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June 10, 2009
Nets CEO defends decision to jettison Gehry
Associated Press
by Ronald Blum
Oh, my. Like a poor imitation of Jon Lovitz's Tommy Flanagan (that's Flan-AY-gan), Nets CEO Brett Yormark just can't help himself.
The chief executive of the Nets defended his team's decision to jettison architect Frank Gehry's design for a new arena in Brooklyn and replace it with a more conventional and less costly option.
..."Unfortunately the world we live in today is very different than what it was three or four years ago when we hired Frank," Nets chief executive Brett Yormark said Wednesday at Street & Smith's SportsBusiness Journal's conference on sports facilities and franchises.
"The world is more simplistic. It's not as grand and glitzy. And I'm not sure that design would have been appropriate right now, as much as we all loved it. I think the design that we have now is very appropriate. It speaks to Brooklyn."
NoLandGrab: As if it is appropriate to grab more than $1 billion in subsidies, renege on financial and structural/logistical commitments to the MTA, hijack a State Senate hearing, bait-and-switch with impunity, cook up economic-impact analyses and take people's homes and businesses for private gain.
We'll leave it to Norman Oder to address Yormark's "speaks to Brooklyn" comment (see below), but NoLandGrab does have exclusive video of Yormark's appearance at the conference:
Atlantic Yards Report, Nets CEO Yormark, 3 months after asserting Gehry was still on the job, now says the world's changed from 3 years ago
Speaking to Brooklyn?
Well, let's put aside how much it speaks to Indianapolis, being modeled on the Conseco Fieldhouse (itself modeled on the Hinkle Fieldhouse at Butler University there).
Instead, consider that, less than three months ago, on March 25, Yormark told WFAN:
Frank Gehry is still the architect of this project. And he loves it. It’s very dear to his heart, no different than it is to all of us – Bruce Ratner, our investors and myself. I think his statements were misconstrued.Thanks for clearing that up.
Posted by eric at June 10, 2009 8:34 PM