It would have been a weird look for Bronx natives, for Yankee Alex Rodriguez withdrew his bid with fiance, Jennifer Lopez, to buy the New York Mets. Before going more in-depth about the collapsed bid, and looking to the duo’s next move, a former Yankee, and “Jenny from the block” setting up shop with the team from Queens? While I’m not a fan of A-Rod’s, that would have been just too weird of a move for baseball.
Okay, back on track.
Why the Bid Fell Apart
A-Rod and J-Lo were teaming up with a Long Island billionaire named Wayne Rothbaum. It was more out of convenience that the three agreed to enter this partnership then they all got along. From Thornton McEnery of the NY Post, “He was not their first choice, but he was the first to agree to the next steps.” Rothbaum also wanted more control in his stake of the bid than the happy couple wanted to surrender.
The J-Rod/Rothbaum group was looking to also purchase SNY as well as the Mets from the Wilpon’s. The Wilpon’s have no intention of selling SNY with the Mets. What made the Cohen bid this fall go as far as it did last winter was Cohen left SNY off the block with his $2.6 billion bid. The Wilpon’s were steadfast in that being the new benchmark for a bid should they sell.
But with teams around the country set to lose hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue due to the pandemic this season, will the Wilpon’s agree to a deal that’s less than $2 billion, or even go low enough to sell the team for less than $1 billion? Governor Cuomo was quick to reference the Wilpon’s voicing their concern over how much money they’d be losing on top of paying players’ salaries.
Will They Try Again?
If the deal with the Mets materialized, J-Rod would be minority owners in the club, but would undoubtedly serve as the face of the club, much in the way the Jeter is the face of the Marlins. The two have a combined net worth of $700 million, meaning Rothbaum was going to be the principle owner on paper. As their wedding has been indefinitely postponed due to the pandemic, it feels safe to say one will. With A-Rod’s interest in business investment in his post-playing career, coupled with his long-standing desire to be a front office executive/owner for a professional team, it seems like a foregone conclusion that there will be another attempt by Alex to buy a baseball team. Whether Jennifer decides to join him remains to be seen, but if her philanthropic endeavors during the pandemic don’t satisfy her, yea… I think she’ll sign up again.