respective $20M investments against a bankruptcy? I don't understand the legal mumbo jumbo, but I'm pretty sure that's protected. I really wouldn't assume that.

it's an educated assumption, and one i'm fairly confident in. Especially given that the Mets will exist in 2018.

[Guest Rockin' Doc]

John Cougar Lunchbucket wrote: The whole thing is laughable. I can make up biz cards that say I own the Mets.

Why would you want to do that? Ownership cards would only serve to make you a laughingstock and associate you with the current clueless ownership.

[Vic Sage]

you bring an ox to my suite and call it crudit�. And ox blood to wash it down. That's my food and drink allowance, bitch.

Lee Harvey, your a madman. I want to party with you, Cowboy.

it's an educated assumption, and one i'm fairly confident in. Especially given that the Mets will exist in 2018.

that statement indicates a fairly UNeducated assumption, or set of assumptions. Yes, it is likely the Mets will exist in 2018, but not at all a foregone conclusion that they'll be owned by Wilpon & Co, or anybody else who invests in the team under their stewardship. They could all get wiped out in a bankruptcy proceeding. And their is no way the Wilpon group could guarantee an investor otherwise, unless this "investment" is merely a priority loan that would get paid back first, but i don't think the banks they are currently in hock to up to their fucking eyeballs would ever allow them to offer such terms to any third parties.

No, this is purely a vanity purchase, like a yacht with gold toilet seats. Wait. I take that back. A Yacht has actual value; gold toilet seats can be melted down, or at least shat through. These are just pimped out season ticket holders with a shot of getting their money back (plus 3%) in 6 years, but not necessarily a good shot. No educated investor looks at this and says "whoa, Nelly, where do i sign?" This is for stupid rich fanboys looking to blow some bucks to say they own the Mets, and maybe get Mr. Met for the their kid's bar mitzvah. I assure you, Einhorn-types look at this bullshit and laugh.

[metsmarathon]

now, vic.

if there's one thing this wilpon ownership group has taught us, it's that our beloved mets most certainly can be shat through.

[batmagadanleadoff]

Ceetar wrote: batmagadanleadoff wrote: What guarantee will the minority owners be given for their respective $20M investments against a bankruptcy? I don't understand the legal mumbo jumbo, but I'm pretty sure that's protected.

I asked a rhetorical question. The investors have no guarantee in a bankruptcy because there, the owners will owe a lot more money than they have to pay out. The Mets have two large creditors that are owed about $400M --each-- and we know that those banks didn't lend the Mets those huge sums of money without reserving for themselves the right to approve or veto any subsequent loan to the Mets. They have that clout because of the money they lent to the Mets. And they're not gonna approve any new loans that further compromise their own chances of being repaid. This wouldn't ordinarily matter so much except that if the numbers being cited by the NYT, Megdal, et.al. are reasonably accurate, then there is a very realistic chance that the Mets end up in bankruptcy if they don't first sell the team. The Mets appear to be at the mercy of their large creditors. And unless those creditors are willing to restructure when the principal payments become due (beginning about two seasons from now) Fred and Saul won't be able to retain the team. The big black hole, though, in all of these forensic studies of the Mets finances is how much money the owners have access to outside of their baseball operations. No one knows for sure, and this could change things drastically, though it's a good guess that they're tapped out all around because why else would they need to borrow from MLB, or take out a bridge loan, or just now decide to eliminate a whole minor league team?

All this, without even accounting for a single penny of damages from the Picard suit.

The Mets are trying to sell between 40% and 48% of the team just to keep the lights on for another 10 months. Financially, they appear to be in a death spiral.

[ashie62]

There is a pecking order of creditors in any banruptcy. It doubt the 20 million dollar chips rank very high.

Someone noted earlier, Vic perhaps, that the Einhorn types laugh at this kind of shit...

Uh huh...Kinda like when the prospectus came they might say "hey, look at this piece of shit." and toss it in the garbage.

Sterling Properties debt is junk rated.