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September 24, 2007
Bids due Monday for Meadowlands arena naming rights
AP, via amNY
By Janet Frankston Lorin
Though lucrative naming-rights deals have been signed recently in the NY metro area, the NJ Sports and Exposition Authority is having some trouble generating interest in the Meadowlands arena since its biggest tenants are planning to leave:
George Zoffinger, CEO of the authority, said a tour of the arena by potential bidders earlier this month didn't go as well as expected.
"With the uncertainty of the building, it's a very difficult sell," he said.
...
Naming rights for new arenas in the New York metro area have proved lucrative.Barclays Bank PLC announced in January it would spend as much as $400 million over the next 20 years to put its name on the new pro basketball arena planned as the Nets' future home in Brooklyn. The 18,000-seat facility designed by the architect Frank Gehry will be called The Barclays Center.
Prudential Financial Inc. will pay $105.3 million over 20 years, for the right to call the Devils' new arena the Prudential Center.
The New York Giants and New York Jets are working on naming rights for the stadium they are building next to the arena, expected to open in 2010.
Now that the Devils are moving to the Prudential Center, a new arena opening next month in downtown Newark, the Meadowlands arena in East Rutherford, N.J., is left without a long-term marquee tenant.
The New Jersey Nets basketball team, which plans to move to a proposed megacomplex in Brooklyn, N.Y., has signed a lease to play at the Meadowlands until 2012 but can opt out earlier, Zoffinger said. Another tenant, the men's basketball team from Seton Hall, is also moving to Newark.
NoLandGrab: The NJ Nets' lease extension seems beneficial to both parties: it gives the NJ Sports and Exposition Authority some minimal value to offer potential bidders, and provides Bruce Ratner a place to park the Nets while things drag out in Brooklyn.
Posted by lumi at September 24, 2007 7:54 AM