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July 2, 2008
Does the Future of Atlantic Yards Really Hinge on LeBron?
Gotham Gazette [The Wonkster], Can Lebron James Save Bruce Ratner?
A little background for the non-SLAM Magazine-reading set: The James here is Lebron, who is buddies with rap mogul and Nets minority owner Jay-Z. The Nets’ principal owner is Forest City Ratner, which wants to move them to an as-yet unbuilt, 18,000-seat, Forest City-developed, Frank Ghery-designed arena in Atlantic Yards by 2010. James, arguably the world’s most marketable athlete, becomes a free agent in 2010. He currently plays in Cleveland, which we’re told is a much less interesting and exciting place than New York.
Could James’ apparent interest in Brooklyn have any impact on Atlantic Yards?
Bleacher Report, Please No More LeBron to New York Talk
Is anybody else as sick as me with the oversaturated coverage of LeBron’s supposedly inevitable move to one of the New York teams come 2010? It’s good to dream, but can someone please tell me when this became fact?
...Yi brings China with him, which, in turn brings a lot of money. Keep in mind New York has the biggest Chinese population in the U.S. There is plenty of money to be made overseas in China. Naming rights money, shoe deal money, endorsement deals, suite money for the new arena.
Because of Yi, Nets games will now be seen on 50 plus stations in China. Three hundred million Chinese play basketball and one billion watch NBA games. Some months the NBA brings in more revenue from China than it does in North America.
This move had to be done. The Nets were losing $40 million a year, the heaviest debt-to-assets load of any professional sports team, according to Forbes magazine.
NoLandGrab: With the Nets, real estate comes first, with marketing a close second. Putting a winning team on the floor, well....
NY Daily News, With inexperienced roster, Nets front office looks to add veterans
However, Thorn, Vandeweghe and owner Bruce Ratner have admitted they are not willing to sacrifice the future just to give the Nets a better chance in the upcoming season. Although no executives have said so, speculation is that the Jefferson trade, which brought 20-year-old 7-footer Yi Jianlian and veteran forward Bobby Simmons to New Jersey, was all about setting up a possible run at future free agent LeBron James.
NLG: No Nets' executives have said so because saying so would be tampering.
Posted by eric at July 2, 2008 10:37 AM