Jeff Wilpon upbeat about minority shares

The Mets' revised plan to sell minority shares of the team after the collapse of talks with David Einhorn "is going very well," according to chief operating officer Jeff Wilpon.

Wilpon took part in Monday's unveiling of Citi Field's makeover, which should provide a boost to attendance next year because of an additional 140 seats in two unique sections as well as the curiosity factor.

In the meantime, the Mets hope that selling off minority pieces of the franchise, for up to $20 million each, can help pay back $25 million in loans from Major League Baseball and also serve as insurance against the lawsuit filed by Madoff trustee Irving Picard, who is seeking $1 billion in clawback damages.

"There's an internal timetable that we're not going to share," Wilpon said. "There's not a deadline, there's not a date circled or anything like that. Some of the people don't want to be public and some might never be public. I don't think anybody knows all the minority shareholders of the other teams."

The Mets spent most of the summer negotiating a deal with Einhorn, a hedge-fund manager, and appeared to be close to a deal. But after numerous public sightings of Einhorn at Citi Field, including chats with principal owner Fred Wilpon and general manager Sandy Alderson near the batting cage, the Mets announced Sept. 1 that the talks had ended.