Alex Rodriguez and Jennifer Lopez Reportedly Take Step Toward Buying the Mets

Alex Rodriguez and Jennifer Lopez are reportedly working toward becoming owners of the New York Mets.

The couple have retained JPMorgan Chase to raise funds for a possible bid on the beloved baseball team, Variety and the New York Post reported.

Rodriguez, 44, and Lopez, 50, are reportedly working with the JPMorgan’s co-head of North American media investment banking Eric Menell, Variety reported.

Reps for the couple did not immediately respond to PEOPLE’s request for comment.

The potential purchase has been in the works for some time as the Post previously reported that Rodriguez was toying with the idea back in February.

The Mets are currently owned by real estate developer Fred Wilpon.

In December, the Wilpon family announced plans to sell 80 percent of the team to hedge fund manager and philanthropist Steve Cohen, Variety reported.

However, Cohen reportedly ended negotiations with the Wilpons on the purchase in February, the Post reported. The bid was $2.6 billion to buy the team.

Being owners of the Mets is especially personal for Rodriguez and Lopez considering the former baseball star almost signed to play for the team in 2000.

He instead opted to go for a $252 million deal with the Texas Rangers.

He played for the Rangers from 2001 to 2003 before joining the New York Yankees in 2004. He played for the team for 12 years before retiring in 2016.

Rodriguez also hinted at the idea of purchasing the Mets during an appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon in March.

“I will say this, if the opportunity [to buy the Mets] came up, I would certainly look at it,” Rodriguez told Fallon, 45, according to Bleacher Report.

Lopez is a proud New Yorker, born in the Bronx borough of New York City.

Lopez often pays homage to her city and most recently spoke about her roots when accepting the Fashion Icon Award at the CFDA Fashion Awards in 2019.

“I grew up in the Bronx — some of you may have heard,” Lopez said. “So of course I had to wear Ralph Lauren tonight, also from the Bronx,” she said.

Rodriguez and Lopez got engaged in March 2019 during a romantic getaway in the Bahamas.

While speaking to Oprah Winfrey at the media mogul’s 2020 Vision: Your Life In Focus Tour last month, Lopez opened up about her engagement to Rodriguez and their forthcoming nuptials.

When asked whether she’s concerned about the timing of the ceremony, Lopez revealed that the couple doesn’t feel the need to “rush” to the altar. “It’s so funny because when we first got engaged, I was like, ‘Oh, we’re going to get married in a couple of months,’ ” she told Winfrey. “Like your old thinking comes right back, like all that hopeless romantic that made me get married three times.”

“[It all] came like rushing back and then I was like, ‘Wait, if we’re going to be together for the rest of it’ — he’s like, ‘Whatever you want to do, like we can talk about it,’ ” the mom of two recalled.

“I said, ‘If we’re going to be together for the rest of our lives, what is the rush?’ If that’s what we’re really going to do, if we’re really going to be partners, if we’re really going to try to build something together that we both never had or never felt like we had, which is a family with a husband and a wife, and a mother and father, and we embrace all our children. We show them it’s something that we didn’t have,” she said.Lopez shares 12-year-old twins: son Maximilian “Max” David and daughter Emme Maribel with ex-husband Marc Anthony.Meanwhile, Rodriguez is dad to daughters Ella Alexander, 11, and Natasha Alexander, 15.

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Source:people.com