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Friday, July 17, 2020

Jennifer Lopez, Alex Rodriguez, And Robert Kraft Talk Mets Development


According to multiple sources who witnessed the visit, J-Rod flew to Foxborough, Mass., on July 9 to meet with Bob and Jonathan Kraft, father-and-son owners of the New England Patriots, to hammer out a partnership on stadium operations for Citi Field and the development of Willets Point around the ballpark.

Sources inside the meeting tell The Post that J-Rod were accompanied on their trip by senior bankers from JPMorgan Chase’s private wealth group, including Mary Callahan Erdoes, CEO of the bank’s Asset & Wealth Management group.

Erdoes, 52, is considered the most powerful woman in finance and a potential successor to JPMorgan chief Jamie Dimon. Joining Erdoes and J-Rod was Vincent La Padula, head of global lending at JPMorgan’s Private Bank, which counts Rodriguez, Jennifer Lopez and the Krafts as clients, and — as The Post has reported — has been working intimately with J-Rod on their Mets bid.


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La Padula was a senior staffer in the Giuliani and Bloomberg administrations and has spent the last two decades at JPMorgan working with the bank’s ultra-wealthy clients.

Per insiders, the visit lasted five hours, during which the Krafts showed J-Rod around both Gillette Stadium and their adjoining entertainment, retail and hospitality complex, Patriot Place. The tour was meant to show the potential new Mets owners what can be done with a stadium and the undeveloped land around it.

The Krafts’ Foxborough complex is approximately a 40-minute drive from downtown Boston, and Patriot Place — which contains a movie theater, a hotel and restaurants — is designed to keep Patriots fans entertained and spending money before and after games.

As The Post has reported, J-Rod’s vision of Mets ownership involves turning Willets Point into a destination, leveraging Jennifer Lopez’s brand as an entertainer to book concerts and keep fans in the area after games at bars, eateries and shops. The next owner of the Mets would have rights to reimagine Willets, and the revenue generated from the new development would also be key to J-Rod’s plans for the franchise.

While the discussions were meant to outline a “partnership” between J-Rod and the Krafts, sources made it clear to The Post that the Krafts are not interested in owning the Mets and would not join the J-Rod bid as even a limited partner.

If Alex Rodriguez and Jennifer Lopez end up owning the Mets, they will have help learning how to run a sports franchise from the people who operate one of the most successful ones in any sport.

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