Metro

Mets owners could actually make money in Madoff settlement

It’s the biggest win for the Mets since 1986 — but a huge letdown for the fans.

The team’s stingy owners will remain at the helm after striking a sweetheart settlement with the lawyer tasked with recouping billions from Bernie Madoff’s Ponzi scheme — and the deal actually casts them as victims of the fraud.

The deal heads off a risky jury trial, where a loss could have cost owners Fred Wilpon and Saul Katz up to $383 million and control of the franchise.

Instead, fans and baseball analysts said it’ll be back to business as usual for the tight-fisted management, criticized for not spending on top players who boost ticket sales — and wins.

With former Gov. Mario Cuomo mediating, the owners and trustee Irving Picard ironed out the settlement on Friday, just three days before jury selection was scheduled to begin for a long, expensive court trial.

Under the deal, Mets owners have agreed to pay back $162 million in phantom profits that they withdrew from their Madoff accounts between 2002 and 2008 — the year the Ponzi pyramid collapsed.

Picard also dropped his claim that the owners were “willfully blind” to the scheme — allowing them to claim up to $178 million as victims of the fraud.

The settlement needs approval from Manhattan federal Judge Jed Rakoff.

“Although this is something of an anticlimax . . . I am grateful to all concerned,” Rakoff said.

The terms were seen as a major loss for Picard, who originally sought $1 billion when he sued in late 2010 — and a huge mark in the win column for the Mets owners.

“We were not willfully blind, and we are very pleased that the settlement bears that out,” Wilpon said, adding that he will still head to Port St. Lucie, Fla., for Mets spring training.

“So I can smile, and maybe I can take a day off.”

Wilpon also had a message for fans.

“Stick with us. We’ll be there. We have done it before, twice,” referring to the club’s two World Series wins — the last of which was 26 years ago.

Mets owners won’t owe pay anything for at least three years as Picard continues to “claw back” phantom Madoff profits from other investors.

They can then use their victim compensation to pay off their own $162 million liability.

If the bill isn’t paid in full after three years, the owners will be required to make two annual payments on what’s left over — which is, at worst, a manageable debt.

And if the Mets do fork over their whole $162 million share and collect the $178 million they’re claiming as victims — they can actually make as much as $16 million.

Still, the settlement doesn’t mean the Amazin’s finances are back in shape.

The team just took on 12 new minority investors who contributed $20 million each, sources told The Post yesterday.

About $100 million of that money will pay down the team’s staggering debt, which includes $430 million in operating debt, a $40 million emergency bridge loan from Bank of America, and another $25 million loan from Major League Baseball.

The team is now looking to refinance the rest of the money owed, staving off a 2014 deadline.

On top of that, the $600 million Citi Field construction also costs the team $50 million a year.

Owners have taken steps to cut costs in recent years, like slashing payroll to an estimated $90 million from $143 million in 2011.

And since the owners won’t spend for big-name players, fans aren’t buying tickets.

“We project the Mets to have 72 wins this season. This doesn’t get them into the playoffs and doesn’t create fan interest,” said Andrew Patterson, an oddsmaker with Las Vegas Sports Consultants, a subsidiary of Cantor Fitzgerald.

“The Mets are still in a world of hurt.”

Last season, the Mets struggled with 77 wins to 85 losses and failed for the fifth straight year to make the playoffs.

Attendance has slumped to 2.3 million last year, compared with 3.2 million in 2009. Overall ballpark receipts are down 30 percent from 2009 to 2011.

“The [Johan] Santana signing hasn’t worked out. The Jason Bay signing has been awful. David Wright hasn’t been performing up to his level of expectation.

“The team has some big contracts on the books for several years,” Patterson added.

The owners do still have some cheerleaders, though.

“As far as I’m concerned, they’re not broke,” said former Gov. Cuomo, calling the deal common sense.

Other observers also say the worst is over.

“The Mets owners were hit with the perfect storm where the team had turned out bad, the Madoff relationship collapses and its commercial real-estate business was hit,” said Robert Boland, academic chair of NYU’s Tisch Center for Hospitality, Tourism and Sports.

“Solving one of those issues will make it easier.”