The Bernard Madoff Ponzi scheme isn’t just impacting American sports: it’s having a chilling effect on teams worldwide. We previously reported that Mets owners Fred Wilpon and Saul Katz lost up to $300 million of their personal fortunes they had invested with Madoff. Now the MANCHESTER GUARDIAN reports that the $50 billion fraud case may have also cost Newcastle United owner Mike Ashley a chance to sell his team.

The potential owners were “two wealthy Americans” who were interested in meeting Ashley’s $300 million price tag for the team, one of the largest in the English Premier League. But the buyers backed out after they lost roughly that amount in investments made with Madoff. Wait a second, this sounds awfully familiar. Didn’t I just write that Mets owners Wilpon and Katz lost $300 million to Madoff?

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Another day, another crippling blow to Wall Street: Bernard Madoff, former NASDAQ chairman and founder of major investment advisory firm Madoff Securities, was arrested yesterday and charged with fraud, after losing up to $50 billion in a Ponzi scheme. (Not a Fonzie scheme: that involves betting someone you can jump a shark on your water skis.)

But this scandal could have a deep impact in the world of sports. CNBC is reporting that through their real estate investment firm Sterling Equities, Mets owners Fred Wilpon and Saul Katz may have had as much as $300 million invested with Madoff. That’s about eight Frankie Rodriguez contracts. And it doesn’t look like they’ll be getting much, if any, of that money back.

I wonder if this means that Frank and Jamie McCourt actually have more money than another set of owners now?

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