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September 22, 2009
Prokhorov Issues Absurd Statement on the Nets and Atlantic Yards, No Matter How Well Translated
Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn
By way of DDDB, what it calls a "professional translation" of a statement posted by Russian billionaire (and rumored Bruce Ratner savior) Mikhail Prokhorov on his blog. We're not sure we completely agree with DDDB, however, about the absurdity of the statement.
Greetings to all!
I realized all of a sudden that, well, it’s been quite a while since I’ve written, and there’s a reason for that—the last few months we’ve been swamped at work with routine tasks, and there was nothing really interesting to report. But now there is something—not long ago our group received a proposal to participate in a business project concerning the building of a new arena in Brooklyn (New York) and to become a shareholder of the basketball team “New Jersey Nets,” which in two years should move to Brooklyn and be called “Brooklyn Nets.”
Most interestingly, I learned of this project from the papers, about how I would play an active role in it! And what a surprise, then, that within a few days after the stories came out in the press, shareholders of the team reached out to us with a real proposal to discuss possible collaboration! The discussion concluded with us receiving a firm offer from the American shareholders to be involved in the project. For our group, participation in such a complex project undoubtedly is interesting only in the event that NBA technology can be used for the systematic development of basketball in Russia. Our existing professional league, as everyone knows, is not able to independently keep itself afloat, and because of that, the financial well-being and existence of clubs are entirely dependent either on the support of governors or businessmen-fans of the sport, and any changes to their financial position leads to instability in the development of a club.
Click thru for the rest of the statement, which, in truth, does wander a bit.
NoLandGrab: We've got news for Mr. Prokhorov — some teams in our existing professional league (like the one he's rumored to be bailing out) are unable to independently keep themselves afloat, either, which is why they turn to Russian billionaires (like himself), and must also depend on the support of governors (and mayors and borough presidents and economic development corporations and public authorities) for their existence.
Posted by eric at September 22, 2009 8:50 PM