It's a sad day in Mudville, as Mighty Casey-Picard just struck out!! With the just-announced settlement between the Mets and Madoff-Clawback Trustee Picard for a "mere" $162 million, the team will have to pay out (in approx 3 years) just enough $$ to make it hard to re-invest in the team, but not too much that the "Unsinkable Molly Brown-Wilpons" will still be able to maintain team ownership - especially with their now-announced ability to collect some piece of the $170+million dollars they are listed to have "lost" from their other Madoff accounts (probably meaning that their actual out-of-pocket cash will be a small percentage of the figure announced today).
With the shares in the team most likely already sold, they will probably be able to renegotiate the other 3 major debts coming due and extend them out over another 5-10 years, which would mean only 1 of 2 outcomes for the team and their fans; either the Wilpons maintain ownership of the team and will not be able to spend anywhere close to what they used to on the roster, or they will sell the team and stand to make a lot more moolah in the process. Knowing their resolve, sadly, it looks like Prince Jeff will be over-seeing the fortunes of this team for many long, long years to come...
The only "good" news in all of this is that it's over, and soon all talk of things Madoff-related can fade into black and we can get on with what really matters- the action between the foul lines!!!
6 comments:
Does this include the $83M they were already on the hook to pay or in addition to it?
Yes, Erik- that is the total amount due, sadly...
Worst possible outcome. Damaging enough to keep the team hamstrung financially, but not enough to have to sell the team.
blah blah blah...
Exactly, Erik. It would've been far better to either have them get off completely from payment altogether, or have to pay a crippling amount. This just ensures they stay around, with a budget befitting the Royals and not the Mets...too sad to discuss anymore today...
And Mack- "blah blah blah?" - are you SURE about that or is that merely speculation??? LOL
I don't think a good outcome was possible either way....by settling, you have laid out the entire scenario...if they went to trial and they lost a bundle, we would have been equally screwed. Basically, as far as in between the lines go, we are YEARS away from being a contender. if anyone is actually content with .500 (a few under or over)then Mets baseball will be for you.
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