Since Bernie Madoff drained the Wilpon family of their ability to properly fund the operation of the team, the New York Mets have limped along, with no end in sight to their issues. Despite this, the team has great value on the open market, due to the fact that it is one of only two major league baseball franchises in the massive metropolitan area. The current owners have a large debt overhang, with associated interest payments, which is hurting cash flow and profitability. But the underutilized revenue opportunities currently associated with the Mets could quickly be eliminated by any new owner, as the payback on investing in the team would stand to be tremendous. As an example, the Los Angeles Dodgers (in a similar bind as the McCourt family could not properly fund the team) unleashed new revenues quickly once the team was sold and reinvestment in the franchise occurred. Watching the Dodgers situation play out has frustrated many Mets fans, as the commissioner of baseball, Bud Selig, helped to force the Dodger resolution, while simultaneously turning a blind eye to the mess in Queens. For today I will skip worrying about Selig’s role in all of this, since I am not focusing on why the Wilpons are not being expected to run their team appropriately by Major League Baseball. Instead I want to focus on why the Wilpon family wants to retain majority control of the Mets.
The prevailing narrative, of course, is that Fred Wilpon wants to bequeath the Mets as a “family heirloom” to his son Jeff. The story that gets floated is that Fred is a lifetime baseball fan from Brooklyn and that nothing is more important to him than leaving the precious Mets to his son. This narrative, like most floated by the family (remember, “Madoff will have no effect on the Mets”) doesn’t hold water. It sounds nice, but what good is being the majority owner of the Mets these days? The team is bad, and without real capital injections it doesn’t ever stand to improve much. After six losing seasons in a row, the fan base is angry and/or apathetic. Scared to make public statements, the family mostly 
hides behind a former Harvard lawyer skilled in the art of disinformation. And, with revenues crashing and the team’s debt expenses unsolvable, there is no real fix in sight. In the case of the Wilpon family, owning the New York Mets is like owning a toxic mess without the tools to clean it up. Why would any father want to leave that type of unfinished business to his son? It makes no sense. So, if the family is not retaining the control of the team for this reason, why not sell it already? The Mets have value, the equity of the team is still great enough to wipe out the Wilpons’ debt and leave them with hundreds of millions to spare. The answer, it appears, can be found just outside Citi Field, in the parking lot.
We have written about the questionable Willets Point project before. Not so much that redevelopment of this land is needed, most feel it is, but why would this particular family be involved in this huge project at this time? If the Wilpon family cannot find the funds to properly invest in a baseball team, how can they properly build a multi-billion dollar megaproject? Again, look just outside Citi Field in the parking lot for the answer.
You see, the Willets Point redevelopment project is a partnership between the Related Cos. and the Wilpon family’s Sterling Equities. It has seemed pretty straightforward all along what the Related Cos. brings to this partnership – – money and solvency. But what the Related Cos. (and everyone else besides the Wilpons) do not have is the ability to build on the site. It was ceded to the owners of the New York Mets way back in 1961. That means anyone who wants to build in the area can’t do it without the Wilpons.
That is what this is all about. Fred Wilpon is not worried about the New York Mets. Saul Katz is not worried about the New York Mets. They are worried about maintaining control of the franchise for as long as it takes to build on the parkland they control, parkland that has been conservatively valued at $1 billion.
Basically the New York Mets are hostage to a real estate deal. The Mets do not have to be good for the Wilpon family to control the land. They don’t even have to be profitable. They just have to belong to them.
Once you understand that, it all makes sense. The goal is to hold the team until Willets Point is done. With little money available, thanks to “Uncle” Bernie, a cost cutter is brought in to slash expenses and lower the annual cash flow risk of owning. All that matters is generating enough money to hang on and pay the creditors. Eventually, once the mall is built, they can sell if they want.
And sure, if somehow the team wins on the cheap and makes even more money, all the better. In the meantime, they also will keep trying to squeeze every last dime out of any customers they can generate. No matter what, the New York Mets always have the metropolitan market they were named after going for them. So yes, the owners are interested in the franchise, as long as we all understand they aren’t going to actually do much to assist with the situation.
They have bigger fish to fry, right outside the park.
