The Mets continue to run into problems both on and off the field, but owner Fred Wilpon remains confident his family will retain controlling interest of the team.
“Oh, very,” Wilpon said of whether he was optimistic about that prospect as he was leaving MLB headquarters in Midtown yesterday following the owners meetings.
When asked if he still expected the sale of a portion of the team to be completed in the next couple of months, Wilpon said, “I hope so.”
No doubt his longtime friend, MLB commissioner Bud Selig, feels the same way. This is despite sources telling The Post earlier in the week that hedge-fund titan Steve Cohen, who was the leading candidate to land part of the team, had lost interest. That is perhaps because Selig’s office had questions about the reported federal probe into trading activity at Cohen’s SAC Capital.
Selig would not address Cohen’s potential interest in the Mets, saying that the Wilpons had not brought him any candidates. Still, he expressed confidence last month the sale would be completed shortly and said his attitude has not changed, despite the delay.
“I have the same level of confidence today,” Selig said.
When pressuring the money-losing Mets in November to find a buyer for a minority stake in the team, the commissioner had set the owners meetings as the benchmark to name a buyer.
Selig has not reached out to Irving Picard, the trustee who is suing to get the Wilpons and others to repay money they allegedly made from the Bernie Madoff Ponzi scheme, saying that would be “inappropriate.”
But the commissioner said he is in regular contact with Allen & Co.’s Steve Greenberg, whom the Wilpons installed as the point man for the sale of a stake in the franchise.
“I think they’re moving forward to a very satisfactory conclusion,” Selig said.
***Selig met yesterday with owner Frank McCourt of the Dodgers, baseball’s other cash-strapped team, though he would not reveal details of their meeting. The league, which took over control of the team last month after McCourt’s messy divorce put his ownership in peril, is reviewing of the TV deal with Fox that could keep the Dodgers afloat. It was clear time is of the essence — especially since there are questions regarding whether the team will be able to meet payroll by the end of the month.
“We’re doing this very thoughtfully and with a lot of planning,” Selig said. “I’m very comfortable with where we are. . . . We’re moving as fast as we can.”
***While the NFL already is in the midst of a lockout that could affect next season and the NBA could soon follow, baseball is trying to avoid a similar fate before its Collective Bargaining Agreement expires on Dec. 11.
The two sides began meeting in March, and Rob Manfred, the VP of Labor Relations, expressed mild optimism yesterday.
“I really like the pace we’re on,” he said. “We’re in the early stages of the process. The process is well under way.”
And it looks to be further along than it was in 2006, when talks didn’t begin in earnest until June and an agreement was reached during the World Series. Manfred warned of reading too much into the accelerated pace.
“No Collective Bargaining Agreement [negotiation] is of the same length,” Manfred said. “The fact we started earlier doesn’t mean we’ll be done earlier. You just can’t predict when we will be be done.”
He declined to comment on whether the tenor of the negotiations was different now that Michael Weiner has replaced Donald Fehr as the Executive Director of the Players Associations.
Selig opted not to get involved in the fray, saying only, “It’s very early.”
Baseball’s last work stoppage came in 1994.