It is looking more and more likely SAC Capital’s Steve Cohen will become an investor in the New York Mets. According to published reporters, he is a leading candidate to plunk down $200 million for a minority, 49 percent stake.
Don’t bet on this arrangement lasting long.
This deal may start off as a minority stake with input on budgetary matters, as the report says. But, I am confident in a short period of time Cohen will be controlling the entire team.
He may just need to wait for one impending missed payroll here or approaching interest payment on the debt there.
In fact, he seemed to signal his intention when an earlier report suggested he wanted to invest in bonds issued by the Mets. The obvious motive would be back-door control if Mets owner Fred Wilpon wound up defaulting on the bonds.
Otherwise, I highly doubt Cohen would even get involved with a venture in which the majority owners have demonstrated a history of poor management and baseball judgment.
Afterall, Cohen and most other hedge fund managers are perhaps the biggest control people on this planet. Control is in the hedgie’s DNA. This is why many of them, including Cohen, left lucrative jobs to start their own firms.
Remember, when he was still in his 20s, he already was running his own trading group at Gruntal.
He started his own hedge fund firm in his mid-30s when he already personally had something like $20 million.
The mere structure of a hedge fund, with its little regulatory oversight (until recently) lends itself to control freaks. They hardly need to answer to anyone except themselves. Certainly not shareholders or even co-owners.
So, as owners of their own hedge fund firms, with all of the latitude allowed under their lightly regulated status, it is hard to believe a multi-billionaire would give hundreds of millions of dollars to a financially strapped guy who has run a marquee franchise into the ground and who was duped by Madoff so he can sit at budget meetings and then simply plop down into a cushy seat once the game begins, and then get to rib the players in the locker room.
Of course, Cohen would not be the only hedge fund manager to be invested in a professional sports team. More than one dozen hedge fund managers own all or part of a team in one of the four major sports.
Jeffrey Vinik owns 100 percent of the Tampa Bay Lightning hockey team, Appaloosa’s David Tepper owns a minority stake of the Pittsburgh Steelers and Harbinger’s Phil Falcone owns 40 percent of the Minnesota Wild NHL team, to name a few.
Raptor’s Jim Pallotta owns a minority stake in the Boston Celtics and is one of the four partners of the newly-formed group that recently bought 60 percent of Rome’s soccer team.
And just think of the possibilities if the Mets were owned by one of the most aggressive stock market traders around.
I can already see the changes at SAC Stadium:
Cohen hires a crack code breaker so his coaches to “steal” the signs from the opposing team.
Look for a series of high profile trades involving unlikely individuals, if necessary. Remember, this is a guy who became one of the wealthiest people in the country by trading rapidly and cutting his losses early. Don’t be surprised to see half the team turn over by the end of a season.
If Jason Bay remains a bust, Cohen won’t stubbornly hang on to him to save face. And if an attractive offer is made for young phenom Ike Davis, don’t bet he’ll say no. Anyone would be fair game.
Look for more base-stealing, daring plays on the field. In fact, he may open the vault for exciting free agent Jose Reyes, who is widely expected to be traded before year-end since no one expects him to re-sign with the team. This may change.
Oh, it should be fun in Queens if the Great Neck, Long Island, native buys the team.
