Gwreck

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/13/sports/baseball/wilpons-partner-has-expressed-interest-in-selling-his-share-of-mets.html Wilpon�s Partner Has Expressed Interest in Selling His Share of Mets By MICHAEL S. SCHMIDT MAY 12, 2014 Saul B. Katz, who owns a majority share of the Mets in a partnership with his brother-in-law and business partner, Fred Wilpon, has expressed a desire to sell his portion of the team because he has grown tired of spending millions to prop it up, according to several people in baseball briefed on the matter. But Katz has been hesitant to sell because it could result in Wilpon�s no longer maintaining majority control, according to the people familiar with Katz�s situation. This has created a situation in which Katz has been locked into subsidizing part of the team�s losses in an effort to protect Wilpon, who considers the team a family heirloom and wants his son Jeff to control it for years to come. The people in baseball who described the situation spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized by Katz to speak publicly about his finances and feared possible retribution from the baseball commissioner�s office, which discourages officials from discussing internal matters. The Mets declined to make Katz available for an interview. David Newman, a spokesman for the Mets, said Monday that there was �no truth� to the notion that Katz wants to sell his portion of the team. Katz, Newman said, is �definitely not selling.� Katz and Wilpon are business partners through Sterling Equities, their umbrella company, and they are believed to own roughly two-thirds of the Mets. If Katz were to sell his share of the team to someone other than Wilpon, it would create questions as to whether Wilpon, who currently serves as the team�s chairman of the board and chief executive, could maintain his role as the club�s ultimate decision maker. Katz has long overseen the Mets� finances, dating to the days when he used Bernard L. Madoff�s hedge fund, which was later exposed as a Ponzi scheme, to fund the team�s operating expenses. People who know Katz, 75, and Wilpon, 77, have said that Katz has less interest in baseball than Wilpon, who grew up playing the sport � he was Sandy Koufax�s high school teammate � and serves on Commissioner Bud Selig�s executive council. Katz, meanwhile, has long been involved with philanthropic efforts in the field of medicine � a wing of North Shore University Hospital in Manhasset, N.Y., is named after him � and he also directs Sterling�s real estate operations. But he has remained in the background when it comes to the day-to-day fortunes of the club, which has not had a winning season since 2008. It is unclear whether Katz has attempted to search for potential buyers. Several bankers involved with deals involving sports organizations said they had not been asked to help appraise Katz�s stake in the team, the first step toward brokering a sale. Finding a buyer willing to spend hundreds of millions of dollars for a share in the team but not have a major voice in running it is likely to be difficult. In 2011, the Mets tried to sell a $200 million stake in the team, but their deal with David Einhorn, the hedge fund titan, fell apart in part because he wanted a greater hand in the team�s decision-making than is normally given to minority stakeholders as well as a pathway to eventual majority control. As a result, the Mets were forced to sell many smaller stakes, including several to their cable television partners. Wilpon and Katz also sold three shares to themselves. There are no public profit-and-loss statements or other documents that definitively show the complete state of the club�s finances or how its ownership is structured. But reports linked to the bonds issued to finance Citi Field provide a partial snapshot of the team�s financial performance. Those documents show that revenue from the stadium�s 10,635 most expensive seats has fallen 58 percent, to $41.8 million from $99.3 million in 2009. In that period, concession sales have decreased 29 percent and parking revenue has dropped 20 percent. The team reportedly lost $70 million in 2011. Meanwhile, attendance at Citi Field has fallen by 32.5 percent since the stadium opened in 2009. Katz�s apparent desire to sell suggests that the Mets� losses have tested his patience. Their financial woes, which started around the time that Madoff�s fraud was exposed, in 2008, have had an impact on the team and its owners and limited how much has been spent in recent years on the club�s payroll. That, in turn, has frustrated many Mets fans, who reason that if more money were being spent on free agents the club, in turn, would be more competitive than it has been. Wilpon and his son Jeff have maintained that the team�s finances have improved more recently, but several people in baseball briefed on that issue said the situation remained troublesome. And the payroll essentially remains where it was in 2013, somewhere from $85 million to $90 million, leaving it in the lower third in the major leagues despite the fact that the Mets are a big-market team. With attendance figures that have declined markedly in recent seasons (there has been a slight uptick in 2014) and with significant debt payments still due on Citi Field, the Mets are likely to lose money again this season, the people said. That makes it unlikely that the payroll will jump substantially any time soon. The team�s poor performance financially has also agitated other major league owners, who are dismayed that a club playing in as large a market as the Mets do is unable to generate more revenue. It was in 1980 when Wilpon first bought a stake in the Mets, a simple 1 percent share. He and Katz became half owners of the team in 1986, with Nelson Doubleday, then bought out Doubleday�s share in 2002. Details about Katz�s close relationship with Madoff were revealed as part of a lawsuit filed against them in 2011 by the court-appointed trustee recouping money from Madoff�s victims. The trustee, Irving H. Picard, said that Katz routinely used money from Madoff�s fund to finance businesses and deepen his and Wilpon�s personal wealth. The owners won their legal battle with Picard when he ultimately abandoned hundreds of millions of dollars in claims against them. But Katz and Wilpon had to agree to let Picard use the $178 million they lost in some of their Madoff accounts to pay back the trustee for the $162 million in fictitious profits that they received in other accounts.

Maybe we can say it was a mistake and get Satin back instead of Campbell. Dude, you struck out with runners at second and third, less than two out. And they even spotted you a free ball!

Never seen that before.

#976, Eric Campbell.

I'd feel better about beating Papelbon's ass if we still had a backup catcher on the bench.

Zvon wrote: Murph will get it done. In what inning?

Josh, that is just terrible .

LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr wrote: Never change, Mr. Let Yourself Get Hit By Anything Close Inside. Generally, I approve of hitting Chase Utley with thrown baseballs.

Frayed Knot wrote: Marlon Byrd - #1 in the new class debuts in 175th place Missed this from before. If I am reading these right, I think that means Marlon will come in at #2 on the list of "highest rankings for players who played one and only one season with the Mets." I see Hampton at 131, and Capuano at 208, and I think Marlon fits in right between them.

How about doing NOTHING. 5 ball-related fatalities from 1900 to 2003? Sounds like there's essentially no problem at all. Certainly no need to start putting up screens or some other nonsense. Further, Every stadium has a policy that if you are in a seat that you have the risk of getting hit by a ball in, they will be happy to re-seat you. Plus plenty of disclaimers when you buy your ticket and everything else. This is not a problem.

...and then not so much, courtesy the double play.

I say it takes about 100 ABs before a Mets pitcher gets a hit. I'll also throw my bet in the pool that the first pitcher hit is a home run.

Niese strikes out Stanton. Nice start.

Guess there might be something to those splits! Murphy HR Granderson HR Curtis now has three times as many homers as David Wright.

Didn't we just play these scrubs? Whatever, just as long as we keep missing Jose Fernandez. Tonight: Niese v. Nathan Eovaldi

Whoops, didn't see the other one that KC started.

Screw the Rockies. Screw Tulowitzki who seems to burn us every year. Screw that stupid purple dinosaur. We're not getting freaking swept. Eric Young Jr., lf Daniel Murphy, 2b David Wright, 3b Curtis Granderson, rf Chris Young, cf Lucas Duda, 1b Travis d'Arnaud, c Omar Quintanilla, ss Dillon Gee, p Rockies Charlie Blackmon, rf Charlie Culberson, ss Carlos Gonzalez, lf Nolan Arenado, 3b Justin Morneau, 1b Michael McKenry, c Corey Dickerson, cf DJ LeMahieu, 2b Jhoulys Chacin, p

Ceetar wrote: It's Facebook likes grouped by arbitrary boundaries. It's also broken down by County, if you zoom out. These are actual geographic boundaries that exist. They weren't created arbitrarily. It's not a secret that the Yankees have been better in the Facebook era. You don't need to break it out by zipcode. First, the map was about more than the Mets and Yankees. Second, time and proximity is always going to be a part of any data collection. Nobody asks (or expects to receive accurate answers) otherwise. The answer you get is for NOW. This is not a sample of X New Yorkers and studying who likes who. Nobody said it was. Mets blogs are generally accepted to be much better and more prolific. Irrelevant --- You don't have to like the data presented but it doesn't make it inaccurate. The Mets are not popular. I have no problem understanding that. Your point about "it all comes down to winning" is the right pone. The Mets would do well to worry less about who is a true fan and more (much, much more) about winning.

Ceetar wrote: In the sense that it's their own click-bait in response to that click-bait? yes. I think you are not accurately using the term "click-bait." It was a New York Times story and map. That's not "click-bait." It's an interesting story with actual data to support it.

I saw the email come in and I was left wondering if there was something wrong or something that I had missed. As if somebody did something to disgrace the name of the Mets (no Wilpon joke intended here) that I missed, and was this an attempt fix things by rallying support from good people. I guess it's an effective campaign, as it got me to stop and read the email all the way through, the way a "come see the Mets on their next homestand" email wouldn't. But now that I understand it, I'm left feeling more cynical than before. Relax, guys. I support the team just fine, and still well more than the average Joe. If you want the people beyond me (and others similarly situated), you just need to keep winning.

I saw 5 White Sox-dominant counties: Will, Kankakee, Lake (IN), Porter (IN) and Newton (IN)> Of course, Cook County also has a 40 Cubs/38 White Sox split.

Howie sez: Tejada 2B, Wright SS, C. Young 3B

Chris Young plays second base, I assume. (When we tie this up)

Good for the Mets. Nice way to handle that. I hope they shut him out through the weekend; that should be enough of a message to send.

#5 is your best point, and exactly what should be done. That's what the director of media relations should be doing. The rest of your ideas I think fall outside the area of media relations. #1 of course has tons of merit though. --- In a similar fashion, I would like the Mets (or any other club, for that matter) to play "America the Beautiful" one Sunday instead of "God Bless America" and see what happens. Getting rid of that awful song starts with baby steps. Start with a perfectly reasonable alternative to which no one can object. (How could MLB possibly "discipline" you for doing that?)