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September 24, 2009
Russian to Judgment: More reaction to Ratner-Prokhorov deal
More reaction to the news that Bruce Ratner plans to sell control of the New Jersey Nets — and a large share of the not-as-yet-and-may-never-be-built Barclays Center arena — to Russian billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov.
Only the Blog Knows Brooklyn, Leon Freilich, Verse Responder: Rusky Invasion
A Russian magnate's putting up dough
To buy the Yards and the Nets--
But wait until he runs into
The furious Brooklyn Nyets!
Old First, Pascrell on The Atlantic Yards: "Almost Biblical"
Pastor Daniel Meeter turns to the Bible for an analogy.
I just heard it on Brian Lehrer on WNYC, wonderfully affirmed by Congressman Bill Pascrell, of my home town of Paterson, NJ. He said that the problems of the latest Ratner proposal for the Atlantic Yards are "almost Biblical in proportions."
I have thought so from the beginning. The Tower of Babel comes to mind, as in Breughel's famous painting.
This latest rescue plan, by the Russian oligarch What's-His-Name, is so ludicrous as to defy belief. How can our mayor and our borough president support this? Our public subsidies, paid for by our tax money, will be used for the benefit of a financial gamble on the part of a crony of Putin, who gained his wealth and influence in circumstances fearful to contemplate. The corruption is so huge as to almost disappear from sight. But massive in our sights will be the unfinished hulks of this development.
...Can this really be happening? Let's see how the ESDC and every other authority respond to this, or will they continue to expose their knavery? Will they finally say, Enough?
It's not going to happen, that's clear, the whole thing is too absurd. It always was absurd, but it's reached a level of absurdity that is, well, Biblical, but the tragedy is, as it always was, how much damage will they do before it finally expires?
AP via WFAN.com, Russian's bid for US team raises hackles at home
Russian tycoon Mikhail Prokhorov's bid for the New Jersey Nets may be a boon to the troubled basketball team, but some Russian legislators and analysts call it a blow to the nation's sports.
"I can't consider this action as anything other than unpatriotic," Aslambek Aslakhanov, a member of the upper parliament chamber's sports committee, said Thursday, according to the state news agency RIA Novosti. "We also have talented children here, but sports isn't being developed. They're not trying in order for us to return to our former sports ranking of best in the world."
...Viktor Ozerov, another upper-chamber legislator, said Prokhorov is sending his money in the wrong direction.
"I don't deny that Mikhail Prokhorov has put money into developing sports in Russia, but I would have liked all the means he considered possible to have gone to specifically supporting sports in the fatherland," Ozerov was quoted as saying.
The Kremlin hasn't commented on Prokhorov's move, but members of the upper parliament chamber, the Federation Council, commonly reflect the views of the Russian leadership.
NYTimes.com, Rubles for Clunkers? Russian Buys the Nets.
In the N.B.A., there’s a new sheriff in town, a dashing Russian oligarch who arrived at the buzzer to save the Nets’ Brooklyn dreams. Does it matter that he got ridiculously rich in the shady post-Soviet economy, is known as the Nickel King and could, for roughly a hundred reasons, knock Mark Cuban down N.B.A. Commissioner David Stern’s nightmare list? For $200 million, apparently, nyet.
NBA.com, Russian billionaire should help fortune shine upon Nets
In the space of a day, the fortunes of the New Jersey Nets changed dramatically.
With an agreement for Russian oligarch Mikhail Prokhorov to purchase controlling interest of the team, the Nets have gone from the franchise with the biggest debt in the league to the franchise with the richest owner (or second richest, depending on how Paul Allen's investments are doing these days).
...Nets fans have never liked current owner Bruce Ratner. From Day 1, many have believed that Ratner's reasons for buying the team in 2004 had little to do with basketball. His main reason for owning a team, according to his detractors, was so he had a reason to develop 22 acres in Brooklyn with an arena as the centerpiece.
NoLandGrab: And these most recent developments make it pretty clear that the "detractors" were 100% right.
NY Post, Sale should lift Nets’ restraints
“It’s no secret we’re having financial difficulties,” guard Keyon Dooling, a union VP and the Nets’ player rep entering the last year of his contract, said yesterday. “So I’m very enthused by this. I’m in a position where I might be re-signed or not the following year. It might be a situation where money decides. Nobody wants the decision to be based solely on money.”
The Brooklyn Paper, Who is this shadowy Russian oligarch?
But just how rich is he?
“If you know how rich you are, you are not a billionaire,” he once told the Times Online, our sister publication across the pond.
YourNabe.com, Russian Billionaire buys Nets
But reaction from Brooklyn’s large former Soviet Union and Russian community mainly living in southern Brooklyn was positive.
“This is great news and for the [Russian-American] community it will be huge,” said community activist John Lisyanskiy, who also works in City Council Speaker Christine Quinn’s office.
Lisyanskiy said there are about 350,000 Russian-Americans living in Brooklyn and he has been trying for years to get them more involved in local affairs and the sale of the team to Prokhorov will bring out a lot of pride, which will ultimately get these new Americans more involved in local community life.
Lisyanskiy said while Prokhorov has been controversial in some of his dealings, he is also well known for Russian philanthropy.
Assemblymember Alec Brook-Krasny, who represents Brighton Beach and Coney Island, and is a Russian-American immigrant, said the sale will probably trigger a big explosion in the local Russian media resulting in more Russian-Americans going to Nets games.
NLG: Just like the "big explosion" in Chinese-American Nets fans after the team signed Yi Jianlian?
Posted by eric at September 24, 2009 1:17 PM