« First look at the $76 million Barclays Center subway station | Main | Atlantic Yards Deep Thoughts: Big Gulp and Mayor Bloomberg Logic Edition »

September 14, 2012

The Culture of Cheating: Nets/arena CEO Yormark says "what I'm most proud of is the cultural fit for Barclays" (unmentioned: the LIBOR scandal)

Atlantic Yards Report

An exchange in a 9/11/12 Billboard Q&A, Barclays Center CEO Brett Yormark on the Brooklyn Brand, Jay-Z, $1 Billion Building, has some unintended resonance regarding the "culture of cheating" and the elephant in the room: dishonest behavior by Barclays.

A big part of this project is the 20-year naming rights deal with Barclays. How much did it mean to you to get that deal done?
*That's a great question, because when I look back on my career, it's probably one of those top two or three highlights... There were a lot of doubters, but they weren't doubting my ability, they were doubting because of all the planned new buildings in the market... They're like, "you're the last one to get yours, so you're probably going to need some help." They doubted the project, the merits of Brooklyn, lots of different things. And we nailed it. For me, what I'm most proud of is the cultural fit for Barclays.
(Emphasis added)

Tell me about that, it just seems so unlikely.
You can either do it for the money or you can do it for the partnerships, and thankfully, in our case we did it for both reasons. Financially, they made a very appealing offer to us, but more important than the financials is, we just believed in Barclays and Barclays believed in us, and that goes to the highest levels.

Of course, Yormark was talking about commerce, about branding Brooklyn, about mutual promotion.

But think about it: "the cultural fit for Barclays."

If Atlantic Yards, as I've contended, represents the "culture of cheating," then isn't Barclays a perfect fit?

article

Posted by eric at September 14, 2012 12:35 PM