Here’s the statement from the Mets:
As Sterling Equities announced in December, we are engaged in discussions to settle a lawsuit brought against us and other Sterling partners and members of our families by the Trustee in the Madoff bankruptcy. We are not permitted to comment on these confidential negotiations while they are ongoing.
However, to address the air of uncertainty created by this lawsuit, and to provide additional assurance that the New York Mets will continue to have the necessary resources to fully compete and win, we are looking at a number of potential options including the addition of one or more strategic partners. To explore this, we have retained Steve Greenberg, a Managing Director at Allen & Company, as our advisor.
Regardless of the outcome of this exploration, Sterling will remain the principal ownership group of the Mets and continue to control and manage the team's operations. The Mets have been a major part of our families for more than 30 years and that is not going to change.
As we have said before, we are totally committed to having the Mets again become a World Series winner. Our fans and all New Yorkers deserve nothing less.
My take:
No surprise here. We knew the Madoff issue had put a crimp in the Wilpon’s wallet. I don’t think it’s affected the team in any way – i.e. not spending money for a certain player.
People will champion this as a sign of change, but as they stated in the release, the Wilpons will continue to control team operations.
So, if you got excited, you’re crazy.
And here’s what Mets fans had to say about it on Twitter:
NYC_CHRIS: tide is slowly turing for a good team
nynjpaweather: Great news. Please Donald Trump get in on this!
nick6489: An explanation for the budgetary constraints the fans have been howling at.
TheRealSoxy: Hopefully opens the door for the minority partner to eventually buy out the Wilpons sometime in the future.
Majin_Bernard: It'll be interesting to see the direction of the club going forward with another head honcho.
What do you think?