But the Mets owners had not only become reliant on their Madoff returns, they’d actually borrowed against them. (Smart, right?) So when that money went poof in the night, they needed to borrow against the team ($430 million) and SNY ($450 million). The financing on that debt, which they consolidated a few years back, plus twice-annual debt balloon payments on Citi Field, together reaches nine figures.
You know, like a major league payroll.
Now whether the Mets continue to skim tens of millions of dollars off what other large market teams spend in MLB because they cannot afford to spend on the Mets, or because they discovered when things were their most dire that they won’t pay a price for doing so with either enough fans or Major League Baseball to spoil their chance to keep more of your money, it’s hard to say at this point.
Source: Howard Megdal, Forbes.com
I read this article and my takeaway is that he thinks that the Mets should be dumb and overpay, because that’s what cools kids are doing.