Friday, December 30, 2011

New York Mets’ Citi Field Bond Rating Outlook Cut by S&P - Businessweek

New York Mets’ Citi Field Bond Rating Outlook Cut by S&P - Businessweek:

A few days ago I posted on the NY Mets' Financial difficulties. Now the Mets' difficulties are dragging down the rating of the bonds that were used to finance Citi Field as well. The bonds, which are in theory separate from the Mets, were given a negative outlook and a BB+ rating by S&P based on the fact that the Bonds are heavily dependent on individual game ticket sales and these are highly dependent on the team's winning, which seems to be unlikely this year.

From Bloomberg:
“The key issue looking forward is that any unfavorable change in team financial operations may hurt team performance and reduce turnstile volumes and revenue,” S&P said....Season tickets, which make up about 40 percent of Citi Field’s total revenue, declined 22 percent, S&P said. Merchandise and food and beverage receipts, which make up 1 percent and 7 percent of revenue, respectively, fell 20 percent, the rating company said....

"A $20,000 block of Mets stadium bonds backed by payments in lieu of taxes with a 5 percent coupon and maturing in 2046 traded yesterday at 83.3 cents on the dollar to yield 6.2 percent."

HT to MetsBlog
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