Is the Wilpon family wobbling?
Howard Megdal
Since the day Bernie Madoff was revealed to be running an enormous Ponzi scheme, any number of scenarios threatened Fred Wilpon's ability to keep control of the New York Mets.
The idea that it might come when his partner Saul Katz sold his stake in the team, as The New York Times reported Monday he wants to, wasn't considered one of them.
Other threats to Wilpon's grip on the team seemed much more likely. There was the immediate loss of capital the team used, from Madoff, to run day-to-day operations. There were the enormous loans Wilpon and his partners took out against the team and their ownership stake in S.N.Y. Finding the money annually to simply finance those loans has left little for them to spend on the team, while the loans themselves hang as spectres over the entire enterprise, the moment the banks decide there's more money to be had by calling in the loans.
There was even the lawsuit brought by Irving Picard, trustee for the Bernie Madoff victims, against Wilpon and his partners. That danger was avoided when the trustee determined Wilpon and his partners were running out of money, and would likely declare bankruptcy rather than pay even a preliminary judgement against them.
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