One of the Mets' debt covenants states that the team's payroll cannot increase, sources told Josh Kosman of the New York Post. Kosman writes that given their current financial state, the Mets may not be able to go after the ace that they seek at the Trade Deadline.
There is mounting evidence that suggests that the club, saddled with roughly $700MM in debt, is not turning a profit. The Wilpon family continues to feel the sting of the Bernie Madoff-perpetuated Ponzi scheme, which cost them "hundreds of millions". Sources say that the team is losing about $10MM per season when factoring in interest payments and depreciation.
Unsurprisingly, sources also told the Post that Fred Wilpon will ultimately have to sell his beloved franchise if things do not turn around.
yeah, slow day at the Post
Yeah? I coulda swore there was a guy named Le-something that was filling the papers.
$250 million in revenue from SNY every year and these dummies cant find a way not to lose money with this team. Great job Wilpons. Another disappointing end for my Mets again this year I guess.
I think I would like to see some new owners..
The Wilpons are so broke they are thinking of buying a hockey team and moving them to Queens to play next to their new MLS team.
The Post is trash.
I hope he sells the team to an owner who doesn’t have an idiot son.
Nobody takes the Post seriously in NY. It’s regarded as a half step up from a tabloid magazine.
That’s an insult to tabloids
Plus, there’s also been reports that the Wilpons were one of the few to actually make money from the Madoff scandal, so I don’t know what to believe.
I thought that was the NYT…
The Post is definitely trash, but everyone knows their sports section is average to above average – at least when they’re not simply speculating.
would love to see the Wilpons sell the team. Get a real owner who will actually try to get this team a championship. Mikhail Prokhorov would be a great baseball owner. He has an infinite amount of money it seems and he wants to win.
If that happened, I wonder if he could move Nets games to SNY. Then you’d have the Mets, Nets, and Jets (coverage, not games) on one network. Of course then you’d have the jokes about SNY meaning Second-team New York.
hmmm….berry interesting….it does seem like he has infinite amounts of cash…
First report was that they lost money from Bernie. Second report said Mets acutally made money cause of Bernie and they was going to be sued by the people who lost money from Bernie. Third report now says Mets lost money from Bernie and can’t add payroll. Joel Sherman and the NY Post needs to make up their minds.
Net profit is a meaningless number. Cash flow is. Take your net profit, add back depreciation and all non cash charges and you have Gross cash Flow. Add/subtract all operating sources and uses (i.e., if accounts receivable decline, that’s a source, if it increases, that’s a use). Then you have operating cash flow. Can it handle debt amortization? Then you have adequate cash flow.
Just the fact that their lead lender redid their deal at near premium debt pricing shows that these guys are still golden.
Typical misinformation from a media feeding the uniformed masses
Nothing to see here … move on
I guess you do have to blame the Wilpons for this trouble (if it really is trouble) because ultimately they’re the ones who hired such a poor GM. Money wasted on mediocre players raises payroll and lowers the win/loss record, a perfect way to hurt attendance and playoff chances. With a cheaper, more competitive team they’d be paying less and earning more and this story would never have existed. Sounds simple but it’s true, hiring the wrong GM can set a franchise back in so many ways (I know, I’m a Cub fan, we’re practically in the same boat).
I guess you do have to blame the Wilpons for this trouble (if it really is trouble) because ultimately they’re the ones who hired such a poor GM. Money wasted on mediocre players raises payroll and lowers the win/loss record, a perfect way to hurt attendance and playoff chances. With a cheaper, more competitive team they’d be paying less and earning more and this story would never have existed. Sounds simple but it’s true, hiring the wrong GM can set a franchise back in so many ways (I know, I’m a Cub fan, we’re practically in the same boat).