The Mets are still desperately in need of a cash infusion, despite expressed interest from former manager Bobby Valentine in buying a partial stake in the team and a hefty loan from the MLB.
Fortunately for the club, Mets owners think they have at least a dozen names of "legitimate" candidates interested in buying part of the team, the New York Post reports.
Contenders include groups headed by David Heller, co-head of Goldman Sachs' securities, Steve Starker, co-founder of the global-trading firm BTIG, Ken Dichter, co-founder of Marquis Jet, and Anthony Scaramucci, general manager of asset manager SkyBridge Capital, according to the Post.
"The Mets are desperately seeking a buyer for a minority interest in the team -- possibly up to 49 percent -- to raise much-needed cash," the paper reports. "Team owners, including majority owner Fred Wilpon and his brother-in-law Saul Katz, are reeling from costs, and potential costs, stemming from investments they had in Bernard Madoff's Ponzi scheme."
Another name to keep an eye on: Stuart Sternberg, majority owner of the Tampa Bay Rays. He is a Brooklyn native and a Mets season-ticket holder.
While he said that he has no interest in buying the team right now, the Post reported that if the Wilpon family was forced to sell a majority stake, Sternberg could be interested and is a "logical choice to buy the team given his strong existing ties to both baseball and Wall Street."
News of the list of prospective candidates comes a day after the Post published a story that Major League Baseball and the Mets were "exerting strong pressure" on JP Morgan to loan the club more money.
"They [JPMorgan] believe the Mets still have the capacity to borrow," a source told the Post. Another source countered, "Are you kidding me?" when told about the loan. "You don't lend into a distressed situation," that source said. With the Mets losing roughly $50 million a year, the source added, "This is a very risky loan."
