Mets co-Owner Fred Wilpon said the Mets “are bleeding cash,” and acknowledged that they "stand to lose as much as $70 million this year," according to Tom Verducci of SPORTS ILLUSTRATED. Though the Mets "will have about $64 million in salaries coming off the books after this season (from a $142 million total), they will not put much, if any, of that money back into the major league payroll." Wilpon said that he recently narrowed the list of bidders for a $200M minority share of the franchise "to four and could have an agreement within three weeks." While he "did not name the finalists," a source said that "one of the leading candidates has not been mentioned in press reports." Wilpon said that the $200M "cash infusion already has been earmarked: $25 million to pay off an emergency loan that Major League Baseball extended last November, $75 million to pay down $427 million in debt the Mets are carrying ($375 million to banks and another $52 million to MLB, which extends low-interest loans of that size as a matter of course to all clubs) and $100 million toward operating costs." Meanwhile, Wilpon acknowledged that if he and his partners are forced to pay the $1B sought by Bernie Madoff trustee Irving Picard, it may "cost him his ownership of the Mets." Wilpon: “I think the club became in jeopardy when he filed (for) this billion dollars. That’s when I decided to sell part of the club and maintain control in our operations and share the partnership with somebody.” Wilpon said, “It hurts. I haven’t gone public with my feelings about this, but it hurts. In retrospect, yeah, I made a lot of poor judgments. (Madoff) is by far the biggest regret. By far. The ramifications of some of the others are minimum compared to the regret of trusting a friend with an enormous amount of earned money” (SI, 5/30 issue). In N.Y., Richard Sandomir reported the Mets "have told bidders for the team that they lost $51 million last season and expect to lose $60 million this year." The 10% "falloff in attendance so far this season could push those losses even higher." Documents filed with N.Y.'s Industrial Development Agency indicated that the "impact of the recession, high prices at Citi Field and poor play was seen starkly in a 35 percent tumble in revenue last year from 10,635 premium seats to $64.5 million" (NYTIMES.com, 5/24).
SAYING HE'S SORRY: On Long Island, David Lennon reports Wilpon "apologized Tuesday to Carlos Beltran and Jose Reyes, via speakerphone, in the tiny manager's office at Wrigley Field." Wilpon also "reached out to David Wright to say he was sorry for his now infamous comments made to The New Yorker." Mets manager Terry Collins: "He just said sorry that it happened, sorry it got out and we said don't worry about it. We're going to move forward." Mets LF Jason Bay said, "To not address it would be the elephant in the room. Obviously, it doesn't sound like Fred, but what is done is done." Beltran said, "This is the first time I heard Fred comment on the team and on the players in particular, so basically it surprised not only me, but everyone." Reyes: "He's the boss, he can say whatever he wants to" (NEWSDAY, 5/25). In Newark, Andy McCullough reports Mets COO Jeff Wilpon "reached out Monday" to Wright and to Beltran, who said they had a "positive" conversation. Fred Wilpon "intended to fly to Chicago today to apologize to his players." But a Mets official said that he "demurred when the team decided it would create a circus inside the close confines of the visitor's clubhouse at Wrigley Field" (Newark STAR-LEDGER, 5/25). Mets GM Sandy Alderson yesterday "offered his take on the controversy." Alderson: "Everyone was surprised by the comments, but there is nobody who is more passionate about the Mets, or has more empathy for the players, than Fred." He added, "We all get caught up in the emotion from time to time, and perhaps say some things that upon reflection probably were not well-chosen" (N.Y. DAILY NEWS, 5/25).
