Category: Management
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Forbes: How Wilpon Was Able to Keep the Mets
I love to read Mike Ozanian’s column on sports business for Forbes. Ozanian predicted that Fred Wilpon and Saul Katz would be forced to sell the Mets after the Madoff mess. But they’ve been able to hold onto the team and even made $25 million last year.
Read the article to find out how Wilpon did it. It’s not a big secret. Cutting payroll and costs did the trick.
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Mets Wilpon to Chair MLB Finance Committee
Katz Wanted To Sell Mets
The New York Post reports that baseball sources confirmed that Mets co-owner Saul Katz not only wanted to sell his stake in the Mets, he tried to convince Fred Wilpon to sell as well. Apparently, Wilpon is intent on leaving the Mets in Jeff’s hands and has no interest in selling.
Photo credit: Flickr Scott Smith
Mets Owners Seek To Reorganize Debt
(Image credit: Getty Images via @daylife)
The New York Times is reporting that the Mets are looking to move debt away from the team to SNY to get more favorable debt terms. Plus, they may rearrange the debt and take a dividend for themselves along the way.
I wish that Fred Wilpon and Saul Katz were more interested in improving the Mets roster with their available credit. You might have noticed the 2012 74-win, fourth place Mets had the biggest payroll decrease in MLB history this year with a $50 million reduction from 2011.
It continues to be a sad state of affairs in Queens.
Sherman: Mets Should Trade David Wright and R.A. Dickey
According to NY Post columnist Joel Sherman, the Mets should trade David Wright and R.A. Dickey in the offseason for prospects. He contends that they need a full-blown rebuilding mode to become competitive again. As terrible as it sounds, it may be the smartest and most painful way for the Mets to move forward.
We all know that the Mets aren’t anywhere close to seriously competing with the likes of the Reds, Nationals, and the upper echelon of the National League. And it’s laughable to think that they’re close to the Rangers, Yankees, or Angels in the American League.
The Mets are in a no-man’s land of talent. They’re not bad enough to be cellar dwellers in the league like the Cubs but they’re not good enough to make the playoffs.
My guess is that the Mets don’t go the route of a full-blown re-tooling because they’re afraid of an empty Citi Field for the next two years. They’ll go the same route that they did this year: a slight rebuilding mode while trying to finish in third or fourth place in the division that keeps a portion of Citi Field seats filled.
Currently, the Mets are 17 in MLB in attendance while selling 72.3% of available tickets. That’s why they won’t trade Wright and Dickey. Mets ownership can’t take a lower attendance number because of the debt burden against the team.
2012 Mets Still Exceeding Expectations
As Mets fans, we’ve come to expect second half disappointments since the 2007 season. So the 2012 season is nothing new for us. The collapse has come in July and August instead of September like it usually does. But the 2012 Mets are still exceeding my expectations.
Before the season I predicted that this would be a 65-70 win team. Currently, the Mets are on pace to win 73. That would be a solid season for the sad roster that the Mets put together this season.
Let’s face it. The Mets won 77 games last year and then lost one of the best players in team history, Jose Reyes, in free agency. They traded Angel Pagan to the Giants for a bag of balls. What did you really expect? Frank Francisco and Jon Rauch would come in and account for more than 7 wins between them. Continue reading “2012 Mets Still Exceeding Expectations”
The Mets Report 