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March 13, 2009
Nets’ Yormark Says Team Move to Brooklyn ‘Will Happen’ in 2011
Bloomberg News
by Mason Levinson
You've got to admire Pollyanna Brett Yormark's enthusiasm. You just have to wonder why.
The New Jersey Nets are committed to moving to a yet-to-be-built Brooklyn arena for the 2011-12 National Basketball Association season, overcoming economic concerns and legal opposition, team Chief Executive Officer Brett Yormark said.
“It will happen,” Yormark said in an interview for Bloomberg Television’s “For the Record,” which will air tonight. “We’ll be there for the ‘11-’12 season. We’ve pre-sold 20 percent of our suites. We’ve got eight of our 14 founding partnerships already completely signed. Next week, we’ll announce our ninth.”
NoLandGrab: Yormark's boast about having pre-sold 20% of the still-on-the-drawing-board arena's suites glosses over the reality of the situation. You see, nearly a year ago, in early May, 2008, Yormark also boasted about having pre-sold 20% of the suites, to "friends and family." At the time, we questioned what "friends and family" really meant.
Bottom line, in the past ten-and-a-half months, the Nets have apparently not enticed anyone else — friend, family or, more importantly, otherwise — to join the ranks of suite buyers.
We should also note that when Yormark was first boasting about the suite pre-sales, he was also claiming the Nets would be moving to Brooklyn at the start of the 2010 season.
Posted by eric at March 13, 2009 7:40 PM