Yahoo's plan was to pay the Mets for special access, and then charge subscribers about $5 per monthGETTY IMAGES
The Flushing Meadows Baseball Club, the joint venture between Yahoo and the Mets, is "dead ... after months (and months) of delays," according to Kyle Wagner of the N.Y. DAILY NEWS. The FMBC was "meant to be a subscription-based Mets site run by Yahoo Sports." The idea was that Yahoo would "pay the Mets for special access, and in turn it would charge readers around $5 a month to read it." The "first issue that came up was that the Mets had not cleared the deal" with MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred. Once the league was "aware of the deal, which would have paid" the Mets $3M over three seasons, it "wanted other teams to receive similar treatment, with similar payouts." A source said that talks "hit a snag around a month ago, when MLB expected a full season of payment despite half the season having already been played without FMBC having launched." Yahoo "eventually pulled the plug." The staff for FMBC included writers Wallace Matthews, Matt Ehalt, Mike Mazzeo and Gerard Gilberto, as well as editor Jen Franklin, who had "relocated to New York for the project." All FMBC employees will "remain with Yahoo" (N.Y. DAILY NEWS, 7/24). In N.Y., Andrew Marchand noted for the time being, Yahoo is "not doing any deals with other clubs, which was the original plan" when the Mets deal was announced. Yahoo was set to pay the Mets $1M this season, but sources said that since there was "never a launch, no payments were exchanged" (N.Y. POST, 7/24).
