OK, now city officials are worried about a "prohibited person" involved in a sports facility? NY State whiffed after Barclays pleaded guilty to a felony

Clause in Citi Field Lease Could Impede Steve Cohen’s Mets Purchase, the New York Times reported 10/21/20, noting that "Mayor Bill de Blasio’s office notified the Mets and Major League Baseball on Friday that they were looking into whether the team could be legally sold to Cohen."

At issue is a clause in the lease between the New York Mets and the city, which technically owns Citi Field (to enable tax-exempt bond financing), and rules out “prohibited” persons as potential owners. 

That definition encompasses a felon or a person who has “controlled” a felon. And while Cohen himself has no criminal record, one of his subordinates was convicted of insider trading, and his company, SAC Capital Partners, paid $1.8 billion in fines for insider trading. Such securities fraud is a felony.

My guess is that the city won't intervene in the sale--wouldn't they want the team to have a deep-pocketed owner at a time when fans can't attend?--but might use this to leverage some sort of public pledge or giveback.

After all, New York State, which controls the Barclays Center (which is also leased, thanks to tax-exempt financing), had the opportunity to intervene, not at the time when Barclays Capital agreed to buy naming rights, but after Barclays pleaded guilty to the felony of rigging foreign exchange markets, as I wrote in September 2015.

As I wrote, a contract said that neither the developer nor an affiliate “shall contract with ... a Prohibited Person or any Person who shall become a Prohibited Person."

But I never could get a comment from state officials, and no one pushed to remove a valuable support for arena operations. As I wrote:

But it’s not the state’s job to ensure that private companies maintain the income stream they need to pay off arena construction bonds. The state gave away naming rights to the arena in the first place, rather than keeping a cut. The least it could do is follow its own rules and ensure the name doesn’t boost a felon.

Or, maybe, it is.