Report: Mets want casino next to Citi Field

[General Lotso]

According to documents obtained by the New York Post, Mets ownership is hoping to improve the Bernie Madoff-ravaged balance sheet by resorting to the one thing that's there for impoverished entities with nowhere left to turn: the casino.

The Post's Rich Calder writes:

While team owners Fred Wilpon and Saul Katz are still having trouble opening their tight pockets for high-priced free agents, that didn't stop their development arm, Sterling Equities, from betting on a proposal that called for bringing a massive casino with gaming tables and slots, a 500-room, full-service hotel, 1.8 million square feet of retail and other amenities to the Willets Point development site in Queens.

The Southampton-based Shinnecock Indian Nation signed on to operate the casino, and the Wilpons and partners even offered the city $100 million for the 62-acre site, according to the development team's proposal, which was first obtained by project opponents Willets Point United and NYC Park Advocates.

While truth is often stranger than fiction, it is also, on occasions such as this one, more desperate than fiction. So coming soon, Mets fans: the uplifting ding-ding of the nickel slot and the comforting whir of the portable oxygen device.

Anyhow, one presumes that MLB commissioner Bud Selig might have to ponder the implications of having a team's ownership group so heavily invested in a gambling operation.

No word yet on whether the Mets will collaborate with Topps on a series of team-branded scratch-off lotto tickets.

http://www.cbssports.com/mlb/blog/ey...eball/21651572

 

[Nasty_Magician]

This should help bring in the type of crowds we want...

Nothing says take me out to the ball game quite like avoiding degenerates that are panhandling for roulette money.