Rodriguez and his fiancee Jennifer Lopez, are interested in buying the New York Mets, according to a report from Variety on Monday. The couple has reportedly retained JPMorgan Chase in order to help raise money in an effort to make a bid for the Mets.
The team has been in a state of limbo since the Wilpon family, which currently owns the Mets, said they were looking to sell a majority share of the team in December. The Wilpons nearly struck a deal with billionaire hedge fund manager Steve Cohen that would have given Cohen 80 percent of the team while letting the Wilpons maintain control of the club for five years, but that deal fell apart and has left the Wilpon family looking for new prospective buyers.
In the proposed deal with Cohen, the Mets were valued at $2.6 billion. The combined net worth of Rodriguez and Lopez sits around $700 million.
A-Rod and Lopez running the Mets would be something of a strange idea considering Rodriguez is closely aligned with the Yankees, who he played for and has worked with during his post-playing career. Meanwhile, Lopez grew up in the Bronx, home of the Yanks.
But it's unlikely that the Yankees will be available for sale anytime soon and the couple would need to raise even more capital in order to make that bid, so they could be eyeing the Mets opportunity as the next-best thing.
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