The New Mets Finances Thread - v.2012 Offseason

[batmagadanleadoff]

Report: Citi Field Took $8 Million Revenue Hit This Year

As the New York Mets try to improve their fortunes on the field, they're reportedly losing more money off it. According to Newsday, the team's ballpark-related revenue fell more than $8 million from 2011 to just under $119 million this year. Additionally, it's down more than $61 million from 2009 when Citi Field opened. The paper also says revenue from Citi Field's premium seats fell nearly $6.5 million from 2011. Experts blame the drop in premium ticket revenue on lower prices and the Mets' poor showing in the second half of this season. The paper says Citi Field's revenue, including premium seats, concessions and parking has dropped off 43 percent since 2009. The Mets are raising overall ticket prices next season for the first time since the ballpark opened.

http://www.ny1.com/content/top_stories/174175/report--citi-field-took--8-million-revenue-hit-this-year

[Ceetar]

Moody's upgraded the outlook on the Citi Field debt recently as well.

[batmagadanleadoff]

Sandy Alderson promises more 2013 improvements, somehow
By Howard Megdal

3:09 pm Dec. 18, 2012

With two months until pitchers and catchers report to spring training, David Wright re-signed, and R.A. Dickey traded, the New York Mets now turn their attention to the rest of the 2013 roster. General manager Sandy Alderson discussed his plan to add outfielders, along with a starting pitcher to replace Dickey in the rotation, bullpen help, additional starting pitching depth, and even another catcher. All of this makes sense, in terms of what a minimally competent major league team needs. But it's not clear how they'll do this with the money at their disposal. According to Ken Davidoff, the Mets have about $7 million to spend this winter. (Davidoff confirmed via Twitter that this came from a team official.) By itself, that is problematic, considering that the Mets had every one of the needs described above, with the exception of replacing Dickey, at the start of the offseason. $7 million for those tasks isn't much. It's a surprisingly small number, actually: Since the start of the offseason, they've retained Wright, and structured his contract extension so that he'll earn a salary $5 million less than he'd been scheduled to earn, with another $3 million of the 2013 salary deferred. That alone should give them more than $7 million for this winter. Also, when the Mets bought out Jason Bay earlier this offseason, Bay agreed to defer the lion's share of his $21 million still owed to him until 2014-15, receiving just $6 million in 2013. Add that together, and the Mets should have $23 million to spend on this offseason, even if they hadn't budgeted a dime toward other improvements beforehand. So where's that money going? It would be nice to think that the Mets are just putting this money aside for more fruitful, future uses, just as it would have been nice to believe that's what the team was doing when they cut salary from $143 million in 2011 to $91 million in 2012. But there's no indication that that's what's happening. The reality has been, and continues to be, that ownership is redirecting whatever funds it can from what would otherwise go toward player salaries for their financial survival. With revenues continuing to plummet at Citi Field, and enormous loans to service, the team has been cannibalized, with the results clear for anyone to see. Alderson can keep building the minor league system, as he has done, to his credit. But the situation on the field in Flushing is dire in the meantime, and through no fault of Alderson's. No one could be expected to fill an outfield, add a starting pitcher, find a backup catcher and, oh right, fix a bullpen that finished 29th in the league in E.R.A. last season with the resources the Mets owners have reportedly put at his disposal. There's no real way around spending, either. The Mets don't have much to give up on the trade market, and a new collective bargaining agreement, with caps and strict penalties, has resricted other shortcut options like international and over-slot signings. What Alderson is doing is building the Mets for 2015, while Fred Wilpon and his partners do what they can to stick around till then.

http://www.capitalnewyork.com/article/sports/2012/12/6910129/sandy-alderson-promises-more-2013-improvements-somehow

[Ceetar]

The reality has been, and continues to be, that ownership is redirecting whatever funds it can from what would otherwise go toward player salaries for their financial survival.

too easy sometimes. An example of this would be the money they redirected TO the Mets buy buying minority shares?

And good job and not tracking the followup conversation where Davidoff mentioned that they weren't really 'deferring' the money. They're counting it as spent against this year's budget, which is where the money is going. Presumably it's being invested, like they always did with Madoff though hopefully this time someplace that it won't get seized, so what it really means is they're making a deposit into an investment account, credit to that account, debit to Mets 2013 finances as per Accounting 101.

I'm good with questioning the financial situation and outlook, but this all roads lead to my narrative stuff is tiresome.

[ashie62]

I hope the Wilpons fall off the fiscal cliff.

[metirish]

Weather you believe Megdal or not to me it looks a dire situation.

[Edgy MD]

"Cannibalized."

[Ceetar]

metirish wrote: Weather you believe Megdal or not to me it looks a dire situation.

does it? do people in dire straits make investments?

I mean, isn't that like buying stocks when you're not sure you have the cash to pay your mortgage next month?

I mean, Davidoff's tweets seemed to imply they invested it anyway. I guess it's possible they just deferred the money because they simply couldn't even make payroll without doing so, and aren't tucking that money away but paying debts with it and worrying about it later. But that seems far fetched to me, especially with a bankruptcy firm or whatever those guys were called in house helping them out.

[metirish]

Ceetar wrote: metirish wrote: Weather you believe Megdal or not to me it looks a dire situation. does it? do people in dire straits make investments?

I'm sure it happens a lot.

[metirish]

Ceetar wrote: metirish wrote: Weather you believe Megdal or not to me it looks a dire situation. But that seems far fetched to me, especially with a bankruptcy firm or whatever those guys were called in house helping them out.

That something seems far fetched to you seems far fetched to me.

[Guest Swan Swan H]

metirish wrote: metirish wrote: Weather you believe Megdal or not to me it looks a dire situation. does it? do people in dire straits make investments? I'm sure it happens a lot.

I hear Mark Knopfler has quite a bit of money in Mutual Funds.

[Guest LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr]

See the little f*ggot with the mooch and the CD
Yeah buddy he's real gimlet-eyed
That little f*ggot got gold but he don't get greedy
That little f*ggot he's divers-i-mi-fied

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

He gets mutual funds for nothing and chicks for free.

[ashie62]

metirish wrote: metirish wrote: Weather you believe Megdal or not to me it looks a dire situation. does it? do people in dire straits make investments? I'm sure it happens a lot.

In Vegas and AC it happens every second!

[ashie62]

John Cougar Lunchbucket wrote: He gets mutual funds for nothing and chicks for free.

I want my free a-gents

[Guest Swan Swan H]

Good news, or bad news, depending on your perspective.

Wilpons solidfying footing as Mets owners.

[metirish]

Swan Swan H wrote: Good news, or bad news, depending on your perspective. Wilpons solidfying footing as Mets owners.

Great news to start the New Year.......not going anywhere baby.....

[Benjamin Grimm]

Yeah, as tired as I am of the Wilpons, they're going to hang in there as tenaciously as they can. Better that they have money to spend on the Mets. The alternative is to watch them stubbornly hang on to a dying franchise.

[Edgy MD]

Megdal still writes that they're going to hell. In worse shape than they were before the trial, he says.

I think they'll be owners until they ain't. And the game in which that plays out isn't nearly as fun.

[Gwreck]

Swan Swan H wrote: Good news

If your name is Wilpon or Katz?

or bad news, depending on your perspective.

Every living person who wants the Mets to return to a championship-caliber ballclub?

[Ceetar]

Gwreck wrote: Swan Swan H wrote: Good news If your name is Wilpon or Katz? or bad news, depending on your perspective. Every living person who wants the Mets to return to a championship-caliber ballclub?

not mutually exclusive. And as has always been the case, the Wilpons getting it together is probably the quickest path to a financial stable Mets organization.

[Gwreck]

Ceetar wrote: not mutually exclusive. And as has always been the case, the Wilpons getting it together is probably the quickest path to a financial stable Mets organization.

There's not a shred of evidence to support that idea, unless by "financially stable" you mean "unable to spend money on free agents." I guess the Mets are stable in their austerity. Nevermind that "the Wilpons getting it together," whatever that actually means, would presumably be basically the same thing as a "financially stable Mets organization."

The Mets already gave up on 2013. Would they have done that if the Wilpons had sold at this point a year ago?

[Ceetar]

Gwreck wrote: not mutually exclusive. And as has always been the case, the Wilpons getting it together is probably the quickest path to a financial stable Mets organization. There's not a shred of evidence to support that idea, unless by "financially stable" you mean "unable to spend money on free agents." I guess the Mets are stable in their austerity. Nevermind that "the Wilpons getting it together," whatever that actually means, would presumably be basically the same thing as a "financially stable Mets organization." The Mets already gave up on 2013. Would they have done that if the Wilpons had sold at this point a year ago?

The Mets had ZERO CHANCE of being sold this point a year ago. They have probably as little chance of being sold a year from now. There are two choices: The Wilpons getting themselves together and the Mets getting into the black instead of the red (which is different than the Wilpons being fine. Any 2013 punting and payroll manipulations are geared at that, regardless of Sterling) or the Wilpons leeching every last cent out of the Mets trying to stay solvent until there are no other options left but to sell them off. Megdal thinks this is still inevitable, that the Wilpons will not be able to afford to pay the bills on the Mets and be forced to sell them as a result, but from now until that sale is final, the Wilpons then leech every cent and the Mets continue to suck. And then things don't get better, they just get ..Different. Could be just as bad. That could be years and years. But if the Mets do well this year, if the prospects look like talent, and the Wilpons stop bleeding money, them being able to invest in the Mets (And the Mets making money in their own right) and the Mets being good in 2014 becomes..likely. I don't see how the Wilpons losing their grip on the team and being forced to sell happens anywhere approaching quick.

[Edgy MD]

I want the Mets to win a championship and I don't necessarily link that to the Wilpon family losing control.

And I'm a living person and everything.

[metsmarathon]

in the short term, a more stable wilpon family is more conducive to winning than a less stable wilpon family, unless by less stable you mean so crushingly unstable that the cannot support tehir own weight, collapse into a superdense mass of fissile material and explode violently outwards, annihilating all within a 30 km radius, littering the landscape with scattered debris and fallout.

in the case of the latter, well, yeah, i suppose that could bring about a turnaround too.

[Vic Sage]

put me down as a vote for one of those "collapsing into a superdense mass" explosions.
But how far is 30km? Assuming i'm in Westchester and they're either in Queens or Manhattan, is that far enough away?

[batmagadanleadoff]

I think that the Wilpons' ascendancy from minority owners to something more is probably the worst event in franchise history. Worse even than the Seaver midnight massacre trade.

[Gwreck]

batmagadanleadoff wrote: I think that the Wilpons' ascendancy from minority owners to something more is probably the worst event in franchise history. Worse even than the Seaver midnight massacre trade.

This is an intriguing theory. I think you might be right, barring some sort of big turnaround in the next 3 years.

[ashie62]

Everything has a price...The additional financing ensures the Wilpons don't necessarily have to sell at todays low...The Mets are an ocean liner turning around, it takes a long time....But, when it does the value and quality of the brand could spike up quickly.

[Guest The Second Spitter]

batmagadanleadoff wrote: I think that the Wilpons' ascendancy from minority owners to something more is probably the worst event in franchise history. Worse even than the Seaver midnight massacre trade.

I also wholeheartedly agree with this. The fact the Wilpon's used the club as a vehicle for their passive investments speaks volumes as to where their priorities reside.

Btw, it's great to see Cerrone plagiarizing quotes from Right Said Fred, himself:

But, I was growing equally tired of the Boom and Bust cycles of the last 25 years, none of which produced a ring, and none of which produced a consistent stretch of success.