Met Financial Picture in Fifteen

[Edgy MD]

As noted in the shortstop thread, MLB loan to the Mets was closed out with the cash brought in from selling off minority shares.

[ashie62]

Bill Maher, for one, can be thanked.

[Guest d'Kong76]

And what is he to be thanked for?

[Edgy MD]

Buying a minority chunk of the Mets of course.

And taking Jeff W. shirt shopping.

[ashie62]

Maher looks like Jason Bay.

[Guest d'Kong76]

Edgy MD wrote: Buying a minority chunk of the Mets of course. And taking Jeff W. shirt shopping.

Yuck. And Yuckier.

[dgwphotography]

Ashie62 wrote: Bill Maher, for one, can be thanked.

Thanked?!? Really?!? Fuck him and anyone who helps the Wilpons keep this team.

[Edgy MD]

I'm feeling the love.

[Guest d'Kong76]

Gotta kinda wonder who (and why) someone would plunk down
millions of dollars to mutely spoon in Jeffie's bed.

[Ceetar]

if I was rich and the opportunity to own a piece of a baseball team came up? I'm jumping at that.

[Guest d'Kong76]

There's more to it for me, can't sugar coat it.

[Edgy MD]

I'd be jumping in, too.

My prejudices for the Mets aside, ball teams are great investments. Even when the teams aren't making money, the appreciation is enormous.

And clearly, Bill Maher does nothing mutely.

One more reason is that being a minority partner is the first step on the road to being the managing partner. Worked out that way for Fred Wilpon, certainly.

[Guest d'Kong76]

Mutely spooning was a play on silent bed partner.
But you knew that.

[Edgy MD]

I didn't mean to suggest I didn't understand.

[Guest d'Kong76]

I didn't mean to suggest that you were suggesting!
That whole money raising scheme was sickening.

[ashie62]

Fred Wilpon was speaking during spring training last season and one of the things he said was, to paraphrase was, "the financial doings of the Mets are not going to make him any richer or poorer."

I take that to mean the business that is the Mets pales in someway to his other holdings and enterprises.

I understand what he means but every venture that turns south has a point where the owner yells "Uncle" and moves on.

I am going to believe he is farther away from that number than a few years ago.

Maybe he will surprise and pony up on payroll and show the brand is again increasing in value.

I hope.

[seawolf17]

In that picture, Bill Maher looks like mini-TMF/D-Dad's long-lost twin-yet-way-older brother.

[ashie62]

This Sterling Equities page from Bloomberg provides info on all of Freds doings.

You could pull out the price of a Sterling bond that is currently trading and get a realtime look at the financial picture.

Now I just need to find one.

http://www.sterlingequities.com/companies/equities_management/index.php

[ashie62]

Then there is current minority owner Stephen A Cohen formerly of SAC Advisors.

He has been banned from Wall Street for life but owns a 20 million dollar chunk of the Mets.

Edited January 16, 2015 by Guest

[Guest d'Kong76]

seawolf17 wrote: In that picture, Bill Maher looks like mini-TMF/D-Dad's long-lost twin-yet-way-older brother.

I too thought there was some DiamondKnightesque look there.

[Guest themetfairy]

I cannot get my brain around that one.

[batmagadanleadoff]

Mets report surging ticket sales but payroll stays low
By Howard Megdal 3:32 p.m. | Jan. 21, 2015

The Mets are claiming a massive surge in ticket sales this off-season, even as the team's payroll remains tight. Ticket sales are up 19.26 percent over last year, according to Mets executive vice president Lou DePaoli. The numbers represent what would be an astonishing outlier for a team that's failed to add any high-priced talent this offseason or post a winning record since 2008, the two primary drivers of attendance spikes for baseball teams. And the reported surge in ticket sales would also seem to fly in the face of a promise by the team's financially troubled owners to increase payroll when revenue rose. Why would the team invite such trouble with its fan base, after years of misleadingly sunny projections and unfulfilled spending pledges? It makes sense, perhaps, in the context of a lawsuit against the team by a former Mets executive who was in charge of ticket sales, who the team claims to have fired for business reasons. The former employee, Leigh Castergine, is suing Mets C.O.O. Jeff Wilpon and the team for alleged sexual discrimination stemming from her pregnancy during her time as executive vice president of ticket sales. A nearly 20 percent increase in ticket sales during the first offseason after Castergine undermines a claim in her lawsuit that the team's slashing of payroll and public lies about ability to spend created an impossible atmosphere in which to sell tickets. After all, those conditions haven't changed. Official attendance is counted by the team, based on tickets sold, rather than who steps through the gate. And ultimately, teams can provide giveaways to pad those numbers accordingly. So there's little to stop the Mets from claiming attendance is whatever they want, no matter how many empty seats there are at Citi Field, and why there's often audible laughter in the press box when the attendance number is announced. But DePaoli talked about "ticket sales", not "ticket giveaways." And 19.26 percent is a very big number. Team revenue has been trending steadily downward, thanks to annual filings the team must make in conjunction with the roughly $43 million they pay annually to service debt against Citi Field. According to those filings, the Mets saw overall revenue drop to $119.2 million in 2013. That's well off the $180.4 million from 2009, when Citi Field opened. The team actually saw attendance rise slightly in 2014, 0.62 percent, to 2,148,808. But the numbers are similar enough that revenue almost certainly remained at similar levels, though we'll know for sure later this year when the Mets make their 2014 filing. If we assume that overall revenue, which includes parking, concessions, advertising, luxury suites, is moving in line with this apparent attendance jump, as it typically does for MLB teams, that would mean $23 million or so in new revenue. And that would be a big positive, in terms of the owners' financial picture, which has been grim ever since their investments in Bernie Madoff's Ponzi scheme evaporated. But despite messaging going back several years from owner Fred Wilpon on down, that payroll would only rise beyond the bottom-fifth in baseball levels once fans came back, there's been no corresponding increase in payroll this winter. "This is, to me, a break-even business," Wilpon said back in February 2013. "I always strive to break even. I'm not looking to make any money. I strive to break even. So if [fans] don't show up, that's hard. So you have to balance it." The team payroll on Opening Day 2014 was just over $89 million. It's at around $96.7 million at the moment for 2015, by best estimates, and the Mets are actively looking to trade Dillon Gee and his $5.3 million salary to bring it down to right around $92 million, or a stone's throw from last season. Then again, perhaps the Mets are right to be cautious until they've banked all that new cash from the massive jump in attendance, since there's no recent analogue for such a rise in recent MLB history, even among teams that pumped a ton of new money into payroll or experienced unexpected success. The Seattle Mariners experienced the biggest jump in attendance in 2014, going from 1,761,546 in 2013 to 2,064,334, a rise of 302,788, or a jump of 17.1 percent, by far the biggest increase. This didn't happen in a vacuum, though. The Mariners went out and paid Robinson Cano, the best player on the free agent market, $240 million over ten years. This came a few months after extending their best pitcher, Felix Hernandez, at $175 million over seven years. Other talent, like Kendry Morales, Fernando Rodney and Austin Jackson, came in as well. And the team went out and improved from 71 wins in 2013 to 87 wins in 2014. A 19.26 percent jump in ticket sales means the Mets are projecting 2.56 million tickets sold in 2015. That would be a jump of 413,860 tickets sold, or 37 percent higher than the best-case scenario from 2014, a team that spent hundreds of millions to improve the team roster. An email sent by another Mets executive, which was given to Capital, cited a number of games as "of highest demand", including Opening Day, Jacob deGrom Garden Gnome Giveaway Day on May 2, the Steve Miller Band postgame day June 27, Juan Lagares Bobblehead Day on July 11, and the Heart postgame concert day on July 25. But thanks to the handy select-a-seat technology on Mets.com�an innovation, incidentally, of Castergine's�it is possible to see that tickets are still available for all these games, in massive bunches, in virtually every price range. Perhaps those tickets will be snapped up if the Mets have a particularly good season in 2015. But really, the winning is secondary, as it drives ticket sales. Payroll is most closely correlated to a jump in demand. According to the Mets, they've managed the feat without having to spend the money, or win yet, perhaps the kind of economic miracle that might explain why the new baseball commissioner just made Fred Wilpon chairman of MLB's Finance Committee. But those newly energized fans are probably going to be pretty upset when they figure out that even the absurd talking point from Wilpon to cover the real reason for a massive drop in spending on the team�the diversion of team and television revenue to finance Wilpon's parent company debt�didn't come to pass even when the team asserts that fans held up their end of the bargain. Or as Fred Wilpon put it back in February 2013, "The payroll will be commensurate with anything we've ever done because we can do it. Remember, the people have to come to the ballpark obviously. If you have a competitive team, they will. Everything that was in the past, that you guys saw the pain that we went through, is gone. It's gone." Clearly, even if you buy the team's new math, it's not.

http://www.capitalnewyork.com/article/media/2015/01/8560577/mets-report-surging-ticket-sales-payroll-stays-low

[Ceetar]

man, they made a couple hundred thousand dollars more to this point than last year, That's enough to have paid Hanley Ramirez right?

Oooh, and skimmed that article and it's nice to see it's not even factually accurate. It seems to imply that Leigh invented select-a-seat, which is just false.

[G-Fafif]

From RotoWorld's survey of bullpens.

The Mets have a bit of a kerfuffle to sort through. Parnell should be ready sometime around the beginning of the season after missing 2014 for Tommy John surgery. Until he returns, the ninth inning belongs to Mejia. The former prospect pitched well enough as the Mets closer. Parnell is a free agent after 2015, while Mejia remains under contract for another four seasons. If he's able, the Mets may want to use Parnell as the closer to keep Mejia's arbitration price under control. Closers earn a lot more coin via arbitration.

It hadn't occurred to me to view the closer situation through such a prism. Groping around the bargain bin for a second lefty, sure, but specifically giving opportunities to the pitcher who's less likely to hit you in arbitration? Maybe it's just author Brad Johnson's take. Or maybe this is how the Mets are thinking as they perhaps juggle their two semi-proven closers, each of them having put together about two-thirds of a solid season in the role, respectively. Would like to think Terry or whoever replaces him by June (theoretically) will use the pitcher who closes games best, not whoever will be most efficient to pay in 2016.

With the Mets, I've reached the point of believing decisions can be made this way.

[Edgy MD]

In my world, closing opportunities will be given to both those guys and and Familia too, and top relievers will be used in tie games and two-inning (or more) stints.

And this may help arbitration, as per Brad Johnson.

But no, I don't believe they will use less than their best for cost control's sake, but Terry does seem to be leaning Parnellward.

[Benjamin Grimm]

I think that may be because of the old saw about how you're not supposed to lose your job if you had an injury. (Remember how John Franco whined about that when he lost his closer role to Benitez?) But even if Parnell goes into Opening Day as the "closer" he won't keep the job long if he doesn't perform, so I don't really care who Terry is talking about in January.

[Edgy MD]

Well, espesh since he's not expected to be ready for opening day.

In truth, it's not like Mejia pitched so well as to put the question to rest. If he's out-pitched by Parnell or Familyguy, he's out-pitched.

[Guest cooby]

Ashie62 wrote: Then there is current minority owner Stephen A Cohen formerly of SAC Advisors. He has been banned from Wall Street for life but owns a 20 million dollar chunk of the Mets.

Somebody else needs to go shirt shopping...for a bigger neck size

[Guest d'Kong76]

He's got more chins than a Chinese phone book!
*the crowd moans*

Not sure I'd take on a partner that is banned from Wall
St (if he is indeed banned) but hell, it ain't my team.

[Edgy MD]

I may be misremembering, but I think the hammer didn't really come down on him until after he bought in � not that he wasn't under a cloud.

The larger issue is that hedge fund managers � or big-name big-shots who can borrow money from them � are starting to look like the only domestic richies who can buy a team, or at least a big chunk of one.

What (if anything) this says about our culture, our economy, or baseball, I dunno.