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June 26, 2009
Note from a Fan - Time to Sell
Nets Daily
by NetIncome
Bruce Ratner finally broke NetIncome/Bobbo's spirit.
Let’s face it. This franchise is a mess.
After yesterday’s trade and last night’s draft pick, the New Jersey Nets are back where they were in 2000, a mismanaged operation that is a joke to its fans and the larger NBA universe.
It’s traded away its stars. It plays in the worst venue in the NBA, if not professional sports. Its fan base is shrinking and its move to Brooklyn questionable at best. Its respected basketball managers spend most of their time making excuses for an owner who is increasingly unavailable and when he does speak says little anyone believes.
There is no longer trust between those who are most passionate about the team and those who own and manage it. And quite frankly, it’s not going to get better any time soon. In fact, it is likely to get worse. It’s hard to root for the New Jersey Nets…or if you prefer, the Brooklyn Nets or the New York Nets.
It would be best for those running the team to say what the reality is: the decisions that have been made the last year and a half have made to save money. If the team got anything in return, it was a bonus. And the decision to dump Vince Carter along with other recent decisions was not made in the Nets’ corporate offices in East Rutherford or even Forest City Ratner’s offices in Brooklyn. It was most likely made in Cleveland, home of Forest City Enterprises, which assumes 54% of the team’s ever increasing losses and has seen its stock lose 75% of its value. Not good numbers.
The biggest canard of course is that this was done to help the “cap”, with front office types citing those big numbers that will be available next summer in the summer of free agency. No, it wasn’t. It was done to save money because the team is hemorrhaging it. Moreover, this looked like an operation that is up for sale even before the Sports Illustrated revelations. Companies looking to sell do all the things the Nets have done in the past several months: cut staff, shrink investments and, most of all, dump long term costs and conserve cash. This isn’t “Batten down the hatches. There’s a storm a-coming”. This is “Get me out of here”.
NoLandGrab: Mr. Income had no problem with Bruce Ratner running roughshod over Prospect Heights, stealing homes and money from taxpayers. But ruin his basketball team? That's just wrong.
Boo hoo.
Posted by eric at June 26, 2009 2:19 PM