The owner of the New York Mets, will be forced to sell the baseball franchise as soon as 2010 after incurring heavy Bernie Madoff-related investment losses, an author of a book on Madoff says.

NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- Fred Wilpon, the owner of the New York Mets, will be forced to sell the baseball franchise as soon as 2010 after incurring heavy Bernie Madoff-related investment losses.

So says Erin Arvedlund, author of "Too Good to Be True," a new book from publisher Portfolio that has gotten a big buzz in its first few weeks by detailing the evil deeds of the disgraced New York hedge fund manager. Madoff, who is serving a prison sentence, has become the poster child for Wall Street's excessive corruption, greed and all-around sleaziness.

"You can quote me," Arvedlund said of a possible sale of the Mets. "It's a matter of when. It could be as soon as next year."

Arvedlund estimates the Wilpon family may have lost as much as $700 million on Madoff-related investments that went awry. Mets management has been criticized for failing to acquire such stars as Manny Ramirez -- and many fans suspected that the team couldn't afford to obtain such high-priced players.

"As I understood it, they knew each other from way back when," Arvedlund told me. "Wilpon was one of the big real-estate magnates who was a Madoff investor."

A Mets spokeswoman said on Thursday by e-mail: "The numbers speculated continue to be inaccurate. We refute what has been reported. As we have said on numerous occasions, losses incurred by the Sterling Partners do not and will not affect the day-to-day operations and long-term plans of the Mets organization. The team is not for sale in any respect." Wilpon's Sterling company controls the Mets franchise.

Still, the media have speculated about Wilpon's prospects.

The New York Times (NYT, US) has written: "Perhaps most troubling is the possibility that losses incurred by Sterling Equities could put pressure on Wilpon to raise money by selling other assets. Because Sterling invested money directly with Madoff, Wilpon may have to come up with money to reimburse some of his own investors for losses. That may cause him to sell valuable assets, including a portion of his ownership in the Mets."

In April, Forbes pegged the Mets to have a value of $912 million. The Mets ranked as the second-most valuable baseball franchise, trailing only the New York Yankees. See Forbes story. http://www.forbes.com/lists/2009/33/baseball-values-09_New-York-Mets_334564.html

Hey man I thought I was Dreaming and thought I was the only one there cause no one remembered. A concert to remember came down from CT at 15 best concert ever. I can remember the movement of the mezzanine will never forget that day. Am glad to see other people wont forget either. Were all survivors.

CJB

Thanks for all the memories. I went with my friend, the two of us saw the Jimi Hendrix concert the month before at Randall's Island. We were thrilled when Janis came out on stage. I believe she drank so much that she had a hard time completing her last couple of songs--it was an abbreviated set. John Sebastian and Johnny Winter were great. It was a real great and all American group of artists.

I was at that show too. I got in for free as a marshall. It was incredible. The Rascals did not play but the next generation band with their guitarist eddie Brigati, I think named Bulldog played. when Ritchie Havens performed the tiers in the stadium were bouncing 3 feet up and down from the crowds getting into the music and stomping and jumping up and down. pretty scary, they had to tell the crow to calm down. Johnny Winter And came out when it started to get dark and tore the house down. Johnny and Derringer were incredible. When Janis joplin came out she was pissed at all the bright lights. She went off screaming that if " YOU DON'T TURN DOWN THOSE M***FUC#*N LIGHTS I"L HAVE THIS CROWD TEAR THIS HOUSE DOWN" The crowd went nuts...the lights came down and Janis sang her ass off.She was incredible. I really glad I got to see her perfornm since 2 months later she was gone and nobody has ever come along to replace her since. She was GREAT! OH and yes too bad . but definately no Hendrix...I wish but was still one of the best Musical Memories of my life . I could tell a million stories about that day and actually do whenever I get a chance 28 years later. Now I own a music store and wish music was like it was back then....Who knows? Maybe they will invent a new drug that actually makes you get into music again instaed of crack and hip hop Rap shit that just damages society.

I have been searching for ages to find info about this concert and it was like a Christmas present reading all this. I was 20 years old and attended with an old girlfriend and fellow "stoner"
from my neighborhood.
I have remembered most of the groups, especially Joplin who, amidst her drinking, shouted for them to turn out the lights, finally one last, "turn out the F---ing lights" and they went out, it was so magical! Poco totally rocked as did James Gang with Funk 49. John Sebastian, whom I had seen before, was so wrecked he spent a lot of time tuning his autoharp. There were so many people performing you just went from group to group. I remember the bottles of wine and the joints going up and down the rows, take a swig, or take a toke, and pass it on. We were next to the isle where NY's finest were there to keep peace and order. They sometimes joined in and other times just kept the free drink and such moving to the next person. They did ask people to stop the jumping, I do remember the stadium vibrating, I was on the second level behind home plate and could really feel the movement. No need to repeat the above comments, very accurate details of a truly fantastic day with nearly 12 hours of music and very little down time. I hope more continue to read this. One last note, I always referred to this concert as the "August Festival for Peace", which is why I could not find anything written about it for years. Maybe that could be included as a possible link to finding it. I do want to point out that I have all my vinyl from the 60's on up, still alphabetical, and I'd love to recreate the concert because I'm sure with over 900 albums I have virtually all the music that was played that day. Thank you to Eric for listing groups, and anyone else who can lists sets.

Elaine said