J-Lo and A-Rod plan Flushing business venture

Jennifer Lopez, left, and Alex Rodriguez, right, sit courtside during the first half of an NBA basketball game between the Miami Heat and Los Angeles Lakers, Friday, Dec. 13, 2019, in Miami. (AP Photo/Lynne Sladky)

By David Brand

Celebrity power couple Jennifer Lopez and Alex Rodriguez are reportedly raising cash to purchase a middling firm in Flushing in a deal that could set them back a few billion dollars.

The engaged A-Listers want to buy the New York Mets, to be precise.

Lopez and Rodriguez — or J-Lo and A-Rod to most of the world — grabbed headlines earlier this year when they expressed interest in buying the Mets from owners Fred and Jeff Wilpon after a previous sale collapsed. It turns out that wasn’t a publicity stunt. They really want to buy the team.

The duo is reportedly worth roughly $800 million, about a billion and a half short of the club’s valuation. They have retained JPMorgan Chase managing director Eric Menell in order to raise the extra funds.

Variety first reported on the couple’s agreement with the bank Monday night. “It’s real,” a source familiar with negotiations later told the New York Post.

Lopez, 50, grew up in the Bronx rooting for the Yankees, but Rodriguez — a former Yankee slugger — was a die-hard Mets fan as a child in Miami. 

Rodriguez has said in the past that he dreamed of signing with the Amazins when he became a free agent in 2001. The Mets could not match his asking price and the general manager at the time, Steve Phillips, famously referred to him as a “24-plus-1” player who wouldn’t fit the character of the club.

Instead, Rodrigruez went on to sign a record-breaking, 10-year, $225 million contract with the Texas Rangers, who shipped him to the Yankees after his MVP-winning 2003 season. He is regarded as one of the greatest baseball players in history and finished his career with more than 3,000 hits, over 2,000 runs batted in and 696 home runs — the fourth-highest total of all time. His legacy was marred by repeated allegations of performance-enhancing drug use, for which he was suspended an entire season. 

The Mets have not won a World Series since J-Lo and A-Rod were children.

The Wilpons seemed on the verge of selling an 80 percent stake in the club to investor Steve Cohen for $2.6 billion. That deal fell through after the Wilpons balked at losing control of club decision-making.