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March 27, 2008
Subprime Crisis Sends Ripples Through Sports World
The Business of Sport
The NY Sun
by Evan Weiner
The financial crisis has definitely had an affect on Ratner’s Atlantic Yards project in Brooklyn. He still plans to build an arena for his New Jersey Nets franchise, but the scale of the project has been cut down because of financing —or, more specifically, the lack of widely available money for an office tower and three residential buildings on the 22-acre parcel at the corner of Flatbush and Atlantic avenues.
Ratner’s project started in 2004 and gained state approval in 2006. The arena was scheduled to open in 2009, but construction has been delayed by lawsuits. Ratner has signed an open-ended deal to keep the Nets in the Meadowlands until the Brooklyn arena is done.
...The real effect on New York sports teams may not be evident until the opening of the NBA and NHL seasons in the fall. If the financial market loses jobs, and New York officials fully expect a significant loss of positions in that field, that could impact the Knicks’ and Rangers’ high-end seating, along with that of the Devils, Nets, and Islanders.
...The American sports world is keeping an eye on Wall Street and the banking industry. While each league — and each individual team — might have a different immediate reaction to the subprime mortgage crisis, all teams may eventually have to face the full impact of the Bear Stearns meltdown.
Posted by eric at March 27, 2008 1:46 PM