Hi Mack.....we spoke on the phone a few months ago and was wondering why the Wilpons (of course beyond a massive ego and need to rebuild Ebbets Field) didn't just put a hundred million and a few shake shacks into Shea and maybe...I know this is a radical idea… another hundred million into the club. By the way how much $ would they save by DFAing Jeffy? Thanks for reading this...Gary Seagren
Mack:
Good hearing from you again, Gary.
I can speak about this, being a past “player” in the system.
The financial world changed dramatically in the past three years. There was little concern from 1990-2007 about where the money would come from to improve the financial picture of your company. Everything you owed was worth more every year. And, as long as the percentage of increase each year was higher than the percentage of interest you paid for that money, there was no reason to not borrow every penny you could get your hands on.
Look, if you owed ten dollars, you owed ten dollars. But, if a healthy economy dictated that you’re investment was worth “10x cash flow” then, if you had ten dollars in your pocket, you were really worth $100.
This is why banks gave everybody secondary mortgages, because they thought your home would be worth more in a year than the cost of loaning you the money.
The Wilpon family are in real estate. That’s all they know, which means they had a kick ass 1990-2007. It didn’t matter how many people they had to grease to build a new stadium. Every team was doing it and every team that did, increased the value of their investment.
I don’t fault Fred Wilpon for building his tribute to Ebbets Field. I don’t even fault him investing both his and the New York Mets money with Bernie Madoff. He was in good company there.
Frankly, I don’t fault him for trying to hold on now. That’s the natural thing to do.
I fault major league baseball for the whole Sandy-Omar exchange and the fact that they aren’t moving forward from forcing a sale of a failed franchise.
It just is.
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