It looks like the New York Mets might not be up for sale anymore. The deal where hedge fund manager Steve Cohen buys the Mets appears to be dead.
Cohen had bought an eight-percent limited partnership in the Mets in 2012. He was looking to get an 80 percent controlling share in the team, a transaction that values the Mets at $2.6 billion. However, Cohen is ending negotiations with the Wilpons to buy the Mets because he isn’t happy with the Wilpons changing the terms of the deal, according to Thornton McEnery of the New York Post.
Cohen thought that he would get some control and be able to help make team decisions during the five-year transition period. However, the Wilpons recently told Cohen that they would have control over all team decision making until the end of the five-year transition period, according to McEnery and Josh Kosman of the New York Post. The Wilpons and the Mets and Cohen have declined to comment on the situation.
MLB commissioner Rob Manfred believes that the Mets won’t be sold to Cohen.
“I think there are kind of two things that are out there,” Manfred said at the MLB Owners Meetings on Thursday. “The first is that there is not going to be a transaction. My belief is that’s accurate. The second is, exactly what happened with respect to the transaction, I can tell you, and it’s based on conversations with the buyer and the seller on an ongoing basis, the assertion that the transaction fell apart because of something that the Wilpons did is completely and utterly unfair.”
Manfred added, “All I can tell you is right now, my belief is there is not going to be a transaction. My soothsaying isn’t great. I don’t know what’s going to happen. As of right now, it’s my belief that that transaction’s not going forward.”
We’ll see if Cohen and the Wilpons can work things out or if someone else tries to buy the Mets. In the meantime, Spring Training is right around the corner.
