Nets owner Joe Tsai says he’s not joining Alex Rodriguez and Jennifer Lopez’s bid to buy the Mets
Joe Tsai quickly put to rest rumblings he was joining forces with Alex Rodriguez and Jennifer Lopez to try and buy the Mets.
“Sorry Twitter, it is not true,” the billionaire owner of the Nets and Liberty wrote on Saturday afternoon. “I grew up as a Mets fan and I have a lot of respect for Alex and Jennifer. But I’m not involved in bidding for the Mets. Gotta focus on basketball.”
Tsai’s name got tossed into the mix by former Net and current Nuggets center Mason Plumlee.
Plumlee took to his personal website to explain why he was one of several pro athletes joining up with the bid led by the former Yankee star and his entertainment mogul fiancee to buy the Mets from the Wilpons.
An industry insider told the Daily News’ Bill Madden that despite the names of high-profile jocks joining up with A-Rod and J-Lo, “the last thing you want at this stage of the game is more investors. It just proves the point they don’t have the money.”
Plumlee tried to argue that wasn’t the case and casually tossed out Tsai’s name.
“The reality is this group has plenty of money and experience. There’s no bigger, more dynamic, power couple than A-Rod and J-Lo. Vinnie and Mike Repole are first generation billionaires with passion and vision. Alex knows a little something about baseball. Jennifer is a mogul in the entertainment industry. Vinnie knows the ownership gig as owner of the Florida Panthers.
“And spoiler alert: we’ve now got another billionaire sports owner in the mix as a partner — Joe Tsai — who brings our collective net worth to the top of the bid list.”
The group led by Rodriguez and Lopez includes Repole (the co-founder of Vitaminwater) and Florida Panthers owner Vinnie Viola. The group is reportedly one of three that has advanced to the second round of bidding for the Mets. Hedge fund titan Steven Cohen — who currently owns a minority share of the National League club — is believed to be the favorite.
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