In the Daily News, Greg B. Smith explains, “The company that owns the Mets was one of a handful of ultra-wealthy investors prosecutors say were duped by Wall Street wheeler-dealer Bernard Madoff.”
According to CNBC, Fred Wilpon and partner Saul Katz, though their investment entity Sterling Equities, could have lost as much as $300 million.
The Mets issued a statement yesterday, which read, “This news does not affect the day-to-day operations and long-term plans of the Mets organization and the Citi Field project.”
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this explains why the mets dumped schoweneis!
We have great owners!
He could always ask the $teinbrenners for money.
I think this will have a major impact on the mets.
I hope I am wrong
300 million might be only the tip of the iceberg.
Sterling equities is very involved with other investors that were scamed.
Look at what is happening in SD with the owner going through a divorce and that is only a divorce.
lets hope for the best.
Of course they are going to say not to worry how it will effect the team and the payroll, but without question the Wilpons will be very aware of Omars expenditures more now than ever before.
yeah this is very bad, let’s hope this is just personal wealth, and not business wealth that is getting hurt.
I bet those wilpons cannot WAIT for citi field to open.
$7 hot dogs just went up to $47.50.
Mustard is extra.
We coulda signed CC, AJ and had enough left over for Hudson. Dumb,,,
Pretty amazing. To be fair to the Wilpons, it’s not like this Madoff guy is Joe Isuzu…he used to be the head of NASDAQ.
Good, serves them right for not cancelling the taxpayer/Citi Field rip-off. Screw them. Now they know a little bit how mot people feel when they get screwed out of job, pensions and rip offs at Shea/taxpayer field.
You guys need to understand that one has nothing to do with the other, the mets operate from the money the team generates not the real estate company wilpon is co owner of.
And like gipper said, the guy that was at the helm of this scheme was very well known and respected.
It shouldnt have even a minimal effect on the team.
Building a new stadium, mostly with private money (unlike in most cities) screws people out of jobs and pensions how, exactly? Doesn’t it CREATE jobs?
dieselpi,
You are correct, they operate from different books entirely….still….one wonders if after losing $300M in any of your businesses if you are slightly gunshy in some outlays in your other businesses. Let’s hope any effect is indeed minimal.
one doesnt effect the other because wilpon is the sole owner of the mets whereas he is a co owner of the business, if you co owned a business with me would you allow me to spend the money we make on a venture that has nothing to do with you?
probably not
on top of which while 300 mill is a big # to us, to billionairs it isnt huge, its all relative. This amounts to a tax write off to them.
I have an incredibly hard time believing this won’t affect the mets, unfortunately. I have to say I am starting to get worried. Not just in signing FA’s but in spending in the draft and IFA.
Rod you are completely off base, i know many people that worked on citi field. It created many jobs just as the building of the new yankees stadium did.
And if you are gonna have a gripe with how it effects tax payers, tell me how you feel about schools, fire depts, the roads you drive on, every stadium ever built in ny, etc
all of those get paid for by tax payers indirectly
And we thought Castillo was a bad investment!
Sign Manny
Winning the World Series still creates more revenue. Spending money does not equate into winning. Being smart and knowing baseball does.
Wilpon is not the sole owner of the Mets. Sterling Equities which is also owned by Saul Katz in addition to Wilpon owns the Mets. Sterling Equities is the entity that lost money under Madoff and the thing to remember is no one has disclosed the amount yet. It could be over $300 million — or less — but I would think $300 million will have some effect on the way the holding company operates and it will have some effect on the Mets.
Sterling Equities also is the majority owner of SNY.
Regardless of the Madoff money loss, the Mets were not planning to raise payroll this year which is probably the right move given the economy. Mets fans should forget about Teixiera or Manny.
“Good, serves them right for not cancelling the taxpayer/Citi Field rip-off. Screw them. Now they know a little bit how mot people feel when they get screwed out of job, pensions and rip offs at Shea/taxpayer field.”
Rod, do you think before you post? You must feel great that the “rich man got his due”! I’ll bet you’re one of those guys that doesn’t work any harder than he has to and when review time comes around, you complain about your paycheck, right? Man, if I woke up like you every morning, i’d kill myself. It’s called a recession! People lose thier jobs, find new ones and then everything is back to normal again. We just happen to be in a global recession where most of the world is in the same boat.
At the heart of this is the Wilpons. If I lost money, and I don’t care how much it is, i’d start looking into my business and seeing where things had to be trimmed as well. I’m pretty sure they know what its like to lose something, and its probably on as large of a scale as someone losing thier job and/or pension. My advice….stop throwing stones and getting off on someone else’s misery. You’ll be a much happier person if you invest in success for yourself and/or someone else.
And if you didn’t Shea was a taxpayer field, you are SORELY mistaken.
“Winning the World Series still creates more revenue. Spending money does not equate into winning. Being smart and knowing baseball does.”
100% agreed Razor. If you see the moves the Yankees made this past week, you’d think they were trying to buy themselves another ring. The Phillies, Red Sox, Marlins, D-Backs and yes, even the Cardinals, have proven that it doesn’t take a lot of money to build a good team….it just takes a few guys with a lot of heart.
I think Omar realizes the mistakes he’s made over the course of his tenure as GM. The recent acquisitions of Johan Santana, K-Rod and JJ Putz have completely re-energized the fan base and brought excitement to this team which had not been there for a long time. A lot of people on here THINK they know how to put together a good baseball team, and that’s fine….so do I…..but at the same time, we all need to think and realize that sometimes the best team on paper does not always translate to the best team on the field. That happens over the course of a season.
The Red Sox don’t use a lot of money? Even before their payroll sky rocketed the Red Sox poured money, and believe me when I say poured, into scouting and development and consistently have spent more than basically everyone else on the draft, and usually in IFA too. The Red Sox spend way more money than you would think just on their payroll, their payroll which is already one of the highest in the majors.
IMO our problem isn’t not spending on free agents, even though the economy is no excuse because we have another 33 million coming off the books next year and they’re already spending less than some of thier big market counter-parts relative to how much we bring in, it’s been not spending in those other areas that aren’t as public but probably more important and more correlative to winning.
Enough with the heart and grit stuff – you still need quality players that produce. Maintaining good chemistry is a plus, but you’re not winning a World Series with 9 David Ecksteins – no matter how hard they try.
maybe they will sell the team to someone who REALLY wants to win and is a Mets fan and not an old Dodgers fan…but i really do think they dont draft nearly as well as a lot of teams and i am sure that has a lot to do with the scouting system, etc…anyway….we got what we got and it aint half bad…
wilpon you lost me i want to come back!
lcs487 (20),
Very well said.
Thanks Gipper….
Gina, I agree 100%….I think in the case of the Red Sox, you had DECADES of not winning a championship and a rivalry with the Yankees that helped facilitate that spending on the farm system. And it paid off huge….twice. Good for them.
If anything, I believe we need to replenish the farm system with quality talent. Hopefully this team continues to replenish the farm system and at the same time put a good team on the field that can contend. But it is a delicate balance to say the least.
lcx487, really it wasn’t until the last decade, mostly when Epstein was brought in in 2002, that they completely revamped their scouting departments and the way they approached the draft, mostly since 2004 is when they’ve been pouring money into the draft.
Yeah, Ellsbury, Buckholz, Craig Hansen(part of the package to get Bay), Jed Lowrie, Bowden were all drafted in 05. What’s funny is they also drafted Pedro Alvarez and Allan Dykstra, both first round picks this year, that year.
It’s amazing how quickly you can transform a team when you draft well.
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