« FCE Press Release: Forest City to Webcast 2009 Annual Meeting of Shareholders | Main | Big week for FCE: at annual meeting, will they discuss Gehry, arena opening, changed AY plan? »
June 4, 2009
Nets Face Deep Potholes On Road To Brooklyn
The basketball team is trying to make its move from New Jersey to the big city seem inevitable. Don't bet the ranch on it.
Forbes.com
By Tom Van Riper
Though Atlantic Yards developer and NJ Nets team owner Bruce Ratner is making a full-court press to move the team to Brooklyn, several obstacles stand in the way:
The problem: There's a 50-50 chance at best that the arena gets built. The legal and political hurdles are now mostly cleared, but because opponents delayed the project so long, it's pushed construction into an era of economic turmoil and tight credit.
...
Forest City Ratner, whose Nets are making the move sound inevitable, isn't saying how much private financing it has lined up, according to a spokesman."I don't know of a single venue that has been financed since last summer," says sports law expert Gary Roberts, who is dean of Indiana University Law School. "In normal times, I'd see it as very likely to get done, but there are enough variables that you can't bet the ranch."
Forbes.com, citing tight credit, estimates Nets move to Brooklyn at 50-50
Norman Oder finds this bit a little interesting.
"The timing is about as bad as it gets right now," says industry consultant David Carter of the Sports Business Group. A big risk that's caught lenders' attention recently: Can teams charge prices high enough these days to cover the debt service on an expensive new venue? The empty premium seats at Yankee Stadium and the slow sales of personal seat licenses for the new football stadium for the Jets and Giants in New Jersey are evidence of misjudged pricing power.
Posted by lumi at June 4, 2009 5:44 AM