Reese Kaplan -- The Wilpon Stench Is Fomenting

Everywhere you turn on the news, websites, blog spots and in print, it seems all you can find is some variation on the standard daily coverage of the coronavirus.  There is nothing wrong with that since none of us have experienced a pandemic of this magnitude before with six figures of inspections and four figures of death already recorded.  No, this is indeed the primary focus (or it should be for the folks in charge).

What’s really different is how sports are handling the unexpected termination of their daily schedule, their opening day festivities and the massive amount of revenue that would otherwise be coming into their hands via ticket sales, refreshments, parking and souvenirs.  For the business owners, it’s a major challenge that’s going to impact their profitability and perhaps even their ability to retain stewardship of their teams.

Now it’s no mystery to anyone with even a passing interest in the Mets knows that the club is in negotiation to be sold to the highest bidder.  This action was taken before the pandemic hit with such gravity, and no matter what the financial circumstances caused by the shutdown the Mets are still out there on the open market.

The issues that make an already less-than-popular set of team owners appear a bit on the “It’s all about us” side of things is that the Wilpons have actively engaged their brokers to find a new buyer right now.  

Hmmn...so when others are concerned about whether or not their businesses will survive or (to a lesser extent) their employees will survive, the Wilpons’ primary focus is to find someone else to inherit the prospective nightmare of heading up the Mets.  It’s certainly not a good business scenario in that the folks wealthy enough to approach the $2.6 billion not accepted from Steve Cohen have lost millions and millions of dollars in the stock market implosion. Consequently, the pool of available buyers has likely shrunk considerably with that $2.6 billion looking more like a fantasy figure that may never see the light of day again in this current business environment.  Now is the time investors are looking to capitalize on the bargains that have evolved rather than pushing them to spend even more money. We all hope the Wilpons can find a buyer but perhaps the timing is a bit off, to say the least.

To add a whipped cream topping to the beginning distasteful course of the Wilpon entree is the Daily News article that came out late in the day on Friday concerning the manner in which the club is supporting its employees that don’t wear player uniforms.  If they are accurate in their news sources, it appears that the Wilpons have not issued a single paycheck to the stadium personnel who do things like serve food, take tickets, clean bathrooms or provide security.  By contrast the owners at the Barclays Center paid their employees on March 12th when the NBA season shut down. Apparently not all businesses are run alike.

Now, far be it from me to pick on the Wilpons unfairly, but the major league baseball commissioner was all over the media himself bragging on his team owners and how they were working to ensure all people were cared for financially and with proper health protection during this difficult time.  Apparently Fred and Jeff never got that memo. Either that, or the financial hardships and disorganization facing the Mets are actually far worse than they seem. People saw red when they encountered the article in question. It’s not the first time the Mets fans have been disappointed by the team owners (and in this business environment it’s far from likely to be the last).