Longtime thorn in the Wilpons’ side, Howard Megdal has some good news (sort of) and bad news (albeit unsurprising) regarding the financial fortunes of the Amazingly Destitute New York Mets. For starters, the Mets finally repaid a $25 million loan from Major League Baseball (several months late), though MLB executive vice president of economics and league affairs tells Megdal that a subsequent loan is unlikely (“I can’t imagine that we would be providing such assistance,”). “Teams that don’t need financial help, after all, wouldn’t have received any from Major League Baseball,” writes Megadal, adding, “the Mets are going to need additional money from somewhere.” From Megdal and Capital New York :
The $240 million they received from selling off minority stakes in the team back in March is already accounted for: at least $110 million to pay off a portion of what was a $430 million debt against the team due in 2014, $25 million back to M.L.B., $40 million to pay off a bridge loan from Bank of America that allowed the team to pay operating expenses last winter, at least $43.7 million in bond payments on Citi Field due in June and December, a revenue-sharing bill due to M.L.B. that totaled $20 million in 2011, $20 million in interest on a $450 million debt against S.N.Y. due in 2015, and at least $20 million in interest on the remaining $320 million or so in debt against the team.
Depending on the team’s losses this season, that puts the end of the $240 million right around the December payment against Citi Field. And ownership still faces the very same cash crunches in 2013 on a money-losing team, interest against the large debts on the team and S.N.Y., and Citi Field debt payments as well.
That leaves Wilpon and his partners with few options: essentially, hope the debtholders give him more time, even if he cannot make a payment on even the interest on his debts, or find another source to loan him money to pay the financing on his already outstanding debts.