from here:
http://bats.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/02/13/wilpon-strikes-optimistic-tone-for-mets-future/?ref=sports<snip>
In addressing the state of the Mets, Wilpon also appeared to conflate team and personal finances.
The franchise remains
heavily leveraged. Wilpon did not discuss the several hundred million dollars of debt still attached to the club or the refinancing of the SNY network — which is said to total $700 million — or the remaining hundreds of millions of dollars in debt on Citifield.
Last December, the hundreds of millions of dollars in bonds issued to finance the stadium were rated “junk status” by Standard & Poor’s. A Mets spokesman declined a request to clarify Wilpon’s statements.
The specter of Madoff still exists, too. The settlement with the trustee representing the victims of Madoff’s fraud scheme required that Wilpon and Katz assign the $178 million they were due to receive from their “net loser” accounts with Madoff to repay the $162 million in fictitious profits they withdrew from other accounts. Based on recoveries made by the trustee so far, Wilpon and Katz have so far lost out on getting back about $76 million of the $178 million total.
At one point on Wednesday, Wilpon was asked if he thought the Mets would be profitable this season. “I hope,” he responded.
“Who knows?” he added. “Will the fans come out? It all depends on whether the fans come out.”
Attendance at Citi Field has fallen every year since it opened in 2009, and the Mets ranked 17th in the majors in attendance last season, a bruising statistic for a team playing in the country’s largest market. Then again, the Mets have finished in fourth place in the National League East for four straight seasons and are not projected to do particularly better in 2013.
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