The Met gets a credit rating upgrade
mainIf you’re bored by finance you may look away, but this is important.
Standard & Poor, the credit rating agency, has revised the Met’s outlook upward from ‘negative’ to ‘stable’.
‘The stable outlook reflects our view of the return to full-accrual surplus operating results in fiscal 2015, as expected,’ said Standard & Poor’s credit analyst Charlene Butterfield.
The NY Times has put a positive spin on it, adding a booster to public confidence.
However, if you saw the movie The Big Short you will have a measure of scepticism about credit rating agencies.
And if you follow the Met more closely than just reading the numbers on its last set of accounts, you will know that Peter Gelb has to pull a $100 million rabbit out of somewhere in order to balance the books this July.
Good news for the Met? Not yet.
Meantime the other Met (the art museum) is planning layoffs and slowing down expansions. Every cent will be wrung out of the gift shop/retail operations and onsite restaurants. A judge recently ordered them to change the language on the admissions price from “Recommended Admission” to “Suggested Admission.” “Please be as generous as you can,” begs the website. Suggested for adults is $25. Technically, you can pay zero if you want.