Maybe the Wilpons should have done a "Bundle" sale with the Mets and SNY. A lot of media companies are going to be gun shy right now paying one billion dollars for a Sports channel that doesn't have a lot of sports programming on it. Sure the have the Mets for a hell of a deal monetarily for broadcast rights. But what else do they have? Anything anyone wants to watch? SNY is also saddled with reports of $680-800 million dollars of debt.
From the NY POST.
In February, SNY’s parent corporation, Sterling Equities Sports Group, which Wilpon controls together with his long-time partner Saul Katz, sent out sales books seeking roughly $1 billion for SNY, sources said.
Cable giants Charter Communications and Comcast, both minority investors in SNY, were granted first dibs but said no, a source said.The entity that owns exclusive rights to broadcast Yankees games, known as the YES Network, also looked and passed, sources said. Sinclair Broadcast Group — the nation’s largest owner of regional sports networks, or RSNs — is not interested, said a source. Sinclair’s snub comes despite the fact that the broadcast giant has signaled interest in expanding its troubled sports business by bidding for NBCUniversal’s seven RSNs. And as The Post reported last week, the auction would include an 8 percent stake in SNY owned by Comcast, NBC’s parent company.
Meanwhile, Wilpon and Katz have loaded down the profitable SNY with more than $800 million in debt over the years, creating yet another sales hurdle because they cannot lower the price below what they need to pay off the debt.While refinancing could lead to higher interest expenses, SNY also benefits from super-low costs via a sweet deal to pay the Mets a below-market price of about $85 million a year for rights to its games. And that deal, which Wilpon and Katz hashed out when they still owned the Mets, doesn’t expire in 2035.
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