The final remnants of the Wilpon family’s influence on the New York Mets may soon be a thing of the past.
Despite selling their majority stake in the franchise to billionaire Steven Cohen in 2020, father and son duo Fred and Jeff Wilpon — along with Saul Katz — retained the rights to SportsNet New York, the broadcasting partner of the Mets.
Five years later, it appears as though the Wilpon and Katz families are relinquishing their last remaining association with the club. The group has commissioned independent investment bank Moelis & Co. to find a potential buyer for the network, according to a report from The Wall Street Journal’s Lauren Thomas.
SNY Has a Deal in Place to Broadcast Mets Games Through 2035
SNY is best known for its coverage of the Mets and has an exclusive agreement to broadcast the club’s games through 2035. Outside of live event coverage, the network is home to pre-and-postgame shows for the Mets and Jets and covers other area teams like the Yankees, Knicks and Giants on their daily SportsNite show.
WFAN’s midday radio show “Evan and Tiki” is also simulcast on SNY, along with programming related to Tri-State area colleges.
Cohen, the hedge fund mogul who purchased the Mets for $2.5 billion, seems like the logical choice to buy the network, but could face competition from other regional sports networks or private equity firms.
A Move to Buy SNY Would Come Amid High Fan Interest in the Mets
Rich Schultz/GettyFormer Mets Chief Operating Officer Jeff Wilpon and Chairman of the Board & Chief Executive Officer Fred Wilpon.
The move comes at an opportune time as interest in the the Mets is arguably the highest it’s been this century. The team is coming off an appearance in the National League Championship Series last season and committed 15 years and $165 million to star outfielder Juan Soto in the offseason.
Since Cohen’s takeover, the team has been at or near the top of the league in terms of money committed to the roster — something that was a topic of contention when the Wilpons owned the club.
As owners, the Katz and Wilpon families were perhaps most infamously known for their involvement with Bernie Madoff, the orchestrator of the largest Ponzi Scheme in financial history. Madoff died in federal prison in 2021 while serving an 150-year sentence.
The then-Mets owners avoided jail time for their relationship with Madoff, but were ordered to pay $61 million to victims of the fraud, thus hamstringing the Mets’ payroll further.
Now, 23 years after their purchase of the Mets — and five years after their sale of the club itself — the Wilpon and Katz group may finally have their hands completely clean of the franchise.
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