The New York Times reports that Saul Katz, who along with Fred Wilpon own around a 2/3 interest in the New York Mets, wants to sell his ownership stake.
The problem -- if he sells his share, that likely deprives Fred Wilpon of his control of the team, because Wilpon doesn’t independently own 50%+ of the team. He runs it now in a partnership with Katz, who has always left baseball operations to Wilpon. If Katz were to structure the sale of his stake in such a way to prevent anyone else from having a share as large as Wilpn’s -- say to separate buyers -- he’d get way less than what the shares are actually worth given the lack of any team control offered to the buyers.
So, if Wilpon is to keep control of the team he’d have to buy out Katz himself, which is unlikely given the kinds of cashflow problems Wilpon has. Or I suppose he could try to get Katz to agree to take a fraction of what his large interest might go for in breaking it up among multiple buyers. For what it’s worth, Katz and Wilpon are brothers-in-law and business partners outside of the Mets, so I suppose anything is possible.
My guess: this is Katz making some noise and starting what may be a long process of getting out from under the Mets, not the harbinger of anything imminent given Wilpon’s desire to give the team to his son Jeff and given the logistical problems in place.
But, hey, if it allows Mets fans to at least begin to imagine what it’d be like for their team to be owned by people who actually have money to spend on this team I suppose it’s better than nothing.
