Billionaire Steve Cohen agrees to buy majority ownership of New York Mets

Sept. 14 (UPI) -- Billionaire Steve Cohen has reached an agreement to purchase the New York Mets from the Wilpon and Katz families.

The sale is subject to the approval of the other Major League Baseball owners. Once the deal is approved, Cohen will own 95% of the Mets and assume full control of the franchise as its majority owner.

At least 23 of the league's 30 owners will need to sign off on the ownership change, which was announced by the Mets on Monday.

"I am excited to have reached an agreement with the Wilpon and Katz families to purchase the New York Mets," Cohen said in a statement.

After the Mets had conversations with multiple potential suitors, Cohen -- a hedge fund manager and native of New York -- entered exclusive negotiations to buy the franchise last month. Cohen, who is a lifelong Mets fan, was already a minority owner of the team.

The deal values the Mets at about $2.48 billion, according to Newsday. If the Mets sold for that price, it would be the most lucrative sale in professional sports history -- topping David Tepper's purchase of the NFL's Carolina Panthers for $2.2 billion.

The most expensive sale of a MLB team came in 2012, when the Los Angeles Dodgers were sold for about $2.15 billion.

Since 2011, the Mets haven't had a top-10 payroll. During that span, the team has finished with a winning record only three times and advanced past the wild-card round only once. New York reached the World Series in 2015 but lost to the Kansas City Royals.

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