The group headed up by Alex Rodriguez and Jennifer Lopez put in a reported $1.7 billion bid on the Mets last week, and while they’re already known to be backed by VitaminWater and BodyArmor co-founder Mike Repole as well as Florida Panthers owner Vinnie Viola, ESPN’s Vaughn McClure reports that a host of other highly recognizable names are a part of the group. Among them are Pro Football Hall of Famer Brian Urlacher, former Cleveland Browns offensive tackle Joe Thomas and Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce; Washington Wizards guard Bradley Beal; Denver Nuggets center Mason Plumlee; and ex-Dallas Cowboys running back DeMarco Murray.
Urlacher, 42, was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2018 after a brilliant 13-year career as a linebacker with the Chicago Bears. The 2000 Defensive Rookie of the Year is an eight-time Pro-Bowler who earned more than $80MM in career salaries — to say nothing of countless endorsement deals during his time as one of the league’s most marketable players. He’s also dipped into NFL broadcasting and television analysis. Urlacher himself confirmed to McClure that he’s a part of the group, calling it a “pretty cool” opportunity and voicing particular excitement over working with Rodriguez and his other NFL brethren.
The 35-year-old Thomas figures to join Urlacher in the Hall of Fame when he gains eligibility for the honor in 2023. Thomas went to the Pro Bowl in 10 of his 11 seasons in the NFL from 2007-17, during which he earned $110MM, according to Over the Cap.
Like Urlacher, Kelce confirmed that he’s involved and expressed gratitude for being able to take part in such a “crazy opportunity.” He hasn’t had Urlacher’s 13-year career and decade-plus of endorsement deals, but Kelce is entering the final season of a five-year, $46.482MM contract extension. The five-time Pro Bowler ranks among the game’s elite at his position and should be in strong free-agent position upon the completion of his current deal.
Beal, the No. 3 pick in the 2012 NBA Draft, signed a two-year extension worth nearly $72MM back in October — a contract that came partway through his preexisting five-year, $127MM contract. Beal only just turned 27, so he has plenty of time to sign another big deal in the future, assuming he holds up. Plumlee scored his own sizable payday in 2017, re-signing with the Nuggets for $41MM over three years.
Murray, 32, hasn’t played in an NFL game since spending the 2017 season with the Tennessee Titans. The former NFL Offensive Player of the Year and three-time Pro Bowler, who made just under $26MM in the league, entered the college coaching ranks in recent seasons and is currently an assistant at his alma mater of Oklahoma.
The extent to which each of these high-profile investors is involved isn’t clear. While they’re all unquestionably wealthy and likely able to commit millions of dollars to the bid, it’s also likely that there are quite a few other investors contributing to the mix.
Why would A-Rod and J-Lo get into a potential ownership group with a bunch of football and basketball stars who collectively don’t know d*ck about baseball or running a business?
So you are saying there would be no change from current ownership?
A whole lot of pro sports teams are loaded with people who have lots of money but no experience in the sport of the team that they are part owners of. Like Urlacher said, it is pretty cool. A mix of very successful businesses people and sports stars who understand how pro sports teams work. I see nothing wrong with it.
I agree with you dude. You have a group of exciting, young, fresh, and successful (insert another adjective if you would like) people willing to buy a dysfunctional organization.
You can do worse lol. Give them guys a chance, don’t know why people are hating on them so bad
They all act like you have to be an experienced baseball guy to buy a team and be a successful MLB owner. I mean look at George Steinbrenner and his sons……..oh wait………
Not to mention the fact that minority stakeholders like Beal and Urlacher are going to have nothing at all to do with actual baseball decisions
That’s where Viola and Repole come into play.
Maybe Gretzky to.
They would all be minority owners. When the bid is for 1.7 billion, an investment of millions isn’t very much.
They wouldn’t be running the team.
Save us Cohen
Come on, Cohen! To hell with A-Roid and his pig.
You may not like A-Rod and his past steroid use but he is one of the most brilliant baseball-minded people to play the game. Plus he’s been way more likable since he left the game. I think he would be great for any baseball team and I wish him the best of luck if he gets the opportunity to right the ship In Queens.
“Brilliant baseball minded” – hardly. Rodriguez is a spineless cheater. A man of self-absorbed, unaccountable, and despicable nature. Rodriguez is a god awful broadcaster, too – the Sunday night booth of he, Mendoza, and Vasgersian is unwatchable. I remain puzzled as to why MLB remains so open to this guy.
…who’s allegedly reached out to Bernie Madoff to ironically re-invest in the Mets….
@ 30 Parks – what’s the phrase, “don’t hold back tell us what you really think.” But a thumbs up from me…
A-Rod is a smart guy, concerning baseball. Just because you don’t like him, and he is self-absorbed, doesn’t change the facts.
I’m a Mariners fan. A-Rod was a very likable guy when he was a young player, with the M’s. He let fame go to his head. Now, it seems that he has returned to being a nice guy.
Martevious – I see that as well. He seems very much a changed man. He was so competitive and would do anything to win that it changed him inside. I would bet He was always a decent guy off the field.
Ever hear the jeter stories off the field. That guy…. Sleeping around, Spreading stuff around, taking women to that certain jewelry store when he was gonna break it off with them as a departure gift. Imagine working at the jewelry store… “hey Derek, bout to break another one off I see? Yeah rob, you know it just didn’t work out. That’s what you always say Derek”. What a scumbag.
But ppl liked him cause he was quiet and business like on the field. Sorry but I’ll take a rods passion for the game any day over that guy jeter and his straight face. No emotion. I’ve seen solid colored walls look more exciting than Derek jeter.
Much agree. And A-Rod appears to be a great father. Something Jeter can’t say.
30 Parks-Do some research and then actually listen to his game calling. He may/might’ve be a bit awkward (Especially the first year) as a broadcaster but I gotta admit that I really enjoy hearing his in depth reasoning and ability to observe minute and obscure things that players (in all facets of the game) are doing that the average AND even most impassioned baseball fans would not be able to point out. I find his broadcasting to be super informative and educational. Not just a coincidence that, even amidst all the controversy in NY, that the Yankees (arguably one of, if not the greatest and most respected franchises in sports) still wanted him to be a part of the organization as a special advisor.
you Mets fans are in for a rude awakening if Cohen does nothing short of spend for the team like its his pride and joy. news flash – no one buys teams just for the fun of it.
Mike Illitch spent for his Redwings and Tigers like it was his pride and joy.
It’s money. As long as they hire good business people to run the franchise they should be fine. That means they will have to fire everyone once they take control.
Enough of this nonsense. Let someone who actually has the money and won’t turn it into a circus buy them.
A-rod needed any pro athlete with a couple bills in his pocket it appears. Suffice to say if Cohen wants the team, that group sure as hell isnt going to outbid him
They may not be able to outbid Cohen but they may not even have to. If the current guys aren’t willing to step completely out or sell the network, they may not want to do business with Cohen.
It’s the old. . . Do I want 4 billion and no control and sell everything or do I want to make 2 billion and still have some say or control. Either way you can’t spend it all in your lifetime unless your a complete fool.
Just my take and opinion
I would feel bad for Mets fans if ARod was chosen. I think it would be Marlins level drop of salary. Cohen is probably your best bet.
Totally Agree!
Mets apparently don’t want to sell to Cohen who would be the Best Owner with the Deepest pockets because they’re Hoping that Jeffy can stay with the JLO GROUP AND Keep Destroying the Team.
That’s the kicker Wilpon still wants a say and Cohen doesn’t want that.
I can’t see this group winning the bidding. The collection of names would make a weird reality show, but It seems they are just recruiting anyone with a sizable net worth and some name recognition.
Cohen has to be shaking his head and laughing to himself. I would bet this group keeps working to get their offer around 2 billion while he will keep outbidding them. Eventually, I imagine he will push arods group out of the bidding while paying less than his original offer (2.6 I think), get more than 80% stake, and not have to deal with that 5 year exit plan the Wilpons pushed for.
Unfortunately for you haters…… this team called the dodgers were bought by a group of ppl with little baseball experience a few years back….. how did that workout? Oh that’s right! Multiple trips to the series.
So it actually doesn’t matter how much money you have or experience you have, it’s who you hire. The people saying a rod isn’t smart are lying to themselves. They must have an eye problem or something.
The a rod hate cracks me up. There are all these worthless ppl around cheating, whole teams cheating, David I can’t hit unless I pull a ball to Boston’s pole Ortiz, David I didn’t hit til I took juice Ortiz who hypocrites will vote into the hall over much better players. But sure a rod is the worst villain in history. You guys crack me up.
How did you get all that from my post? How much money you have and your business acumen definitely plays a role, because it affects how you approach building the organization.
I never said Arod isnt smart, I just think they are fighting an uphill battle to purchase the club and these moves show that in my opinion. Not sure how Ortiz relates to this except for the fact Arod and Ortiz have been linked to PEDS in some way. I think you are jumping to conclusions based on information that was never there.
The Guggenheim Group included many incredibly wealthy businessmen. Baseball experience obviously isnt required but knowing how to run a business and putting the right people in charge is necessary. Again, you first statement argues against nothing I said, so congrats you really demolished that straw man. “you guys crack me up”
I wasn’t even referring specifically to you. I’ve noticed the format all kinds of ppl responding to the wrong posts. So if it shot at you then o well guy.
“You guys crack me up”- back at ya
So you are responding to my post but answering everyone else’s posts? Everything you commented on didn’t apply to my post. It didn’t bother me at all, but if you feel the need to defend your opinions on any post even if it didn’t apply to your opinions, then knock yourself out. If it was format confusion then it’s whatever.
I’ll shoot an “oh well guy” back at you and raise you another “you guys crack me up”. Don’t make me break out “well that’s just your opinion, dude” on you, but if I am pushed then I will.
Lol it’s all good my guy. Formatting. I actually loved your last paragraph. I’d give you two thumbs up if I could.
It’s a strange feeling when meeting your sarcastic match. Have a good night brother
If A-Rod Gets a team, let’s see if this propels Jeter to up his timetable with Miami. Since Jeter’s ownership group won, he hasn’t made a whole lot of positive moves to 8ndpire the fan base.
I think this would be better the other way around. Jeter owning the Mets and Rodriguez owning Miami.
I’d like to see A-Rod’s group win the bid just to see some of the potential interesting dynamics like this. Would Mets/Marlins take on any more of a rivalry feel?
The problem with Roddy owning the Mets is that he isn’t particularly intelligent.
There’s also a long history of superb players not actually knowing much about the game, whereas great managers are routinely unimpressive if not dismal players.
Put another way, where’s the 10 minute interview worth linking to where His Rodness displays an unusual acumen, one that portends success as the Mets’ owner? You’d think that would be easy to find, but it’s not.
A weird thought perhaps, but can beggars be choosers? Yeah you want a billionaire owner, yet is that guy even willing to step up or has made an effort to do so? Who knows what is in the mind of Cohen at this point? Maybe he should have bought the team already if ownership was such a big deal to him?
He has made plenty of effort is Jeff Wilpon getting in his way
@Big97 Maybe, but I’ve never known a rich guy who didn’t go all squirrelly on a deal if he thought he could save significant money.
How many people do you need ?
Crowdsourcing because none of them have two billion plus basic operating costs laying around
Though nobody mentioned the most important fact is BASEBALL is a very profitable investment and business. If they actually opened the books we would see that it’s not only a cash cow but MLB baseball teams pay no tax! Not to mention the value of the team growing 20% a year, That is why you have a line out the door to buy a team!
put It this way they say the Yankee revenue is 6-7 hundred million a year. That means a team like the orioles are half of that. If the league implements a system split revenues or make teams spend 50 percent on payroll you aren’t gonna like the outcome I can promise you that. Everyone talks that mess but isn’t gonna like the results.
Also to the point of profitability, the players And fans really don’t want revenue splits or opening the books. Everyone talks that big game but once they see what the orioles pirates and marlins etc make they are gonna be real let down. What you would be left with is players wanting to go to the Red Sox and Yankees even more. They would be the only ones that could afford to spend the money based off of the revenue split. It would create an even larger imbalance of winners and losers. The current model with revenue sharing could work if the small market teams were forced to spend that money on salary. If you open the books it will kill the competitiveness of baseball.
I’d think most everyone probably already has a pretty good inkling of which franchises earn more, so I can’t see anything developing there that’d create a tilt in player movement.
I don’t think the current revenue sharing system is bad, though. It should simply be required that in order to be revenue sharing eligible, you meet a certain salary floor. Fall short, you lose your eligibility for the following year.
@appalachain outlaw…. totally agree about a salary floor. The current system can work.
My comment was to those who want to open the books. IMO it would change the dynamics because the only reason you open the books is so the players can earn more.
When the orioles ran a 150 million payroll a few years ago and still couldn’t win, that should say it all. If there revenue was around 300 than angelos did all he could. Anything more than half your revenue is too much imo. Where New York or la spends half the revenue your talking 3 hundred plus million payroll and you definitely wouldn’t be competing than. At 1-2 hundred million payrolls it’s pretty competitive. The Teams who spend the most usually don’t win anymore. Besides Boston in 18’ who had the highest payroll and won in the last ten years?
The Yanks make a lot more but no one knows for sure. They don’t pay taxes on any profits though, Baseball teams are exempt!
i Get the fact they ain’t paying tax, but what’s that got to do with the price of beans?
I am not understanding why you want to open the books. If you open the books you are going to regret it. You know the players will want a shared split when they see them numbers.
Once that happens you can kiss small market teams’ chance of winning goodbye. They won’t be able to afford a thirty million a year man( or 2 -3 like some teams ). I think you would agree the orioles, rays, a’s, Pirates etc….. don’t make more than 300 a year. The Yankees and dodgers easily double that. So when you open the books and the players propose a 50-50 split, what you will have is a 150 million dollar payroll that can’t compete with a 300 plus million payroll.
Today most big market teams barely go 200 and when they do go up, they reset after a few seasons. If the teams I previously named would spend 100 of their own money and their revenue sharing they would compete regularly. The system can work now but you have to have a floor and / or make them spend the revenue sharing on payroll.
Example is I doubt Oakland could afford to extend Chapman when he comes up. Even lindor in Cleveland. At the pace them guys are going they will command 25 per year easily, if not more.
If Los Angeles wants one of them they can afford him. They don’t like spending on long contracts but that’s their choice. Now if you are LA and you HAVE to spend half your revenue on payroll because of a split with the players, then they will one hundred percent get a Chapman or a Lindor(just examples).
It’s hard enough for them small market teams to extend their talent. Open them books and it’s impossible
Your assuming again that the Orioles, Pirates and Rays don’t gross 300 mill or more, I’m reasonably sure the Orioles do with a MLB club of players and the others hold tight to opening their books or telling their exact cable contracts, Internet contracts,online sales etc,etc. Until a private owner opens their books we are clueless. Oh! Owners are very good liars,trust me.
Look my guy. Look it up it takes two seconds…. I’ll do it for you. The orioles had an avg attendance of 16,146 so I’ll even bump it to 17,000. The most expensive seats aren’t more than 120$ for club level and nose bleeds are 5. Let’s say the avg price is 60 even though that’s waaaaaaay high(you can sit on first or third base behind dugout for that).
So 17,000 multiplied by 60 is 1,020,000 multiply that by 81 and you get 82,620,000(which is way high I’m being nice to you here).
The tv deal paid them 234.8 million from 12-16. Divide that by five and you have around 47 annually. So between gate and tv your only at 129.6…. call it 130 million. That’s even going above and beyond on the number for you.
Where is this other 150 plus million coming from my guy? You think ppl in Baltimore all walk the streets in authentic Mancini jerseys? They selling 150 million in hotdogs and parking? Just do the math. Not ragging on you but do some research before you think the orioles and pirates make 300 plus. They might have came close one or two years from 12-15 but that’s it. Never more than that ever. I’m from Baltimore it’s a football town mostly.
All references are baseball reference.com for attendance and baltimore sun article for the masn money. Look it up guy.
Forbes has their gate revenue at a messily 35 million but actually had them making 250 million last year which I think is way high but whatever. I’ll admit I did t think they made that much and to your credit that’s just what they are admitting to. But still. Where’s this money coming from is what I’m saying?
Then with payroll and close to 59 million in operating costs how can they run a 150 plus million dollar payroll? The math just doesn’t add up guy.
You numbers are tainted sure left a lot out that is pure profit and public info. 1) Baltimore averaged 24k per (#s kept by the owners) from 12 -16-$123,000,ooo, 2) All US cable deals average 75-200mill and exact numbers are kept hush hush from the owners. All teams are making a minimum of 50 mill per on internet content and downloading, You missed food/parking for all those 25k. lastly is team logo clothing and gear along with a lot of intangibles. Yes, the owners can’t be trusted to offer honest info or numbers. Do you work for them?
If I was an Owner of an MLB team, there’s no way I would vote to approve ARod to be an Owner after the way he disgraced baseball with his involvement with Tony Bosch and Biogenesis. On second thought, maybe it’s fitting ARod and MLB belong together given the current state of the game.
Secret is the owners don’t care about the sport and that’s why Rob Manfred is commissioner
Tony Bosch is a great guy….. besides Alex ain’t the only guy who ever used. Lol. During his time everyone did it. When Brady Anderson hit 50 but never hardly hit 20 before that or after that, you are not gonna give that edge up to a guy like Brady lol. It’s laughable. I bet bonds and Alex looked at that ridiculousness and said hey Brady watch this.
He didn’t disgrace baseball, selig all but turned his head the other way. He did nothing to police the game. He wanted that. He needed that in order to increase interest in the game again.
Not saying you are a hypocrite but most ppl who hate a rod would vote David Ortiz into the hall. Which is a complete joke. He ain’t half the player of a Rodriguez or bonds. Here was a guy who couldn’t hit anything til he was almost 30….. right I’m sure you just catch fire at 30. Smh the double standard on the issue of juice is appalling.
Hasn’t mlb denied mark Cuban multiple times to buy a baseball team? This bid a rod is assembling starting to get ridiculous, something I’d expect from a used car dealer
And Cuban would be a great owner, too.
Since their bid is well short of the highest bid, this must be a stunt on their part. Why would MLB approve a sale to a group of “investors” when they can sell to an actual billionaire?