Mike Bloomberg has always had a philanthropic connection to New York City. Be a hero to Mets fans. It’ll only cost you lunch money to buy the team…
Mike Bloomberg, regardless of yours, mine, or anyone’s politics, is a stand-up guy.
As the mayor of New York City, he accepted only $1 a year throughout his 12 years in the mayor’s office, rejecting a salary that would have amounted to $2.7 million throughout his tenure, according to The New York Times.
Instead, Bloomberg spent $650,000 of his fortune throughout his time as mayor, including roughly $6 million on private plane travel, according to the Times.
Michael Bloomberg Can Do The Math
Bloomberg’s net worth is estimated to be just shy of $62 billion.
The value placed on the New York Mets during the recently aborted sale of the team to hedge fund manager Steve Cohen was $2.6 billion.
Reports indicate the Wilpons are still willing to sell the team, but they will only do so on a cash basis.
Doing the math, it would cost Michael Bloomberg a mere four percent of his total wealth to buy the Mets – straight out.
In doing so, Bloomberg, with one stroke of a pen, can relieve millions of New Yorkers of the burden they carry as fans of the Mets.
According to Business Insider, alongside fellow billionaires Bill Gates and Warren Buffett, Bloomberg has signed the Giving Pledge, vowing to donate at least half of his wealth to charity.
The Mets, in their drama-filled dysfunctional ways of doing business, are a charity case worthy of Bloomberg’s attention.
Timing Is Everything
This is not a joke; I am dead serious. No longer trusting the Wilpons and especially Jeff to run the team, Saul Katz and his family want out. They are ready to cash out while the getting’s good.
Naysayers will ask why in the world would Michael Bloomberg want to buy a major league baseball club, especially the fumbling Mets. The answer is because he can.
When he was New York’s mayor, Bloomberg had a habit of fumbling his association with baseball.
Once, his mispronunciation of the name of the Yankees’ manager, Joe Torre, at a New York University graduation ceremony drew snickers across the city.
And in 2003, as reported by the New York Times, Bloomberg was forced to mask his loyalty to the Boston Red Sox with a veiled reference to Babe Ruth in a prepared statement that read in part:
Bloomberg – Never The Micromanager
Michael Bloomberg’s lack of baseball insight was more than apparent in those days. There is no reason to suspect anything has changed. Which, when you think about it, is a bonus with having him as the owner of the Mets.
Unlike the Wilpons, Bloomberg will not interfere with decisions that require knowledge and expertise specific to baseball.
We can envision Bloomberg plucking a few managers from his cadre of CEO types to guide and watch areas like stadium operations, marketing, and ticket sales.
Beyond that, though, he will remain invisible, just as he is with his other business enterprises.
Back full circle now to Michael Bloomberg, the philanthropist. The history is already there, and the move to purchase the Mets only adds to his legacy in New York City.
If asked, the worse he can say is no – not interested. But what if…
Baseball, it is said, is only a game. True. And the Grand Canyon is only a hole in Arizona. Not all holes, or games, are created equal.
