David Lennon of Newsday caught up with Mets owner Fred Wilpon who is more optimistic about the 2015 season than he’s ever been over the last few seasons. Wilpon refrained from giving any details at the owners meetings last week, except to say that the Mets finally “have the horses to win.”
Lennon says that despite outward appearances, the Wilpons are not absentee landlords and they remain closely involved with every move the franchise makes, down to the smallest detail.
“So far, that hasn’t translated to winning, and nothing that either Wilpon says can change that without impactful moves.”
The resentment toward Mets ownership has reached a fevered pitch with as many as three petitions now circulating, fans organizing protests, another fan funding a pair of billboards near Citi Field, and increased pressure from mainstream media, most recently Ken Rosenthal of Fox Sports.
Last week, Matt Cerrone made an argument that if the Mets win this season it would cure all and nobody would care about the Wilpons. I posed that question to our readers and here were some of the responses I received.
El Verdadero Presidente – Winning would lower the heat, short-term. But when the owners are financially incompetent, they won’t be able to hold onto any young stars. And if we get good and then start auctioning off Harvey, Duda, Wheeler, etc, then fans will finally begin to see what we scream about here. New York wants to put its stars on pedestals, not ship them out because they’re too good.
Bo Beck – Nothing cures incompetence, it just masks it.
Clark – It does not, what it does do is get the fans back into the seats for the chance of a bigger payroll. What guarantee is there that the Wilpons raise the payroll with the profits from a winning season? I can see them using most of the profit to pay off debt and maybe increasing payroll a little.
Kevin H. – Not unless you win it all. Even if the Mets make the postseason this year but do not win it all, fans will question what could have been with a reasonable payroll.
Mad Met – Winning takes the sting out of embarrassing owners but it does not fix the problem. Good business people understand their customer base. Sadly for the Wilpons they lost touch with the fan base. They do not understand the sting of the lack of commitment to winning down to the disrespect to the Mets with the Dodger love fest.
Some Dude 718 – It’s kind of an unfair question: Incompetent owners cannot sustain winning. That’s their most important job, create a sustained winning franchise. So the actual problem is that they’re not winning, and it doesn’t look like they are willing to invest the money required to give us the best chance to start winning AND they’re also incompetent and embarrassing.
Where do you stand on this? Will a winning season wipe away any ill feelings about ownership? Has ownership done enough to produce a winning season this year? Let us know how you feel.
