July 21, 2008
Will LeBron be a Knick, a Net or remain a Cav?
NYC Sports
By Sam Smith
Bruce Ratner's NJ Nets are unloading large player contracts, in hopes of vying for LeBron James when his contract is up with Cleveland in 2010.
Meanwhile, not everyone is buying Bruce's story that a new arena will be ready by the 2010-2011 season.
It's a long time away, especially if you have to endure two more seasons with New York media and fans.
The Nets really don't since it doesn't look like they'll get to Brooklyn and a new arena until maybe 2011, if at all. We assume they will since they now are officially as lame as a duck with a broken leg.
Having traded Jason Kidd in February, which was a terrific move in swindling the Dallas Mavericks out of Devin Harris and a No. 1 pick in 2010 that should be in the lottery with the Mavs in full collapse, and Jefferson recently, the Nets are in full rebuilding mode.
There's an old scouting saying around the NBA that "if you are going to make a mistake, make it big."
Posted by lumi at 5:08 AM
July 18, 2008
Nets introduce Yi Jianlian and Bobby Simmons
InsideHoops.com
By Randy Zellea
Don't forget, it's 100% about basketball:
Last week the New Jersey Nets introduced Yi Juanlian And Bobby Simmons to local media.
...
While the conference did revolve around basketball, there was plenty of talk about marketing, not surprising since Jianlian is expected to bring added international attention to the team.Bruce Ratner talked in his opening statement on how excited he was as this was the a new chapter in Nets Basketball. Later during the Q&A, Bruce was asked if this was a basketball move or marketing move, to which Ratner insisted that this was a 100% basketball decision. The marketing aspect is a bonus as this will help them in the future when they move to Brooklyn. Ratner reminded everyone that basketball decisions are made by Rod and Kiki.
NoLandGrab: Actually, one local group has determined that it's 18.6% about basketball.
Posted by lumi at 5:18 AM
July 15, 2008
Sports economist Zimbalist criticizes "bogus" economic impact studies, fails to look in mirror
Atlantic Yards Report
Norman Oder follows up on yesterday's appearance by sports economist Andrew Zimbalist on WNYC's Brian Lehrer Show, and all we can say is that for the sake of his professional reputation, the Professor is lucky that Brian didn't open the phones to the speed-dialing AYR blogger.
So there he was, sports economist Andrew Zimbalist, on the Brian Lehrer Show yesterday to talk about the All-Star Game, and suddenly he had to defend his public statements supporting the Yankee Stadium deal and his not-peer-reviewed study endorsing Atlantic Yards.
Had there been an equal debate, Zimbalist would have been flattened. He continued to insist that the Yankees deserved praise for paying for their stadium, without acknowledging the host of special benefits to the team. He continued to insist that Forest City Ratner was using only as-of-right benefits for Atlantic Yards, despite ironclad evidence to the contrary.
And when challenged to resolve the inconsistency between his criticism of the West Side Stadium deal and his support for Atlantic Yards, he became defensive and suggested that the former might have emerged a decade ago, when it was actually several months after he issued his report for Forest City Ratner.
NoLandGrab: Like "jumbo shrimp" and "military intelligence," "sports economist" is obviously an oxymoron.
Posted by eric at 10:33 AM
July 14, 2008
Newark watching the finances as arena finishes its emergency system
The Newark Star-Ledger
by Maura McDermott
Next month, the Newark Downtown Core Redevelopment Corp. will launch a national search for a firm specializing in financial performance and maintenance of arenas, said William Crawley, the agency's chief operating officer. The agency oversaw construction of the arena and now must make sure it lives up to its promises.
The goal is to make sure the Devils pay the city what they owe, maintain the arena properly and stay competitive, Crawley said.
...Hiring an expert to analyze the arena's performance is a wise decision, said Howard Bloom, publisher of SportsBusinessNews.com.
"It's the responsible thing to do to make sure the taxpayers get as much of a return on their investment," Bloom said. "It's a matter of checks and balances."
The agency also aims to have the management firm measure how the venue stacks up against its competitors, Crawley said.
...The trouble would come if the Nets build their planned arena in Brooklyn, adding to the competition from the Izod Center in the Meadowlands and other nearby venues, Bloom said.
New Jersey officials have sought to attract the Nets to Newark, but owner Bruce Ratner insists he will break ground on a Brooklyn arena by the end of the year.
NoLandGrab: Should Bruce Ratner actually succeed in building Atlantic Yards, close monitoring of the revenue due taxpayers would certainly be wise. But if history is any guide, his elected and appointed enablers in City government would likely just take his word for it.
Posted by eric at 10:50 AM
Are the Nets' roster moves partly in case the team might be sold?
Reblogging Atlantic Yards Report, reblogging Nets Daily:
NetIncome, the blogger behind NetsDaily, is a critical supporter of the Nets and their endeavors, so his musings about the front-office strategy are worth remembering, just in case Forest City Ratner turns to Plan B:
We find the Nets’ policy of not signing players for more than two years a bit rigid… and some of us are skeptical that it’s all about Lebron. We suspect it’s about cutting back on salary commitments just in case Brooklyn falls through and the team is put up for sale. Whenever any business with poor growth prospects starts cutting back on long-term commitments, selling assets, investors believe that company is “in play”, meaning up for sale.
In other words, maybe the Nets are clearing space to sign superstar LeBron James, a friend of part-owner Jay-Z, when he becomes a free agent in 2010. Or maybe not.
Posted by lumi at 4:43 AM
July 13, 2008
Nets face lean years, Brooklyn or no Brooklyn
NewsOK.com
by Ian O'Connor
Let us get this straight. Bruce Ratner says it's "100% about basketball" at the same time that he's scuttling Nets' salaries faster than he's knocking down buildings in Prospect Heights. All so the team can position itself to sign Jay-Z protege LeBron James in 2010 (wink-wink, we're not tampering, David Stern). In the meantime, James's Cleveland Cavaliers, a legitimate NBA contender, are nearing the point where they will have enough salary cap room to sign another legit star to help LeBron bring a championship to Cleveland — while the Nets are riding an express elevator to the NBA's cellar.
The Bergen Record's Ian O'Connor lays out the hazards of wishing upon a star in the NBA.
The Nets have been busy clearing salary cap space, office space, locker room space, a parking space, all kinds of space for James. They weren't just getting rid of Richard Jefferson when they made the trade with Milwaukee for Yi and Bobby Simmons; they were getting rid of Richard Jefferson's wage.
But way back when, before he spent a summer acquiring Allan Houston, Chris Childs and Larry Johnson for the Knicks, Ernie Grunfeld told me the most frightening scenario for an NBA executive is clearing out money under the salary cap and then finding nobody worthwhile to take it.
"That happened to Chicago, after Michael Jordan,” Rod Thorn said. "They had significant cap room and they tried to give it to Tracy McGrady, and they tried to give it to (Kevin) Garnett at different times and it didn't work.
"That's the misnomer about having cap space … . If you have a team that's just not very good, to think that you are going to get a top quality free agent is kind of pie in the sky.”
...Sure, the Nets have Jay-Z and their pending palace, which probably won't be ready until the start of the 2011-12 season. With Ratner losing an estimated $40 million a year in the Meadowlands, and with the purchase of the team setting him back $300 million, the Nets are expected to have cost their owner nearly $600 million by the time he lands in Brooklyn.
At those prices, Ratner will want to make a splash in the new digs. And nobody splashes quite like LeBron.
But will the Nets be good enough to even make James' Fave Five?
NoLandGrab: You'd think Bruce Ratner would have learned his lesson about coveting things that aren't his when he started eyeing Daniel Goldstein's apartment.
Posted by eric at 1:43 PM
July 12, 2008
Nets land Najera, NBA's tenth most marketable player (they already have #9)
Atlantic Yards Report
The New Jersey Nets have signed free agent forward Eduardo Najera, who's hardly a star, but is the NBA's only player from Mexico. He's one of the four players bannered on the NBA's Spanish-language site (above; click to enlarge) and is deemed by MSNBC to be the league's tenth most marketable player.
...
The Nets also just acquired Yi Jianlian, who notches #9 on MSNBC's list, though he, like Najera, is not a star like the other eight on the list.
Posted by amy at 9:01 AM
July 11, 2008
When Ratner says it's 100% about basketball, it's time to check the b.s. meter
Atlantic Yards Report
Nets owner and Atlantic Yards developer Bruce Ratner insists that "It’s 100 percent about basketball," but local sportswriters aren't buying it and neither is the skeptical Norman Oder, who recaps the coverage and breaks down the pr doublespeak.
I suspect that Bruce Ratner does, in fact, let his basketball pros make (at least most of) the basketball decisions. However, the line between basketball and marketing, between sports and business, as the Nets have shown with their sponsor-stuffed web site, is virtually non-existent.
NoLandGrab: The Nets just posted a $7.2-million loss for last quarter and the team is looking fairly mediocre on paper — we shudder to think what kind of shape the team and its finances would be in if it wasn't "100% about basketball."
Posted by lumi at 4:43 AM
July 10, 2008
LEBRON-TO-NETS IS MATTER OF WAIT-&-YI
NY Post
by Jay Greenberg
Why, if you bought the spin, you'd think that Yi was Yao, and the Nets weren't the also-ran franchise they've become under the stewardship of Bruce C. Ratner.
Rod Thorn brought the Nets out of the wilderness once, so is trusted by Bruce Ratner to do it again. But it's not the owner, actually LeBron James, who will be the ultimate judge of Yi Jianlian, Devin Harris, Sean Williams and whatever other pieces Thorn has in place by 2010.
Whether from Brooklyn, Manhattan or Oklahoma City, the free-agent-to-be James will get his basketball money to the max. Hardly does LeBron need to play two blocks or one borough away from Madison Avenue to be any more the recognizable pitchman he already is.
If James's good buddy Jay-Z is part-owner of a bad team because Yi hasn't amounted to much more than a 7-foot hill of string beans, the Nets will pay big time for not having made a better trade of a valuable commodity like Richard Jefferson.
In the meantime, with groundbreaking at the Atlantic Yards scheduled for November and court challenges being knocked down like Yi does 15-footers, it's mostly Vince Carter vs. the wolf at the door at the Meadowlands. Although the wolf, like the patrons, must first find the door through Xanadu construction.
NoLandGrab: It's all about the basketball. It's all about the basketball. It's all about the basketball. It's all....
Posted by eric at 4:18 PM
Nets going 'international'
Newark Star-Ledger
by Dave D'Alessandro
"It's a landmark day for this franchise," crowed jubilant owner Bruce Ratner, looking out over a full practice gym that included more than 40 Chinese media. "We got two terrific players. This region is very heavily Asian and Chinese. We now become a real international team."
...Ratner, whose goal is to move the Nets into a borough that has a dense Chinese community -- there are 250,000 people of Chinese descent in Brooklyn -- says he knows that he must sell substance before cultural appeal.
"Success on the court is our best (method for) tapping into any market. Winning is the most important thing," the owner said. "On top of that, we do have a tremendous Chinese-American market in the tri-state area. If we have success, we will tap into that market in a major kind of way.
"But it's 100 percent about basketball."
NoLandGrab: Repeat after Bruce: "All about the basketball. All about the basketball. All about the basketball. All about...."
Posted by eric at 3:53 PM
With Yi Jianlian, the Nets Hope to Go Global
The New York Times
by Harvey Araton
Thinking expansively, going global, the Nets invited a billion Chinese to stream a news conference Wednesday on njnets.com and to communicate with the newly acquired forward, Yi Jianlian. Alas, the linking of the Far East to East Rutherford was apparently no instant triumph of digital interaction.
At least Jeff from Hackensack was poised to post a query for Bobby Simmons, another new Net who hails from the less exotic basketball hotbed of Chicago.
New ventures take time, require patience, not unlike the building of an arena in densely populated Brooklyn and the development of a 20-year-old 7-footer, who in a tailored suit looks like a devotee of the Slim-Fast Diet.
...Bruce C. Ratner, their principal owner, said that long-range planning was part of the process after the in-season trade of Jason Kidd, but he bristled when asked if the Yi deal was more of a marketing ploy.
“It’s 100 percent about basketball,” he said.
NoLandGrab: Sure, Bruce, like Atlantic Yards is 100% about "Jobs, Housing & Hoops."
Posted by eric at 12:13 PM
July 9, 2008
Nets just watch sales of summer, poised to keep Nenad Krstic
NY Daily News
by Julian Garcia
[Nets' president Rod] Thorn, GM Kiki Vandeweghe and principal owner Bruce Ratner have all admitted in recent weeks that the Nets are looking down the road than the upcoming season, or even the one after that, while still hoping to keep the team "competitive." Ratner has called it a "rebuilding" phase. Thorn called it "retooling."
NoLandGrab: And loyal fans and season-ticket holders of the New Jersey Nets might want to call it quits.
Posted by eric at 9:36 AM
July 7, 2008
Net Losses Mounted Last Quarter
Nets Daily
The everything-Nets blog cites a report from Sports Business Journal about the latest lop-sided Nets loss — and it wasn't on the hardwood.
The Nets lost $7.2 million last quarter, more than double last year’s total, according to new filings by Forest City Enterprises. FCE is Bruce Ratner’s corporate parent and the team’s leading investor. It holds a 21 percent stake in the team but is responsible for around 31 percent of the operating losses. FCE has said it will continue to bolster team finances, expecting a large return when the team moves to Brooklyn.
NoLandGrab: We wonder how those Nets owners who aren't relying on their investment in the Nets to leverage Brooklyn's largest-ever real estate deal are feeling about mounting team losses.
Posted by eric at 12:52 PM
July 6, 2008
Five reasons to package Nets, Isles in Nassau
Newsday
by Mark Herrmann
Developer Bruce Ratner is having a great deal of trouble lining up financing for his proposed Barclays Center arena. Given those difficulties, here is a suggestion to move the Nets into a refurbished Nassau Coliseum as part of the Lighthouse development, and why that might make good sense.
Here is a logical solution that will not displace a single person from his or her Brooklyn apartment, will offer LeBron James a chance to be near his favorite borough and will end the longest-running wandering saga in New York sports.
It is time, finally, after 41 years and six stops, to give the Nets a permanent home. And no, it is not the most expensive arena in the world, the planned $950-million Barclays Center in the very iffy $4-billion Atlantic Yards development in Brooklyn.
The real answer is to bring them home once and for all to the new Nassau Coliseum.
No offense to developer Bruce Ratner or his dream of building a lavish new Nets-oriented community in Brooklyn, and not to throw cold water on the euphoria from a big win in court and a hint from James that he might sign with the team in two years. But economic experts have said in the past few weeks that the shaky economy and new rules about tax-exempt bonds are going to make it tougher than ever to build the Nets' palace. And it hasn't exactly been going full steam up to now.
Posted by steve at 8:00 AM
July 3, 2008
Don't be so sure LeBron is coming
The Newark Star-Ledger
By Steve Politi
The Nets have a plan, and apparently it goes beyond short-term oblivion. They are going to do everything possible to position themselves for the free-agent class of 2010 in hopes of landing the best player in basketball. They want to build a kingdom in Brooklyn and give King James the throne.
That is...
IF ... the new arena is actually completed. Owner Bruce Ratner keeps winning his legal battles, but there still remains the small matter of finding $1 billion to build the thing in this difficult economic market. The Nets might want to have a few girders in the ground before they start making those LeBron jerseys.
Posted by lumi at 3:26 AM
July 2, 2008
Does the Future of Atlantic Yards Really Hinge on LeBron?
Gotham Gazette [The Wonkster], Can Lebron James Save Bruce Ratner?
A little background for the non-SLAM Magazine-reading set: The James here is Lebron, who is buddies with rap mogul and Nets minority owner Jay-Z. The Nets’ principal owner is Forest City Ratner, which wants to move them to an as-yet unbuilt, 18,000-seat, Forest City-developed, Frank Ghery-designed arena in Atlantic Yards by 2010. James, arguably the world’s most marketable athlete, becomes a free agent in 2010. He currently plays in Cleveland, which we’re told is a much less interesting and exciting place than New York.
Could James’ apparent interest in Brooklyn have any impact on Atlantic Yards?
Bleacher Report, Please No More LeBron to New York Talk
Is anybody else as sick as me with the oversaturated coverage of LeBron’s supposedly inevitable move to one of the New York teams come 2010? It’s good to dream, but can someone please tell me when this became fact?
...Yi brings China with him, which, in turn brings a lot of money. Keep in mind New York has the biggest Chinese population in the U.S. There is plenty of money to be made overseas in China. Naming rights money, shoe deal money, endorsement deals, suite money for the new arena.
Because of Yi, Nets games will now be seen on 50 plus stations in China. Three hundred million Chinese play basketball and one billion watch NBA games. Some months the NBA brings in more revenue from China than it does in North America.
This move had to be done. The Nets were losing $40 million a year, the heaviest debt-to-assets load of any professional sports team, according to Forbes magazine.
NoLandGrab: With the Nets, real estate comes first, with marketing a close second. Putting a winning team on the floor, well....
NY Daily News, With inexperienced roster, Nets front office looks to add veterans
However, Thorn, Vandeweghe and owner Bruce Ratner have admitted they are not willing to sacrifice the future just to give the Nets a better chance in the upcoming season. Although no executives have said so, speculation is that the Jefferson trade, which brought 20-year-old 7-footer Yi Jianlian and veteran forward Bobby Simmons to New Jersey, was all about setting up a possible run at future free agent LeBron James.
NLG: No Nets' executives have said so because saying so would be tampering.
Posted by eric at 10:37 AM
July 1, 2008
Nets owner Bruce Ratner says rebuilding doesn't mean losing
NY Daily News
Now that the NJ Nets have officially started their rebuilding phase, how the heck does Ratner convince NJ fans to care about a lame duck team that he plans to move to Brooklyn one of these days?
But just because the team is planning that far ahead doesn't mean it has lost focus on the more immediate future.
That was the message team owner Bruce Ratner sent Monday to fans in New Jersey who may be worried that the team is going to sacrifice the next two seasons to make a splashy debut in Brooklyn. Although the Nets traded Richard Jefferson last week in a move that had as much to do with finances as it did with strategy, Ratner insisted that team president Rod Thorn and general manager Kiki Vandeweghe are not giving up on the final two years in New Jersey.
"It's just not true," Ratner said at a press conference to introduce the team's three draft pick. "Rod will always be as competitive as possible every single year that he possibly can. If he does some rebuilding, at the same time he'll try to be competitive. It has nothing to do with Brooklyn or New Jersey or any other place.
The Newark Star-Ledger, Nets 'R' looking to future
"Yeah, it's a rebuilding effort," Nets owner Bruce Ratner conceded yesterday, when the team brought in three guys barely a year out of their teens to underscore their predicament. "Maybe people don't like to use that word. But at the same time, when you rebuild, you try to make yourself competitive ... It's hard to do."
Blogs.NYPost.com, Good Evening, Ladies and Germs...
And columnist Fred Kerber posted this on the NY Post blog:
Owner Bruce Ratner was on hand. While he admits the team is in "rebuilding" mode - Thorn preferred to call it "re-tooling," he insists the Nets are not giving up on their dwindling days in New Jersey. And he neatly side-stepped the LeBron James issue for 2010. Everyone on the planet sees the Nets clearing cap space to make a run at Jay-Z's pal.
"Yeah, it's a rebuilding effort. Maybe people don't like to use that word, but at the same time, when you rebuild you try to make yourself competitive," Ratner said. "I don't want to acknowledge that we'll hit bottom. We'll do everything we can to make ourselves competitive."
And as per Joizee versus Brooklyn, Ratner said, "We make sure that this is a regional team, and make sure all fans are happy. On the sports side, it's always to win. Rod has never been told anything different, and never will be. Our job is to win and build the best team we can - whether we're in Brooklyn, whether we're in New Jersey. Whatever we do this year, the goal is the same and always will be."
And finally, on King James, is there a plan to get him here?
"We really don't (have a plan). Our plan is to put ourselves in the best position all the time. 10-11 is a year when there are a lot of free agents, and we want to be in a position where if one comes our way we're able to do that," Ratner said.
Fox Sports, Nets making way for LBJ, Class of 2010
For those of you who want to understand how LeBron James figures into the mix, Peter Vecsey explains:
By my count, the Nets are the 23rd team to set their sights on the free agent Class of 2010.
Clearing cap room two years ahead of time on the belief James' outwardly magnetic bond with Nets' minority owner Jay-Z (it's not as if he rhymes as tight as Biggie Smalls) will influence him to forsake his home state of Ohio is like building an elaborate spec house just across the Brooklyn Bridge in today's saggy, baggy real estate market.
Yet here we have intrepid Nets' owner Bruce Ratner (from Cleveland), no less doing both!
ESPN, LeBron aware that Nets, Knicks looking to snag All-Star in future
LeBron James has kept speculation alive that he's seeking an eventual trade to the Nets:
It appears, judging from James' comments Monday, that the Nets might be James' preferred destination if he opts out of his contract in the summer of 2010 and becomes an unrestricted free agent.
James listed New York as his favorite city Monday (his hometown of Akron, Ohio came in fifth behind Washington D.C., Dallas, and Los Angeles) as he took part in a one-day USA Basketball media blitz, and he also gave an answer to a follow-up question that'll make Knicks president Donnie Walsh and head coach Mike D'Antoni cringe.
"My favorite borough? Brooklyn," James said, choosing the proposed future home of the New Jersey Nets over the borough of Manhattan, where the Knicks play their home games. "Brooklyn is definitely a great place here in New York City, and some of my best friends are from Brooklyn, so I stick up for them."
Posted by lumi at 4:48 AM
June 30, 2008
Booker attempts to woo new-look Nets
MetroNY
By Joe Brescia
Here is yet another story about negotiations that are under way to move the Nets to Newark, rather than Brooklyn.
When Newark Mayor Cory Booker welcomed Bruce Springsteen, Gen. Norman Schwarzkopf, Yogi Berra and others into the New Jersey Hall of Fame weeks before the NBA draft, Booker said he hoped to welcome another group of athletes to town in the near future: the Nets.
Booker is trying to help Jeffrey Vanderbeek, the owner of the Devils, assemble investors to purchase the team.
Bruce Ratner, the Nets’ principal owner, has denied reports that he is interested in selling the team or moving it to Newark. Booker, though, says otherwise.
“I’m going to work very hard to make it happen,” Booker says. If the deal were to go through, the team would play at the Prudential Center, the newly built Devils’ home arena. Both teams played at the Izod Center, the former Continental Arena, in East Rutherford, N.J., before the Devils moved to the new facility in Newark last season.
Posted by steve at 6:32 AM
June 28, 2008
Random Notes from a Night to Remember
Nets Daily Blog
Here is yet another example of less-than-skeptical acceptance of Forest City Ratner's claim that the proposed Barclays Center arena will open in time for the Nets' 2011 season:
Make no mistake about it, tonight’s moves were as critical to the Nets’ future as those at the trade deadline when Jason Kidd was traded. In one aspect, this was opening night for the Brooklyn Nets…the team started making real plans for the 2010-11 season in the Barclays Center, a building yet to rise above the Atlantic Yards.
NoLandGrab: Even if FCR can overcome all the legal and financial barriers that have so far prevented ground breaking on the proposed Atlantic Yards development, it is extremely unlikely that an arena can be completed before 2011. But don't just take our word for it.
Posted by steve at 6:33 AM
June 27, 2008
With Jefferson gone from the Nets, the AY permanent campaign adjusts
Atlantic Yards Report
Now that Nets forward Richard Jefferson has been traded to Milwaukee for Yi Jianlian and Bobby Simmons, the Nets page on the Atlantic Yards web site has been updated--likely temporarily--to feature one player (Vince Carter) and two owners (Bruce Ratner and Jay-Z).
...
In the previous iteration of the page (below), Jefferson occupied the slot currently held by Jay-Z. Of course, before team leader Jason Kidd was traded to Dallas for Devin Herris, the page featured a Carter/Kidd/Jefferson/Nenad Krstic panorama, plus a shot of Kidd alone.What's clear is that the Nets, with two strong draft picks and a young guard in Harris, are rebuilding, and two of the three stars paraded to help sell the Nets to Brooklyn, Kidd and Jefferson, will be long gone before an arena opens. But they served their purpose in the Atlantic Yards permanent campaign.
Posted by lumi at 4:21 AM
June 26, 2008
O'Connor: Nets, Knicks envision a future with LeBron
Bergen Record
by Ian O'Connor
As a franchise, the Nets have rarely dealt in the currency of good luck. So there was a time recently when it appeared the Dodgers would be playing home games in Brooklyn before the Nets did.
Then something funny happened on the way to an abandoned project and another quarter century or more of self-loathing in the East Rutherford marsh.
The Supreme Court, of all entities, decided to play ball with the Nets. The justices decreed that property owners and tenants in and around Atlantic Yards had no right to stop Bruce Ratner, Nets owner, from building a Brooklyn arena for his team and a fresh set of skyscrapers that would serve as a monument to himself.
In other words, the Supreme Court allowed the Nets to resume their slow-break into New York City, longstanding home of the God-awful Knicks.
“That was a big one, a good one,” Nets president Rod Thorn said of the eminent domain ruling that would alter the dynamic that exists between his team and the Knicks.
“If we’re in Brooklyn, then [the rivalry] might be entirely different. Then we’re competing for the same people and the same turf.”
NoLandGrab:
Memo
From: Brett Yormark
To: Rod Thorn
Subject: "If" vs. "When"
Rod —
Bruce only wants us to use "when" when talking about Brooklyn. Never "if." Only "when." Got it?
— Brett
P.S.: Good luck with the draft 2nite.
Posted by eric at 9:38 AM
June 15, 2008
Nets Look to Lure Fans With Free Gas
Streetsblog
Given the New Jersey Nets' lackluster season (34-48 record, no playoff berth), the franchise is taking a page from another under- performer to unload tickets for next year. That's right: buy 2008-2009 season tickets and the Nets will return 10 percent of the cost in the form of "free" gas, which fans will presumably burn up on the way to all those home games. 'Cause with the Nets, it's not about winning or losing, or even how you play. It's about the free gas.This promotion brought to you by the would-be savior of Brooklyn.
Posted by amy at 11:09 AM
June 13, 2008
Nets Want to Ease Gas Pains
Nets Daily
It appears that the carbon-neutrality the Nets were so intent on promoting in April was just another publicity stunt. Now it's all about helping season-ticket holders fill up their SUVs.
As everyone who has ever taken Exit 16W knows, it’s hard to see the Nets without driving. And as everyone who drives knows, gas costs $4.00 a gallon. So the Nets are setting aside more than $250,000 worth of free gas for new season ticket holders. Brett Yormark says anyone who commits to buying season tickets from now through June 26―the NBA Draft– will get back 10 percent of the ticket purchase in gas cards.
Best Nets Daily poster comment: "If anything they should provide free metro cards or nj transit stuff if they want NJ fans to stay nets fans come that magical time when unicorns jump over rainbows and the barclays center opens."
NoLandGrab: Let's see, if Jay-Z plunks down $540,000 for a Barclays Center "bunker" suite, he'll get back a $54,000 gas card, which will allow him to fill up his Jay-Z-edition GM Denali, um, a few times.
Posted by eric at 11:42 AM
June 3, 2008
Brooklyn Day!
On December 10th, 2003, Atlantic Yards was rolled out at Brooklyn Borough Hall as a done deal, with the apparent support of nearly every power-brokering politician in Brooklyn, New York City, and Albany.
Why then, would Forest City Ratner need to throw itself a rally on June 5th, 2008 to "support the Atlantic Yards Project and The Nets moving to Brooklyn!"? Haven't they done this before?
We can only surmise that Ratner's marquee mega-project is truly on the ropes, what with the American flag and Brooklyn Bridge imagery included on the flyer and the call to all Brooklyn building trades to abandon their work sites to come to the desperate PR event "rally." An email sent by Delia Hunley-Adossa yesterday aimed at drumming up bodies for the event repeatedly used all caps to emphasize all the FREE stuff attendees will receive.
Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn and Atlantic Yards Report have lengthy analyses of the materials and the motivations behind the "rally." Thanks, guys, for saving us the trouble.
Posted by eric at 9:01 AM
May 20, 2008
Open Look: New Jersey Nets
Possession Arrow
by Dan Waraska Jr.
Basketball blog Possession Arrow offers up an off-season checklist for the Nets, with recommendations for trades, draft strategy and... real estate.
(4) FORGET BROOKLYN: With the proposed Barclays Center in Brooklyn light years behind schedule, the Nets need to face the facts and realize they will NOT be moving to Brooklyn in time for the 2009-2010 season, the 2010-2011 season or EVER. They will no doubt be in the Izod Center until their recently signed lease extension runs out at the end of 2012. Facing the public relations nightmare of a Brooklyn move gone horribly wrong, Bruce Ratner should sell the club to someone interested in keeping the team in New Jersey. The new management should look to team up with the Devils yet again and take up residence in the Prudential Center in Newark. Repairing the fractured relationship with their NJ fan base should be paramount for the Nets in the coming years as they look to return to Eastern Conference dominance.
NoLandGrab: Possession Arrow describes itself as a "basketball blog that focuses on metric analysis." They've obviously run the numbers, and concluded, like many Atlantic Yards critics, that a Newark move makes increasing sense with each passing day.
Posted by eric at 3:49 PM
May 19, 2008
Launch of Nets' suite sales met with partial shrug
Atlantic Yards Report
While the New Jersey Nets and Forest City Ratner put a lot of effort (Tiffany key chain!) into launching the sale of suites in the yet-unbuilt (heck, ground has not been broken) Barclays Center last Thursday, the media responded with what must be considered a partial shrug. The Barclays Center web site (right) touts articles from the Bergen Record, the Newark Star-Ledger, and the New York Times, but that Times article--as I failed to point out in commentary last week--appeared only online.
The media roundup includes several blog posts and coverage on WNYC radio, but the tabloids--which previewed the announcement in March--didn't cover the event. I think that's a recognition that the story, for now, didn't deserve more attention.
NoLandGrab: Interestingly, the dearth of fawning articles forced the folks at barclayscenter.com to post articles from the two big New Jersey dailies that were not altogether flattering.
Posted by eric at 8:36 AM
May 16, 2008
A SUITE GROWS IN, UM, MANHATTAN
ESPN The Magazine
by Otto Strong
The New Jersey Nets took one step closer to Brooklyn Thursday, even if the stopover came in the form of a showroom high above midtown. Team brass rolled out a living, breathing life-size version of what the suite experience will look and feel like in a new sales center on the 38th floor of The New York Times building.
The Celtics may have this season's Big Three, but the the Big Three who served as MCs for Thursday night's event—Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz and Nets owners Bruce Ratner and Jay-Z—brought the one liners with them.
...Jay-Z was announced to be the first owner of a "bunker suite," one of 12 "event level" spaces that actually has no direct view of the courts, but is tucked between the home and visting teams locker rooms. At 500-square feet, these suites are larger than many Manhattan apartments. And at $540,000, they're just about as expensive, too. Aside from having a sophisticated décor that rivals trendier dwellings in the city, these suites include private bathrooms, multiple flat panel HD-LCD TVs and even a regulation pool table. Also included are eight courtside seats per suite, ya know, just in case you feel like checking out LeBron in person.
NoLandGrab: We're pretty certain that Forest City Ratner misses the irony of selling "bunker suites" in an arena that they swore was completely secure — before they re-designed it to eliminate most of the not-so-safe-looking glass façade.
Posted by eric at 2:09 PM
By the numbers
Bergen Record
The Nets kicked off sales Thursday of a portion of their luxury suites for the proposed Barclays Center, which they hope to open in Brooklyn by the end of 2010. Some seating facts:
64 "Level A" luxury suites, priced at $190,000 to $450,000
54 "Level B" luxury suites, priced at $155,000 to $400,000
12 Court-level "bunker" suites, priced at $540,000
3,200 Premium "club" seats, price not set but probably more than $150 per game
2,000 Upper-level seats for $15
NoLandGrab: Interesting that the Nets also remembered to promote the promised 2,000 $15 seats. Those, of course, won't be on sale for a very long time. Most likely, though, they'll be available much, much sooner than any of the units listed below.
Posted by eric at 12:22 PM
Nets are selling the luxury side of their dream arena
Bergen Record
by John Brennan
The New Jersey Nets, who vow to move to Brooklyn in two years, kicked off a critical phase of that effort Thursday with the opening of a sales center in midtown Manhattan.
"We've been saying that Brooklyn has been real for years, and it is real, but this truly is another validation for us," Chief Executive Officer Brett Yormark said during a media tour of the sales office, which includes a 500-square-foot replica of one of the 130 luxury suites at the proposed $950 million Barclays Center.
NoLandGrab: Pinch me! Brooklyn is real!
"We've got hot prospects that we'll be talking to over the next 30 to 60 days, who have been waiting to be able to come in and walk through a suite," said Yormark, who returned to the Nets after gaining a national reputation for his sponsorship and marketing success at NASCAR. "We've got people what I call 'teed up and ready to go,' and [Thursday's events for corporate leaders] could be a closer for them."
Given the current economy, Nets owners may need every bit of Yormark's sales talents to entice major corporations to shell out an average of $300,000 a year for the suites for terms of five to 10 years. Those sales would serve as part of the collateral for the considerable construction loans the Nets will need to break ground by the end of the year.
The Nets, who expect to obtain one-third or more of the building costs from New York City and New York State subsidies, also announced "founding partner" sponsorships worth $100 million this week. Foxwoods Resort Casino, Anheuser-Busch, and Cushman and Wakefield are among those core partners.
NLG: Foxwoods and Anheuser, two more "Brooklyn" companies?
The Nets lose an estimated $40 million annually at the Izod Center, whose design does not feature modern suites or lucrative "club seats" that can fetch hundreds of dollars per ticket for each game. But Yormark reiterated the franchise's insistence that a move to the Prudential Center is not in the cards, either short-term or long-term.
"We're at the Izod Center and committed to the Izod Center, and from the Izod Center we go to the Barclays Center," Yormark said. "There are no other options for us, and we will consider no other options."
NLG: Alas, poor Yormark. He and his Nets and Forest City Ratner cronies doth protest too much, we thinks, when it comes to the unrelenting efforts to dispel the inconvenient Nets-to-Newark rumors.
Posted by eric at 9:31 AM
Nets Spin Launch of Suite Sales as Proof of Brooklyn Move
 |
The multi-pronged media effort to repair the damage from Bruce Ratner's shockingly candid March 21st interview with The New York Times continued yesterday with the launch of luxury suite sales for the planned Atlantic Yards arena.
Newark Star-Ledger, Nets say showroom is proof of move
The Nets yesterday showed off a full-size replica of the luxury suites they expect to feature in their $950 million Brooklyn arena, in yet another push to demonstrate they are serious about leaving New Jersey in 2010.
..."The Barclays Center showroom is one more validation that we're alive and well and we're going to Brooklyn," Yormark said. "The next step is opening day."
NoLandGrab: Actually, the next step is to prove that the arena, let alone any of the rest of the project, can actually be built. Some of the land needed to build the arena is still in the hands of private owners and tenants, who are fighting the use of eminent domain in court. And Ratner has yet to demonstrate that he can actually secure financing for Atlantic Yards.
The marketing push comes as New Jersey officials and Devils owner Jeff Vanderbeek are seeking to assemble a group of investors to buy the Nets and move the team to the Prudential Center in Newark instead.
...Yormark dismissed that as a possibility, saying sharing the Prudential Center with the Devils "is of no interest to us."
Newark Star-Ledger, Nets show off luxury suites in New York
The team has already sold one-fifth of the suites, at prices up to $540,000, according to Yormark.
NoLandGrab: While Yormark has repeated frequently the claim that 20% of the suites have already been sold to "friends and family," he has yet to publicly identify any of those who allegedly ponied up.
Bergen Record, Nets show off luxury suites
Chief Executive Brett Yormark led more than a dozen media members on a tour of the site in the morning, with a luncheon and then a celebrity-studded party rounding out the day.
...Pricing for the 3,200 premium "club seats," which would have access to high-end lounges, has not been completed, Yormark said. The price is likely to be higher than the $150 per game that the Devils charge for such seats at the Prudential Center in Newark, given the New York City location.
WNYC Radio, Execs get Peek at Nets Arena Luxury Boxes
Nets President Brett Yormark says the amenities are be a big draw.
YORMARK: Cork floors, induction burners. No more chafing dishes with fire underneath. So a little bit of technology there. Frank Gehry designed lighting fixtures.
REPORTER: The Nets are guaranteeing that the arena will open in the fall of 2010, even though their parent company does not yet own all of the property in the arena footprint. Forest City Ratner Companies says it will begin construction later this year.
Nets Daily, Nets Begin Marketing Suites with Press Tour, New York Gala
Brownstoner, Barclays Center Luxury Suites Hit the Market
Curbed, Gehry Arena Luxe Suites Go on Sale, Rendering Porn Included
Curbed appears to have gotten its mitts on the exclusive sales brochure.
Gothamist.com, Troubled Nets Arena in Brooklyn Selling Luxury Suites
Posted by eric at 7:37 AM
May 13, 2008
Nets partnership announcements, suites showroom are four months late
Atlantic Yards Report
Norman Oder offers his take on today's Sports Business Journal story, and highlights the latest in Netspeak.
Meanwhile, we apparently get a new term to add to the Atlantic Yards Lexicon: "construction activation platform."
The newspaper reports:
Incremental to the founding partnership fees, many of the new sponsors will support what the Nets are calling a “construction activation platform” with signage, countdown clocks and other media in which partners will be identified.“We’ll be marketing the heck out of the building even before it is being built,” Yormark said.
Indeed, that's the subject of the article.
Posted by eric at 7:24 AM
May 11, 2008
Is It The Brookyn, New York, New Jersey Or Newark Nets?
bleacher report.com
William Henry Jones wants the arena to come to "Downtown Brooklyn" (that should say Prospect Heights!!!!), but speculates that the Nets could also be happy near Shea Stadium:
Will somebody please get their story straight? It seems like every day I pick up the paper there is a story about the NJ Nets moving or not moving to Brooklyn. One day the story is saying that the arena will never be built and another day I read that the Barclays Center as it will be called will be open for the 2010 season.The latest stories appeared last weekend. The New York Daily news reported that the NJ Devils were interested in buying the team and moving them to Newark only to have Bruce Ratner in a guest opinion piece on Sunday deny the story and reassert that the arena would open as planned. On Monday, another article claimed that Brooklyn would never happen.
Mr. Jones will probably not be placated by Mike Lupica's comment in yesterday's Daily News:
As soon as Caring Bruce Ratner said the Nets weren't for sale and were still on their way to Brooklyn, I immediately imagined the team bus making a U-turn and heading for Newark.
Posted by amy at 11:15 AM
May 8, 2008
Jefferson Charged With Assault
The New York Times
Nets forward Richard Jefferson was charged in a Minneapolis court Wednesday with choking a man who said Jefferson crashed his private birthday party in January.
Jefferson was in Minneapolis for an N.B.A. game against the Timberwolves. The accusation came from Lyle Fox, who, according to a police report, said a hotel area had been roped off for the party. He said Jefferson entered the area, and when he was asked to leave, threw or pushed Fox onto a bench, grabbed him by the throat with both hands and began to choke him.
On “The Mike and Murray Show" on satellite radio, ESPN reported, Jefferson gave a different version of events, saying that he had been approached by someone who was rude and disrespectful and that no punching or choking took place.
Jefferson is charged with assault in the fifth degree-harm. He is scheduled for a court hearing June 18, although Matt Laible, a city spokesman, said Jefferson did not have to be present if his lawyer was there. The charge was a misdemeanor, and if Jefferson is found guilty, he will face a sentence of up to 90 days or a fine up to $1,000 or both.
NoLandGrab: Does that mean plans for Bring Richard Jefferson to School Day are on hold?
Posted by eric at 12:08 PM
May 6, 2008
Nets owner-builder says team grows in Brooklyn, not Newark
Newark Star-Ledger
by Maura McDermott
New Jersey State Senate President Richard Codey isn't buying the tale that the Nets will be playing in Brooklyn in 2010.
State Senate President Richard Codey said he did not believe the Brooklyn arena could open in two years, given the delays it has faced so far and the turmoil in the real estate market.
Ratner bought the team in 2004 with plans to move it to New York City.
"Four years later, we're getting a rendering?" Codey said yesterday. "It's becoming ridiculous. They're not going to be playing in Brooklyn in 2010."
Posted by eric at 10:52 AM
Newark a Good Backup Plan for Nets
The NY Sun
By Evan Weiner
Moving the NJ Nets to Newark sounds like a sensible idea to a lot of people, especially the fan base, but is it feasible and how would the deal be financially structured?
Moving to Newark, on the other hand, is not necessarily going to be easy, and it may be a very tough sell. The way the NBA and NHL work financially may mean that Ratner will have to sell his team or become a part-owner of the Devils.
Getting the Nets into Vanderbeek’s building is simple on paper, but it is also extremely complicated, because of how revenues generated inside his building are distributed. Ratner would need access to monies from luxury boxes, club seats, and in-arena concession areas. Vanderbeek would theoretically have to give up lucrative revenue streams from NBA games that he would normally keep from non-Devils events in the building. But Ratner could not financially survive without getting the lion’s share of those revenues.
Vanderbeek and Ratner would have to create a partnership along the lines of those in Chicago, Dallas, or Washington to succeed. In 1988, Bulls owner Jerry Reinsdorf and the late William Wirtz, owner of the Blackhawks, decided to build jointly a new Chicago arena, sharing in its cost and sharing the revenues generated in the building. The partnership has grown over the years to include a share in a Chicago sports channel that is owned by Comcast, Reinsdorf (who also owns the White Sox), the Tribune Company (which owns the Cubs), and the Wirtz family. Reinsdorf and the Wirtz family are also cross-promoting the White Sox and Blackhawks, with events at both the arena and at U.S. Cellular Field, the White Sox ballyard.
Posted by lumi at 5:51 AM
May 5, 2008
Nets hold court on luxury suites
Crain's New York Business [subscription required]
Next week, the Nets will debut a prototype of their Frank Gehry-designed, $300,000-a-year Barclays Center corporate suites at a splashy party in their New York Times Building showroom.
To entice 185 of New York’s top CEOs to attend—and buy—the organization delivered a series of gifts over the past month, including a Tiffany key chain with a key, one of which will open a door to a free suite for the team’s inaugural season. The arena is set to open in Brooklyn’s Atlantic Yards in 2010, if developer Bruce Ratner can clear all the legal hurdles in its path.
Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz and rap star Jay-Z, a part-owner of the team, will be on hand for the May 15 event.
Already, 20% of the 130 luxury boxes have been sold to “friends and family,” says Nets Sports Entertainment CEO Brett Yormark.
So, why the full-court press? Mr.Yormark says corporate suites in the area will balloon to 950 from 350 as all the new stadiums come online, including ones for the Yankees, the Mets, and the Giants and Jets. “I can’t take anything for granted,” says the marketer, who will soon announce the advertisers buying rights to brand bars, corridors and other parts, of the arena.
NoLandGrab: "20% of the 130 luxury boxes have been sold to 'friends and family'?" Does that mean owners of the team and related corporate interests? The real test will be in selling suites in an arena for which ground has yet to be broken to unaffiliated companies, with new stadiums opening in the Bronx and Queens and Madison Square Garden embarking on a top-to-bottom renovation.
Posted by eric at 11:45 AM
May 4, 2008
Problem child was destined to succeed
independent.ie
Barry Egan
TALK about booty. And I'm not just referring to his partner's derriere. Jay-Z's estimated worth is more than $420m.The man from the Marcy housing project in the Bedford-Stuyvesant area of Brooklyn -- whose father abandoned him when he was 12 -- is one of the owners of basketball team, the Nets.
Last year architect Frank Gehry, who had submitted plans for the Atlantic Yards in Brooklyn, where the Nets will move from their base in New Jersey, sent Jay a stack of James Joyce novels.
Because, he said, listening to tapes of Joyce reading Finnegan's Wake reminded Gehry of hip-hop. Presumably when Jay-Z was walking past the newsstands in Las Vegas last weekend he was effecting a face of bafflement like he was perusing a copy of Joyce's easy-read for the first time.
article
NoLandGrab: Pop quiz: James Joyce, or Bruce Ratner op-ed: "Phall if you but will, rise you must: and none so soon either shall the pahrce for the nunce come to a setdown secular phoenish."
Posted by amy at 10:33 AM
May 3, 2008
Fate of Brooklyn Nets Could Rest on Markowitz's Game
Gothamist
The revelation that Bruce Ratner, would-be Atlantic Yards developer and Nets owner, has been secretly discussing selling the team to the owners of the New Jersey Devils, has put Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz’s athletic reputation on the line. Newark mayor Cory Booker, who would love the team to come to the Prudential Center in his town, has offered to settle the fight for the Nets with a simple, winner-takes-all game of hoops: Cory vs. Marty, one-on-one.The challenge was issued after Markowitz rushed out a press release dismissing Newark as Brooklyn's “western suburb” and vowing that they would never get the Nets. One of Markowitz’s campaign promises was to bring a top-level national sports team back to Brooklyn. But with the economy tanking and Ratner’s controversial project stalled by lawsuits, that promise is looking increasingly empty.
Nevertheless, Booker’s challenge brilliantly plays into Markowitz’s Achilles heel: an abiding passion for publicity stunts: “I accept Mayor Booker's challenge and must remind him that I am only 5-foot-5. I’ll accept the challenge only if I can have a ringer play against him.” Expect both pols to keep milking this one, with Booker soon to demand his own ringer, and Markowitz proposing a competitive eating contest instead.
link
NoLandGrab: Commenter Rocknrope offers this prayer: Please, dear lord, do not let Marty be "Skins."
Posted by amy at 10:20 AM
Booker to Brooklyn: Let's settle Nets matter on basketball court
The Star-Ledger
Jeffery C. Mays
If left up to Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz and Newark Mayor Cory Booker, the battle over the Nets won't be decided by the credit markets or zoning boards, but rather on the basketball court.Booker challeged Markowitz to a one-on-one game of hoops for the Nets after the borough president released a statement today calling Newark, Brooklyn's 'western suburb" and insiting New Jersey's largest city will never steal Nets from Brooklyn.
Posted by amy at 10:15 AM
May 2, 2008
The Star-Ledger follow-up on Nets to Newark talks
This morning, The Star-Ledger followed up on yesterday's article by Ian Shearn, covering the existence of behind-the-scenes meetings between NJ Nets owner and Atlantic Yards developer Bruce Ratner and politicians and parties interested in moving the team to Newark.
Corzine wants Nets to stay in New Jersey
By Ian T. Shearn
Gov. Jon Corzine said yesterday he would like the Nets to stay in New Jersey, be it Newark or East Rutherford, but sees no need for his involvement at this point.
"It would be encouraging to have the Nets stay here, whichever venue," Corzine said. "I would very much prefer they be in New Jersey as opposed to Brooklyn, and we will wait to hear whether there are propositions that the state has a role to play in," the governor told reporters following an appearance in Piscataway.
It's time to bring Nets to Newark
Columnist Steve Politi visits Brooklyn and finds...
A busy rail yard. An abandoned house. Several empty lots. Oh, and traffic. Lots of that.
What's missing from this scene, however is much more telling. No cranes lifting steel girders. No bulldozers moving dirt piles. No construction foremen barking orders.
...
Nets officials insist they still are targeting the 2010-11 season as their first in their new home, but even they have to know that's silly talk. Ratner, who loved to glad-hand reporters after games when his project was on track, turned down multiple interview requests over the past month."We are going to Brooklyn," his CEO Brett Yormark said. He has bragged in recent interviews about a recent trip to Europe to meet with eager corporate investors about the project.
The Nets can't sell tickets in Paramus, but now they're going to sell sponsorships in Paris?
The truth is, this franchise is closer to winning an NBA championship than to playing games near the intersection of Atlantic and Flatbush in Brooklyn.
...
Most troubling for the team? You can't find many people outside of Ratner and his minions who think the arena in Brooklyn makes any sense now. The cost for the arena alone is quickly approaching $1 billion, which would make it twice as expensive as any in U.S. history.The financial markets have stalled. The neighbor opposition is still strong -- residents filed yet another lawsuit this week. The team is already hemorrhaging money and writing its owners love letters requesting checks to cover those losses.
Brooklynites will appreciate Politi's riff on the absurd:
Moving the team to Newark makes sense on so many levels, which is probably why it hasn't happened.
Posted by lumi at 6:20 AM
Nets in Newark: Rumors and Gossip
Rumors of talks to keep Nets in Jersey have been upgraded to full-fledged gossip after the Newark Star-Ledger published a story, citing unnamed sources, reporting that Nets owner Bruce Ratner has met with parties interested in purchasing the team. As you'd expect, Ratner and his pr machine are in full denial mode.
Field of Schemes, Nets-to-Newark move in the works?
Commentary and analysis from Neil deMause:
Being second fiddle to an NHL team usually isn't as enticing a prospect as having your own arena, but there are some special circumstances here: The Nets are currently losing an estimated $40 million a year playing in the Meadowlands, and are stuck there at least another two seasons before a Brooklyn arena could be ready. And they're facing an increasingly tougher financial road there as well, despite heavy public subsidies.
...
Ratner, meanwhile, insists the team isn't for sale, which could be read either way: It could be meant as a sign of reassurance to Brooklyn legislators who might be wondering if they should pull the plug on Atlantic Yards; or, you might wonder whether, if Ratner's really serious about getting more money out of Brooklyn, he wouldn't want to raise the specter of a Newark move to up the ante. I wouldn't hazard a guess, but it's worth noting the Nets wouldn't be the first team to stay in New Jersey after initially insisting it was not an option.
Gothamist, Nets Owner Ratner Rumored to Sell Team to Newark
Like a game of telephone, this Gothamist headline is a little ahead of the actual story, which rehashes the rumors, published in the Star-Ledger, of exploratory TALKS regarding selling the Nets to an ownership group that would move the team to Newark.
No one has said that Ratner is actually selling the team.
The Brooklyn Paper, Nets to stay in Jersey?
The Brooklyn weekly primarily cited the Star-Ledger article, including this point made by George Zoffinger, former chief executive of the New Jersey Sports Authority:
“When you start to spend north of $500 million for an arena, you can’t generate the cash flow necessary to generate a decent return on the investment,” Zoffinger told the Star-Ledger.
“If the number is $900 million, it’s absolutely, positively not viable from an economic standpoint.”
NoLandGrab: Keep in mind, the financial viability of the arena in Ratner's original analysis, compiled by sports venue economist Andrew Zimbalist, assumed that the arena in Newark would not be built. Now the Newark arena is open for business, and the Ratner arena price tag has ballooned to more than twice the original amount.
Associated Press, via NY Post, RATNER: NETS NOT FOR SALE
NJ Nets owner Bruce Ratner is denying all rumors:
The New Jersey Nets are not for sale, the owner of the NBA team said today in shooting down a report that investors were being assembled to buy the franchise and move it to Newark.
"The team is very simply not for sale and any stories that suggest or insinuate that we would be interested in listening to those conversations are flat out false," Bruce Ratner said in a statement. "We are focused on breaking ground on the Barclays Center in Brooklyn later this year and building all of Atlantic Yards, nothing else."
NoLandGrab: Bruce Ratner doesn't have a great track record with telling the truth, so we're not sure if he expects people to believe him this time.
He is between a rock and a hard place on this one. He'd be crazy not to entertain the idea of selling a team that is losing $40 million a year. On the other hand, if he's talking to parties interested in keeping the Nets in NJ, it causes all sorts of problems with potential investors in Atlantic Yards.
This wire story was picked up by several other daily news outlets that cover the NBA:
The NY Times
MetroNY
Edmonton Sun
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
The Washington Post
Posted by lumi at 4:46 AM
May 1, 2008
NJ group explores bringing Nets to Newark
The Star-Ledger
By Ian T. Shearn
The owner of the Devils hockey team and Newark Mayor Cory Booker are seeking to assemble a group of investors to buy the Nets and move the basketball team to Newark, according to people familiar with the effort.
In recent weeks, Devils owner Jeffrey Vanderbeek has met with Nets owner Bruce Ratner, while Booker has spoken to an official at Ratner's development company, Forest City Ratner Cos., according to three sources with direct knowledge of the discussions. The outcome of each talk was characterized as "open-ended." The parties spoke on the condition they not be identified.
Meanwhile, Ratner is going outside his usual group of spinmeisters, engaging the pr services of Howard Rubenstein, in order to downplay the talks:
"The team is absolutely not for sale," Ratner said through his spokesman, Howard Rubenstein. "We're inches away from completing the deal in Brooklyn."
NoLandGrab: First "Atlantic Yards" was a "done deal," but now they're "inches away" from sealing the deal?
One official explains Ratner's predicament plainly:
Carl Goldberg, chairman of the New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority, said he believes the Nets could remain where they are.
"The likelihood of the Nets actually building a new facility in Brooklyn and leaving our facility at the Izod Center is diminishing by the moment," Goldberg told a group of Star-Ledger editors in February. "The cost of steel and concrete and the challenges of building a facility of that nature over the railyards are becoming more difficult."
The article cites one of Forest City Ratner's affadavits recently filed in court, an affadavit that the development company says is no longer accurate (maybe they mean "convenient"?), and another expert notes that, though banks may still be underwriting deals for sports facilities, the cost of the financing has ballooned in recent months.
Atlantic Yards Report, Nets to Newark? The Star-Ledger smells some smoke
Norman Oder also noticed that developer Bruce Ratner brought out the heavy artillery to try to quash the gossip that the Nets may stay in Newark.
The latest time p.r. guru Howard Rubenstein spoke on behalf of Forest City Ratner was last June, delivering the news, papering over any whiff of the untoward, that executive Jim Stuckey had left to "pursue new challenges."
So if the Newark Star-Ledger adds more to the Nets-to-Newark rumors, in an article headlined Nets eyed for Newark: Plan is afoot by N.J. group, well, Rubenstein is there to douse the flames....
The article assembles evidence for and against a sale, and I add a little more context.
Oder reads the tea leaves, adding:
[Newark Mayor Cory] Booker has apparently tried to entice Bruce Ratner by offering him development possibilities in Newark, a city with numerous potential development parcels. (Then again, he can't exactly present single-source, no-bid deal, can he?)
...
The Nets are losing $40 million a year; the team's value has risen less than $40 million since Ratner and fellow investors bought the team, the Star-Ledger suggested.George Zoffinger, former chief executive of the New Jersey Sports Authority, asserted that Forest City Ratner couldn't make a profit on a billion-dollar arena. Nets CEO Brett Yormark, however, cited "incredible interest" from ten potential Barclays Center "founding partners" he met with in Europe.
Indeed, the potential revenue from partnerships and sponsorships, luxury suites, and television deals might make even a billion-dollar arena economically viable, especially since the developer needs not to pay taxes but rather bond payments in lieu of taxes.
So the upside in a Brooklyn arena remains significant. But Forest City Ratner's numbers people must have a spreadsheet that factors in the costs of delay, including those annual $40 million losses.
NoLandGrab: Bruce Ratner is downplaying the behind-the-scene chatter because he doesn't want to spook potential investors and NY politicians. However, with the Nets posting losses around $40 million per year, he'd be crazy not to consider a sale.
Posted by lumi at 5:14 AM
April 23, 2008
NJ Nets Chatterbox
If it wasn't for Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn, we might have missed two articles from New Jersey, which have stirred up all kinds of chatter about keeping the Nets in the Garden State:
Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn, Nets to Newark Chatter
Yesterday in two Jersey papers (The Newark Star-Ledger and The Record), there was quite a bit of chatter about the expense of the proposed move of the Nets to Brooklyn and the possibility of the Nets moving to the newly built Prudential Center Arena in Newark.
The Bergen Record, Can the Nets afford to move to Brooklyn?
The Nets expect to lose about $40 million in the just-completed season, with similar red ink expected annually for the basketball franchise's foreseeable future at the Izod Center [in New Jersey].
At the same time, the estimated cost of their proposed new building — the Barclays Center in Brooklyn — has soared to $950 million, or more than twice the price of any pro basketball or hockey arena ever built in the United States.
At this rate, the Nets can't afford to stay in the Meadowlands — but can they afford to move to Brooklyn?
The Newark Star-Ledger, Newark hoop dreams [Blog editorial]
Those who dream in New Jersey know the rumors that developer Ratner bought the Nets only to sweeten the appeal of the development project. The reverie is that if Brooklyn falls through, a coalition of New Jersey buyers (led by the New Jersey Devils hockey team, perhaps?) would take the Nets off Ratner's hands. Then the Nets would move into the shiny new Prudential Center, which the Devils built with the city of Newark. Whether the financing of the Newark arena made sense (the city put up the lion's share), it's built and it draws tons of fans via mass transit. The arena here was originally planned as a home for the Nets, and that's where the team belongs.
Nets Daily, Newark Nets? Hope and Reality
The Star-Ledger thinks the Nets should join the Devils at the Prudential Center. With the Nets’ Brooklyn arena hurt by protests and rising costs, the newspaper thinks “The Rock” would be an ideal home. But local pride has its limits, notes an editorial. A Nets’ spokesman says, “Newark is not even a consideration.” There’s also the Nets’ onerous lease with the state, but that, the Ledger hears, could be modified.
The commenters are largely for keeping the Nets in NJ, though most aren't bullish about the prospects.
Posted by lumi at 5:42 AM
April 22, 2008
Newark option gets more realistic, even as Nets seek Euro companies for Gehry arena
Atlantic Yards Report
Forest City Ratner has no intention of moving the Nets to Newark, not even as an interim solution while the Barclays Center is being built. However, suggests the Newark Star-Ledger's editorial board in a blog commentary headlined Newark hoop dreams, the New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority may be willing to make a move--though not an interim one--easier.
The Authority owns the Izod Center at the Meadowlands and, if the Nets were to leave for a venue other than Brooklyn (or Queens), the penalty this year would be $12 million (though it would decline in subsequent years).
Newark Star-Ledger, Newark hoop dreams
For those looking at Brooklyn from New Jersey, the wish that something -- anything -- might happen to keep the Nets in New Jersey has been a hope that would not die.
Some things have happened. The real estate and credit markets have changed since the $4 billion Brooklyn Atlantic Yards development, with thousands of condos, other homes and an 18,000-seat arena, was proposed. Financing is no longer easy. The payoff is no longer certain. The Nets are losing $40 million a year.
Posted by lumi at 5:23 AM
April 18, 2008
The Stoop
From The Brooklyn Paper (emphasis added):
Bay Ridge: Beloved comic David Brenner — the thinking man’s Seinfeld — will headline Lutheran Medical Center’s 125th anniversary dinner dance on May 10. True, the event is in Gaphattan, but it raises money for a good cause: Lutheran Hospital ER department! Our pals at Forest City Ratner are also supporting the gala, which honors Nets CEO Brett Yormark.
From the press release:
"Next to our soon-to-be Brooklyn Nets, I can't imagine a more winning team than Lutheran HealthCare and Brett Yormark," said Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz. "Brett has been one of the biggest cheerleaders for the return of professional sports to Brooklyn—spearheading the Nets' move to a new arena at Atlantic Yards. And just as our borough will benefit from Brett's vision and extraordinary leadership, so will Lutheran HealthCare as it continues to provide its patients with the very best health care available."
"Because this is such an important year for Lutheran, we wanted to select a corporate honoree who best represents the energy and excitement of Brooklyn's future," said Wendy Z. Goldstein, president and CEO, LHC. "Mr. Yormark and Nets Sports and Entertainment LLC do that and much more. We are honored to have his support and we are delighted to welcome him to Brooklyn and to the Lutheran HealthCare family. It is going to be a wonderful evening."
Posted by lumi at 4:35 AM
April 16, 2008
Nets Are Moving, but Their Direction Remains Unclear
The New York Times
by Howard Beck
More wishful thinking — and lack of credulity — on the timing of a new arena in Brooklyn.
In the renamed arena next to the construction zone near the turnpike, the Nets played their final home game — a nondescript team in a nondescript parking lot, in search of a new identity and a new home.
They are no longer the Nets of Jason Kidd and are only nominally, temporarily, the team of New Jersey. They are not going to the playoffs for the first time since 2001. Like the half-built entertainment complex next to the Izod Center, the Nets are in a messy state of transition.
In two years, they hope to be playing in a sparkling new building near downtown Brooklyn. By then, they also hope to be back among the elite teams in the Eastern Conference.
NoLandGrab: In two years, it will be 2010, and the only sparkling new building in which the Nets might be playing will be in Newark.
Posted by eric at 12:00 PM
April 14, 2008
What will it take for Knicks to get LeBron?
Newsday
by Ken Berger
Speculation about LeBron James's free agent future includes the oft-repeated, but dubious claim, that the Nets could be playing in Brooklyn by 2010.
According to several NBA sources, James wouldn't necessarily choose the Knicks over the other team that is scheduled to call the metropolitan area home sometime that same year. The Nets plan to be playing in Brooklyn in 2010 or 2011 and figure to have better complementary pieces and more cap flexibility by then. Throw in LeBron's much- publicized friendship with Nets part-owner Jay-Z, and you wonder what hip-hop star the Knicks would have to counter with to compete.
Posted by steve at 5:41 AM
April 13, 2008
Collapse of sub-.500 Nets means no lucrative post-season revenue stream
The past month has not been kind to Bruce Ratner.
On March 21st, Ratner admitted to The New York Times that he'd been unable to find an anchor tenant for "Miss Brooklyn," the signature skyscraper of his planned Atlantic Yards mega-development, and he conceded that the evaporating bond market would make it tough to secure financing for the housing portion of the project.
And now, with the New Jersey Nets' loss to the Toronto Raptors on Friday night, Ratner bade farewell to any potential post-season revenue.
For the money-losing Nets, income from playoff games would have helped the bottom line immensely. But the only playoff games the 33-47 Nets (they managed to win a meaningless game against the Milwaukee Bucks last night) will experience are the ones they'll be watching on TV.
Their failure to reach the post-season this year culminates a steepening downward spiral that commenced when Ratner acquired the two-time defending Eastern Conference Champs early in 2004. The team made it to the Eastern Conference Finals that season, but failed to advance past the second round in 2005, 2006 or 2007. Some may perhaps see a parallel in his Atlantic Yards project, which was announced as a "done deal" in December, 2003, but has gradually gotten more and more undone.
The Nets' increasing futility under Ratner's ownership betrays the truth about his acquisition of the team — the deal was all about real estate and had nothing to do with any new-found interest in pro basketball.
Ratner's hiring of Brett Yormark to run the Nets only confirmed that. The team CEO focuses his time on marketing efforts and sponsorship deals, while what the Nets really need is to put a better team on the floor. For all Yormark's alleged marketing wizardry, more than 20% of the seats at Nets games go unused, and even some of the occupied seats are likely deeply discounted or given away. It's probably safe to say that Nets fans would rather have a solid low-post scorer than Wrigley's as official sponsor of the off-season — an off-season that will be longer this year than it has been since 2001. Rather than touring Europe this week to recruit sponsors, Yormark might want to spend some time scouting talent.
Posted by eric at 10:51 AM
April 10, 2008
Road trip
NY Post
by Richard Wilner
Nets' CEO Brett Yormark is traveling the globe in search of sponsors.
Brett Yormark, the sports-marketing wizard who became the first NBA team executive to sell corporate sponsorships to summer BBQs and the entire off season, is at it again.
The CEO of Nets Sports & Entertainment is scheduled to take off tomorrow for London and Torino on a hunt for corporate sponsors for the team's planned Barclays Center arena.
If successful - and Yormark has 10 meetings set up - the Nets will become the first NBA team to have as corporate sponsors non-US-based companies.
"It's all about doing the unexpected," said Yormark....
article [scroll down]
NoLandGrab: "Unexpected," or desperate? Is Yormark's far-flung marketing strategy another stroke of genius, or is it being driven by a lack of interest closer to home — a la the absence of an anchor tenant for "Miss Brooklyn."
Posted by eric at 2:34 PM
April 2, 2008
"Carbon Neutrality" Fails to Save Fading Nets
While Tuesday night's game between the New Jersey Nets and the Philadelphia 76ers may have been carbon-neutral, it was standings-negative for the home team. The Nets are fading faster than owner Bruce Ratner's anemic Atlantic Yards project.
With its third consecutive loss, New Jersey crept closer to missing the post-season for the first time in seven years — and for the first time since Ratner took over. Now trailing both Atlanta and Indiana for the eighth and final playoff spot, the Nets saw their un-magic number shrink to five. Were they not lucky enough to be playing in the NBA's sickly Eastern Conference, the 13-games-under-.500 Nets would have been eliminated from contention long ago (they'd be 15 games out of a playoff spot in the West).
After making consecutive visits to the NBA Finals in 2002 and 2003, the Nets have gone steadily down hill under Ratner's ownership regime. If not for the dysfunctional Knicks, the Nets' failings would be more-frequent back-page tabloid fodder.
And missing the playoffs — and their significant revenue boost — can't be good news for the money-hemorrhaging franchise, especially with Atlantic Yards reeling from the effects of a withering credit market.
Posted by eric at 12:33 PM
April 1, 2008
Nets leader lauded at dinner
NY Daily News
By Patrick McCormick
Bruce Ratner isn't the only honoree in Brooklyn:
Brett Yormark, president and chief executive officer of Nets Sports and Entertainment LLC, was honored by Lutheran HealthCare at the group's 125th Anniversary Dinner Dance.
He was named to Sports Business Journal's "Forty Under 40" list for a third consecutive year in 2006, as one of the best sports executives under the age of 40. Yormark was hailed as the driving force behind the recent business success of Nets Sports, for which he has been an executive since 2005 and is paving the way to move the New Jersey Nets to a new arena to be built at the Atlantic Yards.
At the March 6 fund-raiser, Lutheran HealthCare CEO Wendy Goldstein welcomed Lutheran Hospital's future neighbor and lauded Yormark for being a part of Brooklyn's exciting future.
Borough President Marty Markowitz, who was also in attendance, praised Yormark for his leadership as a businessman and for the role he is playing in bringing a professional sports franchise to Brooklyn.
Whoops! It appears that the Daily News reporter didn't read the press release carefully. March 6 was the date of the release not the dinner, which is scheduled on MAY 10, to be held at Chelsea Piers in Brooklyn Manhattan.
Markowitz wasn't in attendance, as the article states, since as far as we know, he hasn't developed the ability to travel into the future; rather he provided these glowing words for the release:
"Next to our soon-to-be Brooklyn Nets, I can't imagine a more winning team than Lutheran HealthCare and Brett Yormark," said Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz. "Brett has been one of the biggest cheerleaders for the return of professional sports to Brooklyn—spearheading the Nets' move to a new arena at Atlantic Yards. And just as our borough will benefit from Brett's vision and extraordinary leadership, so will Lutheran HealthCare as it continues to provide its patients with the very best health care available."
Posted by lumi at 8:24 PM
Nets and Barclays to offset carbon emissions vs. 76ers
AP via Yahoo! Sports
by Tom Canavan
So far as we can tell, this is not an April Fools joke.
The New Jersey Nets will support four worldwide projects to offset carbon emissions when they play the Philadelphia 76ers on Tuesday night.
“We’re definitely the first NBA team to have a carbon neutral game,” said Julianne Waldron, the Nets’ environmental manager. “I don’t know if we’re the first sports franchise, I can’t speak to that, but I can say we are the first pro team to receive an accreditation of carbon neutral.”
The CarbonNeutral Company calculated that 449 tons of carbon dioxide would be produced Tuesday by fans and Nets’ personnel traveling to the game, energy use at the Izod Center and emissions from the 76ers bus trip from Philadelphia.
To offset that, the Nets will invest in a waste recovery project in India, a waste gas project in Germany, hydroplants in China and solar water heating systems in India.
Barclays PLC, the financial services firm which has bought naming rights for the Nets’ planned arena in Brooklyn, N.Y., is covering the cost of the carbon free night.
NoLandGrab: No word on whether Nets' principal owner Bruce Ratner will "go green" by harnessing the embodied energy in Prospect Heights buildings rather than bulldozing them to build a giant surface parking lot.
Posted by eric at 12:24 PM
March 24, 2008
It came from the Blogosphere...
The Gowanus Lounge, Atlantic Yards Arena Costs Spelled Out
GoLo linked our digest of skyrocketing arena costs:
Among the many bombshells in the Times story about the Atlantic Yards Stall on Good Friday, was the fact that the cost of the area has nearly doubled to just shy of $1 billion.
...
Is a $950 million single-sport arena financially viable? Stay tuned.
The comments that follow center around Errol Louis's weekend column.
nets net, Musing About the Future, Part I
The Nets are not going to the playoffs, of this I am thoroughly convinced. Thus, on a night when I am not particularly angry about their most recent loss, I thought it would be constructive to begin speculating about the future of the team...
Without Ratner punting and selling the team, without him giving up the ghost of Atlantic Yards, [coach] Lawrence Frank is safe, simply by default.
And we can look forward to two or more years of bad basketball...
Nets Daily, Daily News Columnists Blame Critics for Atlantic Yards Delay
Errol Louis and Michael Daly, two Daily News columnists and longtime supporters of Bruce Ratner’s Atlantic Yards, lashed out –at different decibel levels– against the project’s critics noting that Ratner’s new housing would have more than made up for the few that would have been condemned. Now both worry the city’s housing crisis will get worse and the Ratner plan will die. A critic [Norman Oder] takes both to task.
Posted by lumi at 5:05 AM
March 20, 2008
The N.B.A.'s Maestro of Marketing
New Jersey Nets C.E.O. Brett Yormark has turned a second-tier N.B.A. team into a sponsorship juggernaut. Is there anything he can't brand?
Portfolio.com
by Ohm Youngmisuk
Conde Nast Portfolio gives Bruce Ratner's golden boy, Brett Yormark, the red-carpet treatment:
For his part, Yormark, who often starts his day at 3:30 in the morning and sometimes works as many as 19 hours a day, says his secret is simply that he works harder than everyone else.
"I am probably one of the most aggressive sports executives in the country," Yormark says. "I am giving myself every day, every hour—that is just my makeup." Yormark's twin brother, Michael, is the president and chief operating officer of the N.H.L.'s Florida Panthers and is similarly intense; the two frequently try to top each other with creative ways to advertise sponsors and sell more tickets.
NoLandGrab: Hey, we get up at 3:30 a.m., too. We welcome the company, but seriously, is there no Ratner or Nets executive who works less than twice as hard as the rest of us? With all that effort (and self-promotion), one would expect that Atlantic Yards would have been completed by now.
Posted by eric at 11:00 PM
March 19, 2008
Brooklyn Nets Chooses Food Service Co. For Planned Barclays Arena
Brooklyn Daily Eagle
More Barclays Center menu offerings with a "distinct Brooklyn flavor," this time from a Chicago-based food-service company:
“Brooklynites are passionate about their food and that will be a crucial ingredient for a best-in-class experience at the Barclays Center,” said Brett Yormark, president and CEO of Nets Sports and Entertainment. “We chose Levy Restaurants because it has an award-winning track record as the preeminent premium dining provider at sports and entertainment venues. This is another big step forward as we continue moving closer to bringing a world class arena and the Nets to Brooklyn.”
The Barclays Center’s premium restaurants and luxury suites will feature menus with the flair of contemporary American cuisine and diverse ethnic specialties. At general concessions, guests can enjoy a range of menu offerings with a distinct Brooklyn flavor including pizza, hot dogs, knishes, egg creams, cheesecake, and much more. There will also be kosher dining options in restaurants, suites and concession stands.
...Levy Restaurants, based in Chicago, draws upon its roots as restaurateurs to bring the restaurant dining experience to sports and arena venues across the U.S. and U.K., including the Billie Jean King USTA National Tennis Center in Flushing Meadows, N.Y., Churchill Downs in Louisville and the 02 arena in London.
NoLandGrab: Arena patrons might want to consider a second mortgage, if prices for the "restaurant dining experience" at the Barclays Center mirror those at the National Tennis Center.
Posted by eric at 8:15 PM
The nutritionally switchable Nets mascot Sly Fox enters NYC schools
Atlantic Yards Report
How much do you love Norman "The Mad Overkiller" Oder?
After learning that Bruce Ratner unleashed Sly Fox and a Nets brand-awareness campaign on the minds of our youth, by sponsoring the local school lunch program, the Mad O's first thought turned to the hypocrisy of the mascot!
But the Nets' Fox is particularly Sly. The jumping, dunking, inoffensively feline mascot not only supports SchoolFood, but also promotes the "McDonald's Plan," a ticket deal in partnership with the fast-food purveyor. Apparently, a mascot can be nutritionally switchable.
NoLandGrab: Sly Fox has been served with a subpoena to appear before Congress so he can tell the public, under oath, what he really thinks kids should be eating.
Posted by lumi at 5:07 AM
March 10, 2008
Report: Kidd says he didn't quit on Nets
ESPN.com
Recently traded point guard Jason Kidd tells ESPN that he didn't quit on the Nets, and explains that the team has struggled since developer Bruce Ratner bought the team to be a centerpiece for the controversial Atlantic Yards project in Brooklyn:
"I didn't quit on the team," Kidd told the Daily News. "At the end of the day, I gave everything that I could give to the Nets. There were no more rabbits that I could pull out of the hat. There were no more rabbits that Rod [Thorn] could pull out of a hat. That is as far as they could go. I took them as high as I could."
...
Kidd led the Nets to back-to-back NBA Finals appearances in 2002 and 2003 but he said the team never recovered after Kenyon Martin and Kerry Kittles were dealt in 2004 in cost-cutting moves after Bruce Ratner bought the team.
Posted by lumi at 4:25 AM
March 3, 2008
Atlantic Yards Report shorts
From Norman Oder's weekend reading list:
StreetsBlog
Before AY, the necessity of congestion relief
A posting on Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn about gridlock at the intersection of Flatbush and Atlantic avenues led to some serious debate on Streetsblog on the causes, solutions, and the role of DDDB.
Suffice it to say that even Atlantic Yards proponents like Kathryn Wylde of the Partnership of New York City believe the project could work only with congestion pricing.
And even a significantly dense but smaller project like that contemplated under the UNITY plan would require, as its planners suggest, “extensive traffic calming, parking reduction, and bicycle lanes to discourage vehicle use for both local and inter-borough travel.”
Play (NYT)
Why NBA team ownership can be very lucrative
Joe Nocera's article in yesterday's Play, The New York Times Sports Magazine, headlined Big time Losers describes the "Bad Owner" who runs lousy teams:
Why does the Bad Owner seem so impervious to it all?
Actually, there is a reason, a very good one. To own a franchise in any of the three major sports — football, baseball or basketball — is to enter a club in which it is nearly impossible to come away a financial loser.
His case in point is NBA's Los Angeles Clippers; owner Donald Sterling has seen his investment skyrocket from $13.5 million to $300 million.
Nocera points out that the value of the badly-managed New York Knicks has continued to rise, given its stronghold in the nation's major media market.
He doesn't mention the New Jersey Nets, but Bruce Ratner's strategy is consonant with his observation. The Nets are losing money in the Meadowlands and team managers are trying to improve the mix of players. But the key comes in the future: the new arena at Atlantic Yards would prove quite lucrative, thanks to naming rights from Barclays, 130 luxury suites, other sponsorships, and television revenue.
NoLandGrab: In three seasons Bruce Ratner has joined the pantheon of big-time losers. Nothing could feed Brooklyn's historical chip on the shoulder more than his ruining a winning franchise and moving it to "the fourth largest city in the US."
NY Times Real Estate Section
The lottery-like chances for subsidized middle-class housing
A New York Times Real Estate section article yesterday on the chances of the middle-class getting subsidized housing in New York City was headlined Winning That One in a Million.
Atlantic Yards, with 1350 subsidized middle- and moderate-income units and 900 subsidized low-income units, would seem to improve the odds slightly. Then again, if the project takes 20 years, or 30 years--or doesn't get off the ground at all--then the odds improve less and less.
Posted by lumi at 5:16 AM
February 27, 2008
LeBron James to the Brooklyn Nets? A marketing bonanza, both ways
Atlantic Yards Report
In an article Monday headlined Jay-Z, James relationship should worry Cavs, Adrian Wojnarowski, the NBA columnist for Yahoo! Sports, suggests that the hip-hop star, a part owner of the New Jersey Nets, may be manuevering to lure the superstar LeBron James from the Cleveland Cavaliers once he can opt out of his contract in the summer of 2010.
That would be the right before the fall when the Nets, as announced, intend to move to Brooklyn, thought construction schedules suggest an arena opening in early 2011 is a best-case scenario.
Wojnarowski noted that James wants to become "sport’s first billionaire athlete," hence the appeal of a larger platform. Says noted sports marketer Sonny Vaccaro, "Jay-Z is the one person that I can put in a parallel universe with LeBron from where they started and where they are now."
Is Jay-Z, part of the NJ Nets ownership group, flouting league rules for tampering? Does anyone care (especially because he's a mogul and moguls don't need rules)? And, what would the marketing value be if James sported a Nets jersey?
Posted by lumi at 6:19 AM
February 25, 2008
Jay-Z’s relationship with James should worry Cavs
Yahoo! Sports
by Adrian Wojnarowski
Two years ago, the Cavaliers heard Jay-Z’s public position on LeBron’s future and could only imagine what might be said in private. When asked about the possibility of him someday joining the franchise, the Nets’ part-owner paid no mind to league tampering rules and gushed, “How amazing would that be? I tell people all the time, he’s my friend first. If Cleveland is building a championship team around him then my advice is to stay there. If it’s the Nets who are building a championship team that could be around him then my advice is to come to the Nets.”
The league office noticed the comments, but never leveled a fine for tampering. What can Cleveland do? Complain? No chance the Cavs will try to tell James who his friends can be, especially when they pre-date his days in the NBA.
NoLandGrab: Jay-Z appears to have as much respect for the NBA's rules against tampering as Bruce Ratner has for private property.
Posted by eric at 6:30 PM
February 23, 2008
Straight From The Bleachers:Downtown Detour With Brooklyn Several Years Away, Nets Begin Rebuilding in Jersey
Brooklyn Daily Eagle
John Torenli
With future Hall of Fame point guard Jason Kidd, arguably the greatest player in the history of the star-crossed franchise, sent off to Dallas and Vince Carter being mentioned in trade rumors as yesterday’s afternoon deadline for deals loomed, the Nets have the look of a team in full rebuilding mode.
...
But the dwindling crowds at the newly renamed Izod Center and the lack of any evidence that construction is under way Downtown have left the Nets in purgatory, sitting helplessly between destinations with very little fan support or buzz in the tri-state area.
article
We would also like to take this time to correct several 'location' mistakes in this story.
NoLandGrab: Would it be possible to keep this purgatory caused by management in mind when we consider the possible purgatory in Prospect Heights if buildings are knocked down and lack of financing then leaves the project for dead? This surely isn't happening anywhere else...
A. "When Ratner first informed us there’d be an NBA team in Brooklyn by the 2007-08 season — a declaration he boldly made nearly five years ago — a palpable buzz began circulating throughout our fair borough, be it in favor of a $550 million arena deal or against the overdevelopment of the Atlantic Yards and surrounding neighborhoods."
- That would be the Vanderbilt Yards, not Atlantic Yards. This paragraph also has a timing error - Ratner said the Nets would be playing in Brooklyn in the 2006-2007 season, not 2007-2008.
B. "And the star-studded triumvirate of Kidd, Carter and Richard Jefferson were supposed to be establishing the Nets as a perennial championship contender at the sight formerly known as the Atlantic Yards."
- That would also be Vanderbilt Yards, not Atlantic Yards.
C. "Though Nets team president Rod Thorn admitted earlier this week that the franchise was still going “full bore” toward landing in Downtown Brooklyn by 2010 — three years later than the original plan for arrival — the excitement surrounding what may be our first big-time pro sports franchise since the Dodgers left town in 1957 has waned considerably."
- That would be Prospect Heights, not Downtown Brooklyn.
Posted by amy at 11:31 AM
February 22, 2008
Gone Baby Gone
AP, via Brooklyn Daily Eagle
Jason Kidd is all smiles during his first workout with the Dallas Mavericks yesterday. The perennial All-Star point guard finally got his wish to be traded to the Mavericks from Bruce Ratner’s Nets after several rumored deals and a recently nixed trade to Dallas last week.
...
The Nets’ plans of coming to Downtown Brooklyn are still on, according to team president Rod Thorn, who cited 2010 as the most realistic arrival date for the franchise on Tuesday.However, Thorn also noted that the first shovel has not yet been planted in the Atlantic Yards, site of Ratner’s proposed $550 million Barclay’s Center. Kidd, who never seemed thrilled with the idea of moving to Brooklyn, won’t have to worry about playing in our fair borough, unless its for the opposition.