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January 21, 2007
Bank on a Barclays controversy
NY Daily News
Michael O'Keeffe
The Nets' deal with Barclays may be one of the most profitable naming-rights deals ever, but it also illustrates the pitfalls these deals can bring for sports franchises. Enron, for example, agreed in 1999 to pay the Houston Astros more than $100 million to name their new ballpark Enron Field; three years later, after Enron became the largest corporation in history to file for bankruptcy, the Astros bought back the rights.
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Has Atlantic Yards risked losing some of its strongest supporters by signing a deal with a bank that has long been accused of profiting from centuries of African suffering?Rev. Herbert Daughtry of the Downtown Brooklyn Neighborhood Alliance, one of the black community's most prominent supporters of the project, says he is troubled by the team's association with Barclays.
"I'm very profoundly concerned about it," Daughtry said last week. "They kept it secret and I didn't learn about it until I read about it in the paper yesterday. I am planning on having a conversation about this with Mr. (Bruce) Ratner (the Nets' owner)."
Posted by amy at January 21, 2007 7:04 PM