4
2011
Mario The Mediator
An article by Former Writers
As reported earlier by Ken Nelson and Richard Sandomir, Mario Cuomo who is trying to broker a settlement between the owners of the Mets and the trustees representing the victims of Bernard Madoff’s Ponzi scheme, said Thursday that he was working with both sides on a daily basis.
Cuomo spoke to reporters at the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in Manhattan where he greeted lawyers for the trustee and the owners of the Mets. Reached later by phone, Cuomo said the process involved making suggestions as to how they can make better progress with a settlement than they can in litigation and hoping they reduce the amount of internecine warfare with motions back and forth.
After the 90-minute hearing Cuomo said the proceedings confirmed why he was asked to mediate a solution. “This is a very complicated case – it’s going to be very big, and it’s going to be very difficult.”
No wonder the world of baseball and finance are watching carefully. The Wilpons – with their strange ways of doing business – have made things difficult to sort out. Personally I believe that they have more than met their match with the Honorable Mario Cuomo as the mediator. However, the real losers here are the baseball players and the fans.
By the way, the NFL is also having lots of fun this week as well, across town – where their players and customers are almost mutinous.
Maybe we should all give up feeding their coffers and stay home with the kids and watch our sports on TV —–
Any takers?
About the Author: Former Writers
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It’s obvious that this subject doesn’t appeal to everyone here, but it should. The Mets team is fully involved in this case off the field while the Wilpon’s still have ownership of the team. They have now borrowed their last 25 million from Bud Selig’s discretionary fund. This story is all over the NY papers, not just the tabs. The Wall Street Journal has two articles this morning. Don’t forget, NYC is the financial capital of the country and they play for real on Wall Street.
It’s not that the subject is not appealing but just this post about Cuomo is not appealing at least for me it wasn’t.
Speaking about the subject did you see the Times article about the people interested in buying the Mets?
nytimes.com/2011/03/03/sports/baseball/03wilpon.html?_r=2&partner=rss&emc=rss
Did you also see the Daily News article about David Becker and his possible conflicts of interest?
nydailynews.com/sports/baseball/mets/2011/03/04/2011-03-04_lawyer_david_beckers_strange_story_is_now_subject_of_sec_inspector_generals_inte.html
I don’t know if you posted something on this and I just missed it since I know you usually post something on this subject with regularity. In any case it may be something also worth following.
Mr. North Jersey
I’m a newspaper freak and I get the Times and the Daily News delivered to my front door every day along with my local paper, the New Haven Register.
I’m glad you brought this up because everyone seems to be so nonchalant about this – when there were two articles in the Wall Street Journal -online – this morning about the whole situation. This is not normal news, and you’re right, less than 1 or 2 MMO bloggers seem to care about this at all. They do not realize that everything is seeming to come together – no one is operating on their own. And the Feds are in on it all now.
When Mario is called in, you know you’ve got big trouble, and so does he. As an aside – Mario was on track to be a baseball player, but got injured and went to law school and the rest is history.
So, if you like I’ll try to post about the whole mess more often, this is all very fascinating for me with my poli/sci background and my love of the game. It’s sad to see what the Wilpons have done…
Personally I would rather see less than more regarding this mess. Of course what you wish to post is entirely up to you and i respect that.
I don’t share your views as far the Wilpons are concerned. I just wanted to say that while this specific post may be of little interest that is not to say the overall subject matter falls in the same category.
I think you may be reading Coumo’s role here differently than I do anyway.
If the lawyer for the victims truly had a case then why did they assign a mediator?
If the Wilpons really are in trouble this would be in court already. The judge seems to think that there is middle ground here that Cuomo is trying to get both sides to.
Their team financials are screwed up because of lack of attendance not Madoff or this case as some try link the two for reasons that has very little to do with the case or the team and everything to do with wanting the Wilpons run out of town.
And if they had clearly done something wrong then there would be no negotiations just prosecution.
So much crap flying around about this that it is a subject that really should not be talked about until resolved and the facts are presented in court!
And the injustice that is percieved to be affecting the team because of it would be a problem with the team not the wilpons. They get paid millions to focus on baseball, if they are focused on anything else it isn’t anything else’s fault it is the players fault.
“Any takers?”
I’m in! lol
I don’t think it will ever happen but at some point it would be nice for the fans to show these guys that if sharing 9 Billion is that difficult we COULD make it a lot easier for them by reducing the revenue to 1 Billion and show them what HARD decisions really is all about!
Annie,
I find this topic extremely interesting and pertinent and that we need to be kept up to speed on developments as much as possible. It is apparent to me that the Wilpons are in some extent of financial distress due to the impact of the Ponzi scheme, the risks and potential liabilities associated wih it, Citifield attendance, and probably many other factors as well. They appear to have have over leveraged themselves and no longer qualify for loans to back their financial condition. Their credit line appears to destroyed. This is a topic that is not irrelevant to Mets fans. The Wilpons can claim that this has no negative effect on the operation of the team, but it is very difficult to agree with that view. If they needed to borrow from MLB and have now been turned down on additional borrowing requests, the operation of the team appears to be very much in jeopardy. I will give just one example. I continue to believe that Jose’ Reyes continues to be an exceptionally talented player and certainly part of the Mets core. He is playing in his contract year. He is apparently now in top form and physical condition again. In their current financial state, how will the Wilpons be able to afford to resign Jose’ to a market competitive contract? I see no way around Jose’ ending his time with the Mets this season. He will either walk as a free agent or be traded. Now tell me again that the Wilpons financial condition does not affect the team negatively. If he needs to be traded, the Mets will be bargaining from a position of weakness as the other GM’s will be very familliar with the state of affairs and looking to take advantage of the situation. How sad that we as Mets fans must be affected in such ways as this. The example of Jose’ is just one way in which the financial condition of the owners affects this organization negatively. for Mets fans to be disinterested is ridiculous, because it is the one thing that overshadows everything else. So Annie, I think you need to continue reporting upon such developments.
Thank you for the nice words and a very good post.
You are correct in that MLB and Bud Selig are finished doling out any funds to the Wilpons. MLB gave them $25 million and Bud gave a smaller amount from his personal funds.
However, don’t cry for the Wilpons’ – they teamed up with Maddox for years and then he got caught and so did they, but they’ve tried to talk their way out of it. No one I know believes them.
I do feel as you do about the team members themselves. It’s never fun to work for a business in trouble.
So, it’s back to the Wall Street Journal and the Times, but now the regular baseball writers have discovered the real situation – I’ve read Bob Klapish and Joel Sherman this morning and there will be the others.
I actually got into this a couple of weeks ago when I read that Mario Cuomo had been hired to mediate a baseball issue. He’s done this before and is a favorite of mine.
It’s almost time for me to get ready to watch today’s game….
“It’s never fun to work for a business in trouble.”
Is that an excuse to not do your job as good as possible?
Is that a good enough reason to not do what you are STILL getting paid to do?
Anyone can make an accusation and take you to court. Should you be forced to hurt yourself and lose money on an investment just because made ALLEGED accusations of something you may not have done and may be proven innocent of when the facts are brought before a judge?
You know who says the wilpons will need more money from anyone?
If the team is in 1st place by the end of May then they will probably be in the black as far as money is concerned because people will pack the stadium.
And unless they re-sign both Reyes and Beltran sometime soon the cost of doing business is going to be much cheaper after this season.
I just hope that everyone who seems so convinced of the Wilpon’s Madoff guilt will be as active in posting how sorry they were for accusing someone the court may eventually find Innocent and not in on the scam.
We are so quick to judge people in this world and never as quick to vindicate when they get their day in court and win.
It’s not about guilt or innocence; it’s about doing what is right for the team. It is obvoious they are in financial distress of some significant magnitude. Otherwise, they wouldn’t have borrowed funds from MLB and from Bud Selig himself. It is apparent they have no credit line anywhere and have been refused an additonal loan from MLB. That is not a minor technicality. It has very important consequences for the team, even if ownership claims it doesn’t. It will determine whether Jose’ Reyes can be maintained on this team for one thing. The right thing to do for this team is for the owners to sell it in entirety so that the new owners can take it forward to reach success. This team currently has an anchor attached to it. That anchor is its ownership. Everybody above 8th grade should be able to see that by now.