Kerel Cooper of On The Black and I got together for another weekly video to talk about the state of the Mets as the team begins their first full squad workouts. The hot topics of the week are Luis Castillo reporting on time but not early, Carlos Beltran in center field, and K-Rod showing up and apologizing again for assaulting someone at Citi Field last year.
The good news is that we don’t have to talk about the Bernie Madoff lawsuit this week!
http://blip.tv/play/guougqXYHwI%2Em4v
Fred Wilpon arrived in Port St. Lucie today and defiantly told reporters that his family will be vindicated. He spoke to reporters at length about the Madoff trustee lawsuit against him and said that he’s done nothing wrong and the Mets won’t be affected by the suit. It’s the same thing he told reporters at his press conference a couple of weeks ago.
Here are the stories that are in the news from PSL:
This is the video that aired Sunday morning from ESPN’s Outside the Lines show on the Mets relationship to Madoff. Much of the segment is conducted with Larry King, who was introduced to Bernie Madoff by Fred Wilpon. The piece is well done, as most of the ESPN segments are, but there really isn’t any groundbreaking material here that you probably don’t already know.
http://espn.go.com/videohub/player/embed.swf
A few of the Mets have started to arrive in Port St. Lucie over the last week. Pitchers and catchers will report by Tuesday. You can see the full spring training game schedule at the Mets site. Even though the full team hasn’t even arrived at PSL yet, there’s still plenty of news about the Mets over the past few days.
Here are a few of the stories that caught my eye this week:
There are so many potentially negative scenarios that could arise from the Madoff trustee’s suit against the owners of the Mets that it’s difficult to pinpoint any one of them as the worst case scenario. Obviously, the Wilpons and Saul Katz could lose a judgment or a costly settlement that could cause them to sell the team or plunge the team into financial ruin.
In addition to the potential disasters that the Mets’ owner face is the collateral damage that could occur from the lawsuit. Ken Rosenthal and Jon Paul Morosi wrote a great piece for Fox Sports that examines the possibility that the lawsuit could force the exposure of some MLB financial data related to the Mets. That’s a nightmare scenario for MLB and the other owners. One former baseball executive described the damage that could be done to MLB if their finances are exposed in the Madoff lawsuit:
The executive added that the league’s business partners — such as networks, corporate sponsors, and other advertisers — could conceivably become aware of financial information that wasn’t previously available to them. Armed with this data, those entities may be able to negotiate contracts on terms less favorable to MLB and its clubs.
It’s possible that the Madoff lawsuit could cause irreparable damage to not only the Mets, but the entire league if it can’t be settled before it goes to court. Both the trustee and MLB will be putting tremendous pressure on the Wilpons and Katz to get this issue settled before the collateral damage impacts MLB as a whole.
http://espn.go.com/videohub/player/embed.swf
Jayson Stark and Karl Ravech bring up some good points about the whole Madoff mess that the Wilpons are in. Why would anybody want to buy into a minority share of the team with the controlling partner in such a dire predicament? That’s the thing that doesn’t make sense to me. I suppose that a minority owner could have a stipulation in their agreement to purchase the team from the Wilpons at some point. Other than that, I can’t think of a reason that someone would want to buy a stake in this team right now.
Another good point they brought up in the video was about the settlement talks. Why would the Wilpons be so adamant about losing money to Madoff and then entertain the idea of settling the case? A losing investor shouldn’t be talking about settling the case!
I have to say that I agree with a lot of the opinions that I’ve read about the future of the Wilpons owning this team. I believe, at some point, that the Madoff lawsuit is going to force the Wilpons to sell all or most of the Mets and SNY. How about you?
There’s been so much news about the lawsuit against Sterling by the Madoff trustee this week. Everyone is speculating on the impact it will have on the Mets. Some writers believe this will result in the Wilpons and Katz being forced to sell the team entirely. Others believe that a $300+ million lawsuit is something that Sterling Equities can handle even if they lose.
I put together a good list of links to articles about the Madoff lawsuit to summarize this week’s coverage of the story.
Daily News (Lupica) – The Mets don’t really want to sell any part of the team
NY Times – The Madoff investment wasn’t the Mets owner’s first Ponzi scheme investment
NY Times – What’s in the Mets investment for a minority owner?
Forbes – SNY debt will hurt the sale of the Mets
Daily News (Lupica) – Madoff trustee is trying to smear the Wilpons’ good name
Beyond the Box Score – Comparing the Mets to the early 90’s Royals situation
Forbes – Mets current value is -$225 million
NY Times – Wilpons’ ownership of the Mets is threatened
The Mets Report 