Over the past few weeks, we've been covering what I think has been an "amazin'ly" (get it lol) under-reported story about the financial meltdown of the New York Mets. First, they were sued for a billion dollars by the victims of the Bernie Madoff ponzi scheme after it was revealed they did business with the disgraced financier. Then, the Wilpon family who owns the team announced that they were putting up 20-25% of the team up for sale in hopes of an infusion of cash to help cover their expenses.
Then, the team admitted that they had taken a $25 million loan from major league baseball to cover their basic expenses last year. At the time, the team claimed the loan was to help cover a "short-term liquidity issue." But clearly it's more serious than that. It was later revealed that the $25 million was on top of $50 million they had already borrowed from Major League Baseball. In the wake of this, Moody's Investor Services even lowered their outlook on the teams' parent company to "negative." In fact, banks who are holding Mets debt are selling it off at a discount to lower their exposure to the struggling team.
Now, the New York Post is reporting that the Mets are seeking yet another loan "in the tens of millions of dollars," this time from J.P. Morgan to continue to cover their expenses. The report says that MLB is "exerting strong pressure" on the bank to give the Mets the loan. The kicker is that the Mets are already into JP Morgan for $430 million in outstanding loans. The Post's sources were conflicted about whether the team would get the lifeline it's seeking.
"They [JPMorgan] believe the Mets still have the capacity to borrow," a source said.
But another source said, "Are you kidding me?" when told about the loan. "You don't lend into a distressed situation," that source said. "This is a very risky loan," with the team losing about $50 million a year.