Mets exec: Don't believe what you read; We're not for sale
Photo credit: Newsday/Audrey C. Tiernan | A view of the new home run apple and the field at Citi Field.
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DENVER -- In a Monday night appearance on the FOX Business channel, the Mets executive vice president of business operations, Dave Howard, pointedly debates Erin Arvedlund, the author who claimed last week that the Wilpons will have to sell the team because of a $700-million loss in the Bernie Madoff scandal.
Arvedlund, who has a book coming out on Madoff, repeatedly insisted that it is "her opinion" the Wilpons will have to sell at least part of the Mets to cover their losses. But Howard, his temper apparently rising, vehemently disagrees, calling her claims "outrageous, unfounded and grossly irresponsible."
"The figures she's thrown out are inaccurate and substantially overstated," Howard said during the interview. "We have said from the outset that the losses incurred from the Madoff fraud have not and will not affect the operation of the Mets. The team is not for sale -- whole or in part. It is family owned and it will be family owned for the long term.
"It's a passionate long-term investment. There's no need to sell. There's no reason to sell. There will be no sale and I can't state it any more definitively than that. Her source is bogus and her claims are false and irresponsible."
Arvedlund's response? "Time will tell," she said.
