The owners of the cash-strapped Mets have taken a $40 million bank loan while they try to sell minority stakes in the team.
A Mets spokesman confirmed yesterday that a single major bank extended it the bridge loan in the last month or two. In November 2010, the club borrowed $25 million from Major League Baseball to tide it over.
Fred Wilpon and co-owner Saul Katz are trying to line up as many as 10 buyers for stakes worth $20 million to $30 million apiece.
Last month, the owners sweetened their pitch to prospective investors and said they are willing to pay 3 percent interest annually on the stakes over six years.
“The process for the sale of minority shares in the team continues to go very well,” the team said yesterday.
The Mets arranged for the new loan as some big bills were coming due. Last month, the Mets made a $15 million to $20 million revenue-sharing payment to MLB.
Thursday, the team must pay the New York City Industrial Development Agency $26 million for interest on bonds sold to build Citi Field.
A source close to the situation said the bridge loan was borrowed for working capital, and an interest payment to the city would qualify.
When MLB extended the $25 million emergency loan last year, it pressured the Mets to find a minority owner. The ongoing process has taken more than a year; a $200 million deal to sell a minority stake to hedge fund manager David Einhorn collapsed.
The Mets’ existing bank lenders, led by JPMorgan Chase, are owed about $500 million. Although the team will lose roughly $70 million this year, the lenders believe they will be repaid because the Mets would fetch about $900 million through an outright sale.