Steve Cohen isn’t done with the New York Mets. He’s still willing to pay $3 billion for majority control and also “wants SNY.”
Steve Cohen still wants the New York Mets, but he also wants SNY.
Thornton McEnery of the New York Post reported that Cohen is still interested in buying the Mets, but would also want SNY—the team’s cable network—to be included in the deal.
The current owners, The Wilpons, value the franchise at $3 billion and Cohen believes the only way that price would be fair is if SNY is included. However, it is still unknown if the Wilpons are willing to give that up.
A banker familiar with the deal told McEnery, “The team loses $50 million a year in a good year, so he [Cohen] wants SNY’s revenue, and he might pay a small premium to never have to deal with Fred and Jeff [Wilpon] ever again.”
To the surprise of some, the Wilpons are still interested in selling the team even after the initial deal with Cohen fell through. Things ended badly for both parties but especially for the Wilpons, who were on the receiving end of a backlash from the fanbase. Cohen didn’t like the Wilpons’ five-year window clause and the Wilpons weren’t accepting of that.
However, they may be forced to end up selling to Cohen.
“They clearly don’t want to sell to Steve Cohen,” a former Mets employee said. “But who is going to come close to paying what he will?” Sources also told McEnery that Cohen is hesitant to re-negotiate with the Wilpons after what happened the first time around and that after looking at the team’s balance sheet, he doesn’t want to make an offer north of $2.6 billion.
That’s why he’s insisting on SNY being added to the deal. To the dismay of fans who can’t stand the current owners, this whole ordeal can easily drag on for a while. It appears as though the Wilpons selling to Cohen may be in the best interest of everyone involved.
