UPDATE, a comment from JPK about the original title of this post.
Disagree with your use of the colloquial “in the hole” — makes it sound like the Mets have a net worth of negative 625 million. In fact 625 million is the very, very liberal evaluation of all their debt — making assumption that all possible contingent liabilities do vest while not factoring in any of the team’s positive value either in the franchise, the stadium or the stake in SNY. I don’t think these types of financial stories can support imprecise language. Can’t really use Oscar Madisonisms like “in the hole” and still convey precisely what you are trying to convey. Think it’s worth a revision
Fair point. Like I said, I’m a fat guy who barely understands all this and I was using a colloquialism.
….
Interesting stuff in Fortune that explains that when you factor in things like the Bonilla contract, the Mets may owe more like $625m than $430m.
I’m just a fat guy drinking an iced coffee, so maybe I misunderstood the entire thing. Don’t take my writing to the bank..but here’s the article if it interests you.
it’s been widely reported that the franchise has around $430 million in bank debt. But a potential investor who spoke to Fortune on condition of anonymity points out that the team’s liabilities are closer to $625 million, from a buyer’s perspective.
via Inside the New York Mets’ financial ledger – FORTUNE Features – Fortune on CNNMoney.com.
Well then, why not factor in the rest of Johan’s contract too? I mean, we owe it right? This team is an operating business, and the market is not going to go away that they can no longer operate. Worrying about a minute payment they have to make in 5 years is silly. Yes, they’re liable for that money.
Also, using a 11% decline in attendance from a cold rainy April in a bad economy and ignoring that they’re on a 6 game winning streak that’ll raise interest in this team next week is sloppy. Increase/decrease in attendence/revenue is not easily predictable.
Increase/decrease in attendance and revenue is fairly easily predictable…it’s called running a business. All the successful business owners in the world know how to predict stuff like this fairly accurately. I don’t own a billion dollar business and I projected a sizable attendance drop starting several years ago. The business model (of all the New York Sports Teams) does not work in the world we live in today.
Fine then, but I could’ve told you they’d be down in attendence in April regardless of what happened. To project that for the rest of the season is not a wise guess. It’s also heavily predicated on the performance of the Mets (and in a way the Phillies and the Yankees. Phillies keeping the division within reach and the Yankees not playing well draw more fans to Citi) It’s not easy to predict that.
Disagree with your use of the colloquial “in the hole” — makes it sound like the Mets have a net worth of negative 625 million. In fact 625 million is the very, very liberal evaluation of all their debt — making assumption that all possible contingent liabilities do vest while not factoring in any of the team’s positive value either in the franchise, the stadium or the stake in SNY. I don’t think these types of financial stories can support imprecise language. Can’t really use Oscar Madisonisms like “in the hole” and still convey precisely what you are trying to convey. Think it’s worth a revision
Hey, I’m a far guy too — just a fat guy that does corporate litigation to support my habit for mets tickets!
also, I prefer cold-brewed to ice coffee. vastly superior.
It’s got something to do with performance, but it’s more to do with perception and pricing, as well as the overall opinion of the Mets. Hell, even the Yankees are down in attendance and season ticket sales this year. I could have told you at the end of last year that the attendance would face a significant drop off this year without a major reduction in pricing (not the chump change reduction like they did). This wasn’t hard to predict at all, but it’s also a good explanation of why the Mets have $650 mil in debt…the people there believe in the Ceetar theory which just isn’t right or economically sound.
There is so much corporate greed (or at least the air of it) surrounding the Mets right now that they could win a world series and attendance would still be down. There are a lot more PR battles that need to be fought off the field before anything on the field or in the stands change.