« Keystone will rely on Eminent Domain!? | Main | With transportation plan delayed, Nets finally survey fans about transportation options regarding Barclays Center attendance »

January 30, 2012

Nets Owner Mikhail Prokhorov Worth Billions Less

Forbes
by Luisa Kroll

Russian billionaire and Nets owner Mikhail Prokhorov was officially registered as a Russian presidential candidate on Wednesday, after collecting the required 2 million signatures. His name will now appear on the March 4 ballot alongside heavily favored candidate, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, and three others.

While he’s been busy campaigning, his net worth has taken a beating. Prokhorov is now worth between $12 billion and $13 billion, down from $18 billion last March when we published our 2011 ranking of the World’s Billionaires.

Most of that loss has come from the poor performance of his public holdings, which have gotten battered along with the Russian stock market.
...

One investment that has not lost value is Prokhorov’s NBA basketball team, the soon to be Brooklyn Nets, which he bought in 2009 and plans to move into a new arena in Brooklyn’s Atlantic Yards later this year. According to our recently released NBA valuations, the team is valued at $357 million, 14% more than last year.

article

NoLandGrab: While the Nets may have appreciated in value on the backs of New York's taxpayers, the Curse of the Nets is surely responsible for Prokhorov's losses. At this rate, he'll be broke in three years.

Related content...

NorthJersey.com, Nets gains – in spite of current struggles

The annual Forbes NBA valuations came out this week, and the Nets are ranked last in revenue, 28th out of 30 franchise in debt/value ratio, and 28th in operating income (minus $23.6 million, which may be being kind).

So you might think the Nets will place 28th, 29th, or 30th based on those numbers.

Instead, they rank 14th – up from 21st a year ago. So I checked in today with Forbes reporter Kurt Badenhausen on what seemed like might be a discrepancy.

Badenhausen said that the future economic prospects of the Nets – who are moving to Brooklyn this fall – is somewhat “baked into the value” of the franchise at $357 million.
...

But he cautioned that honeymoons with new sports facilities keep getting shorter and shorter – and cited the Mets’ CitiField as an example.

“Fans have shown, with the NBA, that they will not support a team that loses week after week,” Badenhausen said.

Posted by eric at January 30, 2012 10:47 AM