The Mets continue to be in significant transition under owner Steve Cohen, making critical progress on their large-scale bid to transform the Citi Field area and parting ways with a key executive.

The MLB club said late Tuesday that the president of business operations, Scott Havens, will be stepping down after 18 months with the team. The former Bloomberg Media CEO and longtime media executive packed a significant amount of activity in the brief stint, helping oversee several upgrades to Citi Field and a league-leading attendance boost this year that came in part from signing Juan Soto last fall to a record-setting, $765 million deal. 

Even as Soto has struggled with the Mets so far, that attendance bump in Queens has grown to 53% compared to this time last year. 

The pursuit of Soto, however, also included comments last summer at a Front Office Sports event that “we think he’s a tremendous baseball player. We’d love to have him in Queens,” which in turn raised eyebrows within the sport as potential tampering. Cohen said in a statement that he had “differing perspectives on long-term strategy” with Havens. FOS sources said Cohen is interested in someone with more sports industry experience, and the club intends to announce a new president of business operations “shortly.”

“Scott has played a key role in driving progress across the Mets organization,” Cohen said. “I’m grateful for the impact he’s had during his time with us.”

Top leaders in the Mets’ marketing, legal, communications, and finance departments have also left in recent months. 

Key Casino Step

Cohen, meanwhile, has cleared another significant hurdle in his ongoing bid to develop an $8 billion casino and entertainment complex adjacent to Citi Field, and in partnership with Hard Rock International. 

The New York state senate voted Tuesday to allow New York City to reclassify 50 acres of parking lots around Citi Field and expand the permitted uses of the land to include the Metropolitan Park casino project. The state assembly has already approved the measure, and it now heads to Gov. Kathy Hochul for her signature. 

“After years of community engagement, thousands of conversations, and the leadership of our local officials, we are one step closer to transforming the asphalt lots into something our neighbors can truly be proud of,” Cohen said. 

All of this is prelude in an effort to win one of three coveted downstate gaming licenses—which are set to be awarded in December. Metropolitan Park is one of 11 major entities pursuing those three licenses, with rival projects proposed for other iconic New York locales such as Times Square, Coney Island, Hudson Yards, and Manhattan’s Fifth Avenue. 

There is no downscaled version of Metropolitan Park envisioned if the casino licenses go elsewhere, Metropolitan Park officials said, as the gaming revenue that would be generated is a key source of the project’s private funding.

Caitlin Clark is expected to miss at least four games due to a left quadriceps strain, but she still brought in record ratings in her most recent game.

The Indiana Fever and defending-champion New York Liberty drew 2.22 million viewers to their matchup Saturday afternoon on CBS, the second-most-watched WNBA game ever on the network. It fell just short of passing the most-watched game on CBS, which was a rivalry contest on June 16, 2024, between the Chicago Sky and Fever that drew 2.25 million viewers.

It was also the second-most-watched game of the WNBA season (which started May 16). The most-watched game was on opening weekend between the Fever and Sky, which drew 2.7 million viewers on ABC, the most-watched regular-season game ever on ESPN platforms. It was also the most-streamed WNBA game ever on Paramount+, though the exact viewership numbers on the service are unclear.

Saturday’s game on CBS is the fifth-most-watched regular-season game since Clark entered the league, with the top three being games between the Sky and Fever. Fourth goes to an Aug. 18, 2024, game between the Fever and Seattle Storm, which drew 2.23 million viewers. 

The close game, which the Liberty won 90–88, peaked at 3.24 million viewers.

A World Without Caitlin

Clark’s injury, announced Monday, will keep her out for a minimum of two weeks and will be the first time she will miss a regular-season game in the WNBA or college. The timeline suggests she could return for the Fever’s road game June 10 against the Atlanta Dream.

All four of the Fever’s games without Clark air nationally, if NBA TV is considered.

• May 28: at Washington Mystics (NBA TV)
• May 30: vs. Connecticut Sun (Ion)
• June 3: vs. Mystics (NBA TV)
• June 7: at Chicago Sky (CBS)

Ticket prices for the two Fever road games have tumbled, with the get-in price for the Mystics game on Wednesday down 47% since the announcement, according to TickPick. The get-in price for the Sky game is down 71%. Both games were moved by the opposing teams to arenas with larger capacities.

Aaron Rodgers is still not on any NFL roster, nearly three months following his formal release from the Jets. The 41-year-old, however, remains a dominant storyline surrounding the Steelers, prompting one of the franchise’s all-time greats to offer a rare rebuke of his former team.

Terry Bradshaw slammed the Steelers during a Tuesday interview with KABZ-FM in Arkansas, calling the team’s protracted pursuit of the mercurial four-time Most Valuable Player “a joke.”

“What are you going to do? Bring him in for one year, are you kidding me?” Bradshaw said. “That guy needs to stay in California, go somewhere and chew on bark, and whisper to the gods out there.”

Bradshaw continued, saying the Steelers also failed in their development of former first-round draft pick Kenny Pickett, now part of the Browns’ crowded quarterback room after a brief stay with the Eagles. 

“When they got him to Pittsburgh, here’s what they didn’t do: They didn’t protect him, they didn’t get him an offensive line,” Bradshaw said of Pickett. “He wasn’t a failure. The Steelers were a failure.”

While Bradshaw, a fixture on the Fox NFL Sunday studio crew, has long been known to be outspoken, the latest comments marked a particularly pointed assessment of the team he led to four Super Bowl titles. 

The ongoing situation is also a rare departure for a Pittsburgh team that has long valued stability and minimizing drama wherever possible. Team owner Art Rooney II, however, has said the team will wait “a little while longer” for Rodgers to decide on his 2025 plans. 

The Steelers currently have Mason Rudolph, Skylar Thompson, and 2025 sixth-round draft pick Will Howard on their roster as quarterbacks, extending a period of transition and uncertainty at the critical position since Ben Roethlisberger retired after the 2021 season. Rudolph, who started 13 games in a prior stint in Pittsburgh and recently returned after one season with the Titans, said he is simply trying to block out any distractions—including Rodgers.

“That’s nothing new to me. There’s been constant noise,” Rudolph said. “That is the nature of the NFL. So I have been used to that for a long time now. [I can] do nothing but be the best I can be and help our team get better.”