Reese Kaplan -- Black Friday Was 3 Months Ago...

So what happens when the girl at the prom says yes, but then you find out there are certain expectations she has for the date that you just can’t fathom?  Why, you tell her to hit the road as there are many other fish in the sea.

Shortly thereafter you announce to the world that you’re indeed open for business and now willing to do whatever it takes as long as the price is right.  It kind of makes you look a bit like the roles have reversed. Then imagine no one is interested in what you have to sell at the price you’re requesting. What are you to do?

In the Mets scenario the girl who was to be your prom date was Steve Cohen and rumor has it he hasn’t offered himself to anyone else.  If you’re the Wilpon family, do you go back to square one with your head held down and close a deal, or do you try to place personal value (something never before an issue to being part of the Mets organization) above all else and watch the commissioner have to play Dodgers on you and force you out of the game?

For all the headlines we saw about Alex Rodriguez and his girlfriend (what’s her name again?) expressing interest in becoming the new owners, the price tag and organizational challenge of doing so (think Derek Jeter) may push the timeframe well off into the future.  There was even a rumor that James Dolan could be a prospective owner in order to get his grubby hands on SNY, but the professional sports team owner may not on his own have enough capital and there is already another Dolan who has ownership interest in the Cleveland Indians.  

That brings the Mets and Steve Cohen into an interesting tete-a-tete in which the Cohen side must admit they were not humiliated and the Wilpon side must admit that regardless of how the narrative of the sale goes down, executing a sale is a bigger issue than pride.  Wow, that’s a tough one to see either side be happy embracing, yet more and more it looks like the Saul Katz pressure and the various Wilpon business cash flow issues suggest a stronger effort must be made to have the franchise change hands.

For the Wilpons it would mean giving up immediate control of the ballclub to the new owner (whoever it might be).  That was not on the table the last time. It means relinquishing control of other Mets-related assets. That’s another new wrinkle.  It could mean admitting that the guy who expressed interest in the past is actually the right fit.  

Then on Cohen’s side, he has to own up to the alleged changing of terms that broke up the deal in the first place.  He has to realize he will be painted as the villain in the original sale and will lose some of the luster he was going to get as the new king of the franchise by fans completely desperate to see the Wilpons practicing real estate and not merely dabbling in sports ownership.

$3 billion is not chump change.  It makes you wonder how much actually successful clubs like the Dodgers or Yankees or Red Sox would generate if put up for sale.  What’s it going to take to get the egotistical buyer and immature sellers to sit down and work something out? Conversely, what’s it going to take to find someone willing to pay up more than a cell phone buying app bid to acquire the team?  This sitting around, tapping fingers, watching paint dry is starting to get boring.