Vitaminwater co-founder Mike Repole joins group led by A-Rod, J.Lo in effort to buy Mets
The bid by Alex Rodriguez and Jennifer Lopez to purchase the Mets has received a local boost: Nassau County resident and Vitaminwater co-founder Mike Repole.
Repole has joined a group of investors, led by the celebrity couple, as a general partner, a source confirmed to Newsday on Monday. His involvement was first reported by The Action Network, a sports gambling website.
It is not clear how many investors are part of the group or how much money they are trying to raise to buy the Mets, who were going to be valued at $2.6 billion in a deal between the Wilpons and hedge-fund boss Steve Cohen until it fell apart in February.
A Queens native, St. John’s graduate and lifelong Mets fan — and former longtime season-ticket holder — Repole has been here before. In 2011, he expressed interest in buying a portion of the Mets as the Wilpons were seeking investors in the wake of the Bernie Madoff scandal.
“Under other circumstances, I might be interested,” he told Newsday at the time.
Nearly a decade later, teaming up with A-Rod and J.Lo might be the right other circumstances.
Repole, known best for starting sports drinks Vitaminwater and Bodyarmor, is heavily involved in the horse racing scene. He opened Repole Stable after selling Vitaminwater’s parent company, Glaceau, to Coca-Cola for $4.1 billion in 2007. His most famous horse is Uncle Mo, a onetime Kentucky Derby favorite who sired Nyquist, the 2016 Kentucky Derby winner.
Mets chief operating officer Jeff Wilpon, the son of chairman and CEO Fred Wilpon, said recently that the Mets have “four or five suitors,” double what is publicly known.
Among Rodriguez and Repole’s competition for the Mets: Josh Harris and David Blitzer, owners of the Philadelphia 76ers and New Jersey Devils.
Lurking is Cohen, a Great Neck native whose financial might and net worth — estimated between $9 billion and $14 billion — is greater than those of anyone else linked to the Mets' sale process.
