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October 4, 2007
NETS' RATNER GETTING INTO NAMING GAME
NY Post
By Holly M. Sanders
Brooklyn Sports and Entertainment - an affiliate of Ratner's ownership group Nets Sports and Entertainment - is launching a naming-rights division to secure sponsors for other sports and entertainment venues.
The move comes after Brooklyn Sports and Entertainment got Barclays Bank to pay $20 million a year to put its name on the new Brooklyn arena, where the Nets hope to play in 2009.
More recently the New Jersey Sports & Exposition Authority asked Brett Yormark, president and chief executive of Nets Sports and Entertainment, to help line up sponsors to rename the Continental Airlines Arena.
"We've sold two naming rights in the same market in the last 10 months, which has never been done before," Yormark said in an interview.
The three bidders in the running - Izod, Rocawear and Southpole - are all apparel companies. Rocawear was founded by hip hop mogul Shawn "Jay-Z" Carter, who is a part owner of the Nets.
The Sports & Exposition Authority is expected to vote today on which of the companies will get to rename the Meadowlands arena.
Yormark said the Nets' marketing muscle has drawn interest from colleges and art centers, among others, that are keen to secure their own naming-rights deals.
NoLandGrab: We hope the public understands that sports teams get subsidies from government (that's YOUR money) and tax breaks, and some even benefit from eminent domain, but the revenue from these naming rights deals goes straight into the teamowners' pockets.
In the case of Bruce Ratner's new Nets arena, the Barclays deal will pay for most of the costs of construction.
Posted by lumi at October 4, 2007 8:28 AM