The long, horrifying nightmare that has been the reign of Fred and Jeff Wilpon is mercifully coming to an end. At least soon anyway.
Reports are sizzling up the hot stove that the infamous owners are looking to sell 80 percent of team to billonaire Steve Cohen (no relation by the way).
The transaction would value the Mets at $2.6 billion. Cohen is a Long Island native, and avid Mets fan. According to Bloomberg, he is somewhat "controversial" and his life story inspired the long-running Showtime hit, "Billions" (we assume Damien Lewis' character).That's the exciting news. The sobering news? The Wilpon's will remain in control of the team for at least five more years though at least 2025. Even if the sale is complete and Cohen controls the team, the Wilpon's will still have a stake, so they aren't going away.
The sale is welcome news to Mets fans who have suffered for years with the Wilpon's in firm control of all baseball operations. Since Fred Wilpon wrestled control of the team away from Nelson Doubleday in 2002, the Mets have made the playoffs only twice, getting to a World Series once in 2015 where they were defeated by the Kansas City Royals.
But success has been few and very far between during the Wilpon's reign. The franchise has been decimated by what fans perceive as cheap ownership, where the team has been unwilling to spend on big ticket free agents off-season after off-season. When the team has spent money, the Wilpons have burnt money on risky long-term deals like the albatros four-year deal to Yoenis Cespedes, who is still owned $29 million this season.
Whats more the Wilpon's heavy involvement in baseball activities, especially by Chief Operating Officer Jeff Wilpon has left the franchise in a black hole. Under Wilpon's leadership the taem has entrusted a former sports agent in Brodie Van Wagenen to run the team as its General Manager. And after last season's total disaster that involved Van Wagenen calling into the dugout to levy instructions to the coaches, that alone should leave you with all you need to know about how dystopian the Mets have become.
Of course the Wilpon era (or error, depending on your preference) will always be best remembered for the Bernie Madoff scandal.
In 2008 it was reported that the Mets lost close to $700 million in the ponzy scheme, but later reports indicated that the Wilpon's were actually making money during the scheme. The scandal took hold of the franchise, providing an everlasting black-eye for Wilpon, as the Mets frugal owners tightened the purse strings even more on the Major League club as the case dragged on through the year 2011 and 2012. By 2012, the Mets settled with Irving Pichard on his lawsuit for $162 million.
The sale can't happen soon enough for Mets fans. They deserve a winner. Heck they deserve an owner who cares.
No comments:
Post a Comment