MLB: Happy Bobby Bonilla Day!

[CycloneEggie]

I thought I heard Prince Fielder was going to be the highest paid baseball player this year if we have no season.

 

[mdk2isu]

Always a good day to dial up your Mets fan friends and remind them.

If you have friends that are Mets fans, you need new friends.

 

[Sigmapolis]

If you have friends that are Mets fans, you need new friends.

I have a good friend who is a total Mets and Jets homer.

Sure get a lot of entertaining mileage out of those.

 

[jbindm]

Another similar great story is about the owners of the old ABA franchise the St. Louis Spirit. When the NBA was "merging" with the NBA there were negotiations which ABA franchises would be included. The owners of the St. Louis franchise agreed to a % of NBA TV revenue in perpetuity.

There is a great 30 for 30 show called Free Spirits which documents their final ABA season and the the NBA merger negotiations.

Below is a summary from wikipedia

The NBA placated John Y. Brown, owner of the Kentucky Colonels, by giving him a $3.3 million settlement in exchange for shutting his team down. (Brown later used much of that money to buy the Buffalo Braves of the NBA.) But the owners of the Spirits, the brothers Ozzie and Daniel Silnas, struck a prescient deal to acquire future television money from the teams that joined the NBA, a 1/7 share from each franchise (or nearly 2% of the entire NBA's TV money), in perpetuity. With network TV deals becoming more and more lucrative, the deal has made the Silnas wealthy, earning them $255 million as of 2012 according to The New York Times..

In 2014, the Silnas reached agreement with the NBA to greatly reduce the perpetual payments and take a lump sum of $500 million. In the last few years before the lump sum agreement, the Silnas were receiving $14.57 million a year, despite being owners of a team that hadn't played one minute of basketball in more than 35 years. The Silnas will, however, still be receiving a now much smaller portion of the television revenue through a new partnership with the former ABA teams the Nets, Nuggets, Pacers and Spurs.

You beat me to it. I thought of this story as soon as I saw this thread pop up.

 

[JM4CY]

I have a good friend who is a total Mets and Jets homer.

Sure get a lot of entertaining mileage out of those.

Lemme guess, he’s a hawk fan too.

 

[Sigmapolis]

Lemme guess, he’s a hawk fan too.

Villanova

 

[Cyched]

So I didn’t know much about this and read the ESPN article. Apparently the Mets agreed to this because they were invested with Bernie Madoff and were expecting nice returns?

Whoops.

 

[Bigman38]

So I read that ESPN article too, was this supposed to some kind of retirement present? The deal makes zero sense from top to bottom unless it was a "thanks for playing" type of thing.

 

[cmjh10]

Bump

 

[bsaltyman]

This is still so crazy to me:

July 1 means the New York Mets will pay Bobby Bonilla another installment of $1.19M today.

He hasn't played in the majors since 2001, but he will be paid through 2035 ... when he'll be 72

 

[jdoggivjc]

I wish someone would pay me $1 million to go away.

 

[heitclone]

Obligatory "Just Chillin"

 

[dawgpound]

All time fleecing by my boy Bonilla. Still giggle every year

 

[Sigmapolis]

Buying Bonilla out at roughly 6% interest sounds great when you are taking the money that you saved and investing it in a sure-fire, no-way-this-goes-tits-up investment at 10% returns. Right?

Right...?

Spoiler

Madoff

 

[BryceC]

Bobby Bonilla Day : Planet Money

How the worst deal in baseball explains one of the most important concepts in economics. | Subscribe to our weekly newsletter here.

www.npr.org

Pretty funny take on this actually. If you were to take the 5.9 MM he was owed, and invest it, you would expect the return to be almost the exact amount of the 1.2 million until the end of his contract. So it's actually a wash if you look at it investment wise.

The bad news for the Mets? Apparently they did invest the money... but they invested it with Bernie Madoff and got hosed on it.

 

[Sigmapolis]

Bobby Bonilla Day : Planet Money

How the worst deal in baseball explains one of the most important concepts in economics. | Subscribe to our weekly newsletter here.

www.npr.org

Pretty funny take on this actually. If you were to take the 5.9 MM he was owed, and invest it, you would expect the return to be almost the exact amount of the 1.2 million until the end of his contract. So it's actually a wash if you look at it investment wise.

The bad news for the Mets? Apparently they did invest the money... but they invested it with Bernie Madoff and got hosed on it.

They gave Bonilla a "fair market" rate of return of 6% expected to make 10% with Madoff.

Seems like a genius move if the Madoff investments actually print.

Oh. Wait. Yeahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.

 

[Entropy]

Hope he's living that Randy Moss lifestyle.

 

[BCClone]

I wish someone would pay me $1 million to go away.

I will take 20 bucks.

 

[bsaltyman]

Happy Bobby Bonilla day!