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July 26, 2007
Crain's: suites at new NYC-area sports facilities should sell well
Atlantic Yards Report
Though sports teams around the country are ripping out luxury suites, the New York-area market is an anomaly, and an article in this week's Crain's New York Business, headlined New arenas' suite deals, suggests that the planned suite-intensive Barclays Center at Atlantic Yards might do pretty well, even if it arrives later in the cycle.
Sports marketing executive Todd Parker told Crain's that the New York area has only 250 or so luxury boxes in all of its sports facilities combined, but with six new facilities expected to be completed in the three years, the total would leap to 900.
While "the competition for buyers could get intense" among the Devils, Nets, Mets, Jets, Giants, Yankees and Red Bulls, Crain's observes:
However, experts believe that the luxury-box market is in a unique position, since the city has been "starved" for corporate entertainment options but flush with cash from banks, hedge funds and law firms.
Norman Oder connects some more dots, noting that Ratner's own commissioned study from sports economist Andrew Zimbalist "assumed 'no new arena in Newark'" (it's slated to open THIS year, oops!). Crain's acknowledges some risk for Ratner, "ramping up from 29 current boxes in the current Continental Airlines Arena to some 170 suites in Brooklyn." There's also some confusion about the number of suites: Crain's reports 118, while recently released documents indicate "there would be 124 luxury suites, four party suites, and 40 loge boxes."
Posted by lumi at July 26, 2007 8:18 AM