Mets Reportedly Received $20 Million in Aid From Major League Baseball

The New York Mets have received a minimum of $20 million in assistance from Major League Baseball as they continue to fight a lawsuit brought against them by victims of Bernie Madoff's Ponzi scheme, according to a report in the New York Times.

Irving H. Picard, the trustee of the victims in the suit, is seeking close to $1 billion from the Wilpon family and Saul Katz -- the owners of the Mets -- further straining an ownership group that already is carrying $400 million in debt on the team.

The Times report claims that the Mets have already exhausted MLB's $75 million standard line of credit, which is made available to clubs for a number of reasons over the course of each year, forcing commissioner Bud Selig to step in and provide further aid to fund the team's day-to-day operations.

Selig signed off on $40 million in loans to the Texas Rangers last year as they went through a drawn-out sale of the club from Tom Hicks to a group led by Chuck Greenberg.

"The fact that the loan is coming from baseball would be a jarring event because, as with the Texas Rangers, the league is effectively a lender of last resort," Marc Ganis, a sports industry consultant, told the Times. "It would indicate the team cannot get loans from normal commercial sources, which could be taken as a sign of very significant problems."

Earlier this month, the Wilpons announced that they were seeking minority stakeholders in the club and were willing to sell up to a 25 percent share in the club. Based on this report, finding suitable investors in the Mets may be more critical than the team has let on so far.