One of the more important negotiations for the Mets this off-season will be their move to refinance roughly $250 million in bank debt, The Post has learned.
It’s too bad for Mets’ fans that even if the franchise hits a home run with its lenders and manages to pull off the deal without paying any principal, it won’t affect the budget for players’ salaries next season, sources said.
That’s because the team is deciding now how much money the GM has to make acquisitions, and the refinancing talks are slated for this winter.
However, fruitful talks with the banks could see an increase in moneys allotted for 2015 salaries, a source said.
Owners Fred Wilpon and Saul Katz, looking at a sizable principal payment this spring, have started reaching out to banks, sources added.
The owners want to postpone repaying principal while they continue to shore up finances after several years of steep losses, burdensome debt and a showdown with the trustee for the victims of Bernie Madoff.
“The big question for the Mets is whether they will need to make a principal payment,” a source said.
Team owners remain confident that with the value of the team rising, they will not need to pony up any cash during the refinancing, sources said.
“This is seen as a decent loan,” a source close to the lending group said.
The Mets are expected to lose more than $10 million this year, sources said, after a $23 million loss in 2012 and the $70 million lost in 2011.
The Amazin’s are in a better bargaining position with their lenders now than they were just two years ago, when the banks said the team violated the terms of its loan covenants.
The Mets were able to raise $240 million last year by selling 40 percent of the team to a group of minority investors that included hedge-fund honcho Steven Cohen and comedian Bill Maher.
On the bright side, the value of all MLB teams has risen since Guggenheim Partners ponied up more than $2 billion for the LA Dodgers in March 2012.
The Mets maintain they now are worth a whopping $1 billion, up from an estimated $600 million in early 2012.
A Mets spokesman declined comment.