Let Me Take a Guess Here.

Lincoln Center Plaza Fountain

Photo by Lisa Hirsch

Here are some quotations from The NY Times article on the Met fall season cancellation:

The cancellation poses a major threat to the company. “The Met’s financial position was somewhat fragile before the pandemic,” Mr. Gelb said. “This has increased the economic risks significantly. On the other hand, it has become a rallying cry to the Met, and to its supporters, of the urgent need to address it and come up with solutions. Because nobody wants the Met to fail.”

Mr. Gelb added that he was already thinking about how a post-pandemic Met might change. “The future of the Met is going to be very different,” he said.

Later in the article:

But Mr. Gelb said that the Met will have to think and act differently in the future if it is to survive. “It’s really going to ultimately require an economic reset of the Met,” he said, declining to elaborate.

If I were reading the above, I might think Gelb is considering breaking or renegotiating the labor contracts, or even busting the unions, however that might be done. There might not be money to pay people just now, but there's surely money for lawyers.