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Alex Rodriguez and Jennifer Lopez are looking to pick up the Mets with a little help from a friend, and at a coronavirus discount. According to multiple sources familiar with the situation, J-Rod is assembling an ownership group of four-to five-people that could pay up front for the entire franchise. But insiders also point out …
Alex Rodriguez and Jennifer Lopez are looking to pick up the Mets with a little help from a friend, and at a coronavirus discount.
According to multiple sources familiar with the situation, J-Rod is assembling an ownership group of four-to five-people that could pay up front for the entire franchise. But insiders also point out that the Wilpon family, which has been trying to sell the team for months, might have to accept a low offer thanks to the financial impact of the pandemic.
“He’s got a group with some real names,” one source familiar with the J-Rod bid told The Post. “Alex is gonna get this because of COVID. It’s gonna fall in his lap.”
Multiple sources say that the key money player in the arrangement being put together by investment bankers at JPMorgan would appear to be Miami billionaire Jorge Mas, who tried to buy the Miami Marlins in 2017 but lost out to a group fronted by A-Rod’s former Yankees teammate and longtime frenemy, Derek Jeter.
Forbes has estimated Mas’ net worth at just over $1 billion. Mas is no stranger to installing living sports legends in ownership positions, having staked a large part of David Beckham’s bid in Major League Soccer’s newest franchise, Inter Miami.
“I can see Mas being A-Rod’s money guy here,” said one source familiar with the Miami power player. “He and Alex went to the same high school and [both have a connection with the University of Miami]. They’re birds of a feather.”
But while Mas might not have pockets as deep as the Mets most recent suitor, $11 billion hedge funder Steve Cohen — who had a deal to pay $2.6 billion for 80 percent of the team before it fell apart dramatically in February — it might not matter, as the Wilpons are now thought to be desperate to unload the team.
“A motivated seller has a problem right now,” a source close to the Wilpons told The Post. “I think the Wilpons are motivated sellers.”
With the season indefinitely postponed by the pandemic, the Mets are pulling in almost no revenue from tickets or in-stadium sales, and MLB has decreed that all franchises must meet their payroll obligations to players. The Wilpons have had cashflow problems for years, creating debts that would turn toxic if this season were even cut in half.
Based on projections done by The Post and multiple conversations with sources familiar with the Wilpons’ finances, playing only 50 home games at CitiField this year would cost the Wilpons more than $150 million.
The Mets declined to comment on these figures.
One baseball insider told The Post that the average MLB franchise will see its value cut by a third if the season is cut in half. For the Mets, that could be up to 50 percent, with many now valuing the team at just over $1.5 billion.
For Team J-Rod, that could be the recipe for a deal.
Sources close to the couple make it clear that Rodriguez and Lopez, a former Yankee and Bronx native, respectively, see the true value of owning a New York City team, even if it is the one in Queens.
“They see this as a chance to build a brand,” said the source close to A-Rod, who reminded The Post that the former All-Star shortstop and third baseman grew up a Mets fan in Miami. “They want to turn the Mets into a powerhouse and CitiField into a concert venue that rivals Madison Square Garden. A summer MSG.”
That vision sounds like music to the ears of long-suffering Mets fans, but any deal would have to be signed off on by MLB and the other owners.
“The league wants to see someone with liquidity,” one source familiar with the league said. “They want someone with a lot of cash to run the Mets and avoid the second coming of the Wilpons. To be frank, they want Steve Cohen to come back to the table.”
Sources close to Cohen declined to comment on his current interest in buying his childhood team, but sources close to the Wilpons made it clear that he is a longshot.
“They’d rather sell to someone for less money than sell to Steve Cohen,” one Mets insider said. “There is so much bad blood there.”
— Additional reporting by Josh Kosman
