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January 19, 2007
Nets' owner Ratner choosing money over loyalty
The Bergen Record
By Ian O'Connor, columnist
The Record's veteran sports columnist visits Brooklyn and goes to town on Ratner:
"I'm at the games," Ratner said. "I see them, I meet the people, I love them."
Yes, he loves them. And yes, he's got the funniest way of showing it.
Away from a news conference podium, before he was rushed off by aides who thought they were guarding a head of state, Ratner said through a straight face, "We just think that we have great fans in New Jersey."
So great, in fact, that the owner will offer his own show of fan appreciation during the 2009-10 season when he asks those beloved New Jerseyans to take the kind of four-hour round-trip commute I took to listen to him gloat about the future of the Brooklyn Nets, not to mention all those wonderfully lucrative buildings he'll erect around them.
Ratner is a smart, rich, well-connected businessman. He's also a phony.
...
Ratner just needs to stop acting like some noble lord of a charitable trust. Like every other gasbag suit in the house Thursday, Ratner went on and on about the "vision" he had for Brooklyn's youth. He sounded as if he wanted to build a new high school at his own expense, rather than a sixth borough to call his own.
O'Connor catches the slap in the face to the African-American fan base:
If Ratner cared to reveal himself as a true philanthropist with Brooklyn's best interests at heart, he would have named this arena after Jackie Robinson and told Barclays to keep its cash. That way, Ratner would've avoided potentially awkward chats with his ballplayers and a diverse Brooklyn fan base -- the people who might wonder why Ratner is in business with a bank once forced out of South Africa by anti-apartheid protests.
However, even a seasoned columnist left the Mayor's myth-making unchallenged:
"It's only fitting that Brooklyn's future include a major sports team coming to play at the site that would've been the home of the Dodgers had they not been stolen away by Los Angeles," Bloomberg said.
Mayor Mike's Mythology: Alas, Bruce Ratner already built the Atlantic Center Mall over the site that Walter O'Malley coveted for a new Dodgers ballpark.
Posted by lumi at January 19, 2007 9:40 AM