January 26, 2012
Value of Nets rises 14% despite huge losses; the new arena/market must be key
Atlantic Yards Report
The numbers are stunning. The New Jersey Nets, soon to be Brooklyn Nets, have the third-highest debt to value ratio in the National Basketball Association, at 79%, according to Forbes. The team lost the third-most in the last season, $23.6 million.
Yet the value of the Nets rose 14%, from $312 million to $357 million, according to Forbes, vaulting the team from 21st (of 30) to 14th place.
In the 2011 rankings, the value had risen 16% on losses of $10.2 million, though with an astronomical 224% debt/value ratio.
The article does not go into the explanation, but the opening of a new arena in the new Brooklyn market, is surely key; it offers new revenue streams and sponsorships, and a more valuable TV deal.
Related content...
Forbes, NBA Team Values
Forbes, The NBA's Billionaires
A couple of years ago, the New Jersey Nets’ planned move to Brooklyn had that look of a pipe dream not ready to come true. Neighborhood activists had already been holding things up in legal bottlenecks. Once that hurdle was cleared, a severe recession made arena financing more complicated and costly for owner Bruce Ratner.
Solution: find some major capital, quickly. Ratner sold off 80% of the team and 45% of the Barclays Center project to Russian billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov, who immediately became the NBA’s wealthiest owner, surpassing even Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen. The sale paved the way for the Brooklyn Nets to become a reality by next season.
Posted by eric at 11:14 AM
January 23, 2012
Dwight Howard Trade Rumors: New Jersey Nets Could Lose Him and Deron Williams
Bleacher Report
by Ian Sherwin
If [the Orlando Magic's Dwight] Howard is traded to another team besides the Nets before the trade deadline expires, apparently, the Nets will still have no interest in trading Deron Williams. This severely worries me. Yes, it would be awful to trade Williams away, and we would unlikely be able to reacquire the caliber of talent that we gave up in order to trade for him, but in my honest belief, we would need to cut our losses at that point.
But my absolutely biggest fear is that Howard does not come to NJ, and we do not trade away Williams (assuming, as stated previously, that we cannot sign him to a long-term extension). If this is the case, we will have given up a plethora of talent in the Williams trade, we'll have lost Williams and never obtained Howard, and will go into Brooklyn with a .200 level team.
NoLandGrab: Can you feel the excitement, Brooklyn? We didn't think so.
Related content...
Brooklyn Trolley Blogger, N.J./BKN Nets ~ Team Lacks a Head of State
Even the self-deluded faithful are wavering.
On the court, the Nets already have more problems than a math book. And now cracks seem to be appearing in their foundation. Their principle owner; Mikhail Prokhorov; for the moment at least, has better things to do. If his Russian political aspirations turn out favorably, he has announced he will indeed sell his team shares into a Blind Trust; which effectively takes him out of the picture, without having to relinquish ownership of the team.
While the Net owner's quest to be a benevolent modern day tsar is not new, his endeavours none-the-less detract from the organization's dwindling level of whatever cache they still have in light of their move to Brooklyn later this year.
NLG: Note to Yormark — try that on for a slogan: "Brooklyn Nets! Feel the dwindling level of whatever cache!"
Posted by eric at 1:10 PM
Stack’s Stats: Q+A with Brett Yormark
The New Jersey Nets’ CEO discusses Barclays Center.
SLAM Online
Norman Oder covered this interview a couple days ago, but we couldn't resist.
SLAM: How do you want Barclays Center to be perceived by Nets fans and NBA fans, in general?
BY: Well, you know, Barclays Center is bigger than basketball. I want to answer that question more holistically. Our goal is to truly redefine the customer experience in this marketplace. Bruce Ratner often references going into Barclays Center as like going into your living room.
Actually, it's a lot more like going into Daniel Goldstein's living room, which used to be at about center court.
SLAM: What was your strategy in finding the corporate partners with whom you eventually aligned the Nets and Barclays Center?
BY: Initially, our goal was to educate the market on a new way of looking and considering sponsorship. We truly took the philosophy of less is more.
If only BY would apply that "philosophy" to his own BS.
We love the support we’re getting. Our players go into Brooklyn quite often, and they’re doing community engagement. People are honking their horns and saying ‘We love you, Nets’ and it’s a great feeling.
NoLandGrab: BY, those people honking their horns are not saying "we love you" — but it rhymes with it.
Posted by eric at 12:41 PM
January 19, 2012
A Net Loss
Chasing 23
by Tony Maglio
How bad is life as a Nets' fan? This bad.
We do have some positives as far as the roster goes though. Kris Humphries is a good player, but he’s effectively ruined his career on the E! network – much more booing to follow. For a guy who wasn’t even on the roster before the season, and gets jeered every time he touches the ball, he’s actually leading the team in FG% and rebounding. But generally speaking, if the worst thing about this season of “Keeping Up With The Kardashians” is the best thing about your team’s NBA season – you’re in trouble.
...As of this writing, the Nets are 3-9 and in last place in the Atlantic Division, which is familiar territory. The only wins we have are against the one-win pathetic Washington Wizards (who are lucky this is a shortened season or they’d be chasing the aforementioned futility record), the lame duck Toronto Raptors, and the Phoenix Suns who were without Steve Nash and Grant Hill. It looks to be a long season for myself and the six other NJ Nets fans, but that’s OK – we’re used to it.
Posted by eric at 9:10 AM
January 18, 2012
Nets release ridiculous ad campaign
Examiner.com
by Gregory Hrinya
Putting aside the stark reality that Deron Williams may opt to play elsewhere, this is the second billboard released in New York Knicks country.
The last billboard had Mikhail Prokhorov and Jay-Z promising a "blueprint for greatness." The two of them have combined to appear at a whopping one game this season, and that blueprint has the Nets sitting very near to the NBA's cellar.
...And now on the heels of a disastrous performance in Utah, against the very same Jazz that gambled by letting Deron Williams go, the Nets release a billboard to "Believe the hype."
What hype would that be exactly?
Related coverage...
Park Slope Patch, Brooklyn-Themed Nets Ad Campaign Debuts—In Manhattan
The Nets Basketball organization unveiled a new ad campaign geared towards prospective season ticket holders for the soon-to-be-opened Barclays Center.
Featuring Nets star point guard Deron Williams, one of the billboards proclaiming, "Welcome to Brooklyn," is located just blocks away from Madison Square Garden—the home turf of New York Knicks basketball.
Posted by eric at 9:50 AM
January 17, 2012
Latest Nets promotion suggests that arena site in late 2012 would feature three towers
Atlantic Yards Report
Norman Oder reports on the Nets' latest effort to sell tickets in Brooklyn, and speculates on the subliminal messaging.
Posted by eric at 12:24 PM
January 16, 2012
Derrick Favors Says He Was Lied To By The New Jersey Nets
Rant Sports
by Joshua Casey
Looks like we Brooklynites aren't the only ones being sold a bill of goods by Bruce Ratner & Co.
When the New Jersey Nets traded Derrick Favors, Devin Harris, and two first round picks in exchange for Deron Williams to the Utah Jazz last February it was certainly a surprise to many people but it was a huge surprise to one person who was involved in the trade, Derrick Favors. Favors did not want to point anyone out in particular, or call anyone name’s, but he remembers an encounter with New Jersey Nets head coach Avery Johnson on a road trip last season where Johnson called Favors into a coach’s office and told him, “We like you here in Jersey, we’re going to keep you, don’t worry about it.”
NoLandGrab: Jobs, Housing, Hoops and "don't worry about it."
Posted by eric at 11:47 AM
January 15, 2012
Brooklyn Awaits Nets, but Their Destination as a Team Is Unclear
New York Times
By Harvey Araton
Here's another indication that supporters of the Atlantic Yards development will have to lower their expectations for everything having to do with this enterprise.
The question of where the Nets are headed as an organization and as a basketball team leads only to a host of potential destinations that range from exhilaration to dread, with an occasional detour into comic relief. Technically, and temporarily, the Nets are in Newark, on their way to a new home next season in downtown Brooklyn. By all other practical means of appraisal, their dateline should be limbo.
Mikhail Prokhorov, the billionaire who owns the Nets and has declared his candidacy for president of Russia, in Moscow on Friday with a banner that reads “Thank you for your vote.”
Constituted in part for the purpose of future salary-cap flexibility, the Nets are only sporadically competitive while listing four players named Williams, but only one, Deron, whom they desperately want but do not know if they can retain. Symbolizing the arm’s length position he has taken to a long-term commitment, Williams has taken up residence in Manhattan, about halfway between the Nets’ two arenas, the Prudential Center in Newark and the rising Barclays Center in Brooklyn.
On a roster that is exceedingly anonymous by famous athlete standards, the Nets also have players named Shawne (Williams), DeShawn (Stevenson) and MarShon (Brooks).
Now that he has what he wants, developer Bruce Ratner speaks candidly:
“All things being perfect, they would be an N.B.A. championship-caliber team when they went to Brooklyn,” said Ratner, who has a majority stake in the Barclays Center and a minor share of the Nets in a partnership with Prokhorov.
Ratner admitted to having “nothing but anxiety” about the team’s competitive prospects, while adding, “Because of how long it’s taken to build the arena, I’m kind of used to the disappointment of things not happening when they were supposed to.”
NoLandGrab: The promised benefits of Atlantic Yards have not happened "when they were supposed to". The time frame for their arrival may be outside of our lifetime.
Posted by steve at 6:51 PM
January 11, 2012
How many Nets fans from NJ will cross the river (and bring new tax revenues)? "You’re not going to have a lot of people from New Jersey following us," CEO Yormark acknowledged in 2009
Atlantic Yards Report
Despite claims from fellow boosters of the Nets' move to Brooklyn, team CEO Brett Yormark, in a moment of candor, more than two years ago acknowledged that relatively few Nets fans from New Jersey would make the move to Brooklyn.
That won't necessarily affect the bottom line of the team and arena, since new fans from New York surely will buy seats and suites.
But it does diminish the argument for city and state arena subsidies, which were based in part on expectations of new tax benefits to the city and state from out-of-state visitors.
In other words, poaching a team may not be worth what it's cracked up to be.
Posted by eric at 12:39 PM
Nets CEO Yormark on strategies: a press release a day, never talk publicly about ticket giveaways
Atlantic Yards Report
Norman Oder uncovers some rare and surprising candor from Brett Yormark. Yes, Brett Yormark.
The 4/16/09 session at the Argyle Executive Forum, in which Nets CEO Brett Yormark acknowledged few New Jersey fans would follow the team to Brooklyn, also included a frank description of the team's public relations strategy (pump out a press release a day) and veiled practice of distributing free tickets.
Keep in mind that this was the end of the last season at the Meadowlands, before the team was clearly moving to Brooklyn and before the announcement of the two-year interim move to Newark.
Of course, Yormark is also a walking generator of the most vapid business-speak:
That Argyle Executive Forum transcript is worth a look to see how Yormark employs business buzzwords. They include:
- "the value player"
- "I'm going to top-line a couple of things"
- "our value proposition"
- "It's truly about the touch points"
- "it’s been a terrific ‘feel good’ and hopefully later on, we can monetize it"
- "a great value creation"
- "a best-in-class experience"
- "insulate yourself if the product goes south"
- "mandate buy-in from top to bottom"
- "Live out of the box"
- "Value creation, that is the buzz word"
- "it’s all about hiring on the court now in the product cycle, character guys"
- "We’re going to investment spend in all the right areas"
Posted by eric at 12:30 PM
Daily News columnis Hamill, always happy to buff the Brooklyn Nets, salutes Jay-Z, ignores "ethical pickle"
Atlantic Yards Report
Daily News columnist Denis Hamill, who thinks the Brooklyn Nets can give Brooklyn a soul, swallowed Forest City Ratner promotional spin, and saluted those building the arena, deserves notice for his celebratory column yesterday.
You see, Hamill back in December 2002 met Jay-Z when the "shy and humble" rapper was reading to fifth-graders--JAY-Z GIVES KIDS GIFT OF EXAMPLE--and remains quite impressed.
The "ethical pickle'
Jay-Z's a reader, and that fueled his writing skills and helped get him out of the projects, Hamill related back in 2002 and again yesterday. Yes, a dedication to reading is an admirable thing, and it allowed Jay-Z to build on his skills and gifts.
But Jay-Z, in case Hamill needs a reminder, also exited the projects because he was a drug dealer, and that, as writer Sam Anderson once put it, "the ethical pickle at the core of the Jay-Z myth."
Posted by eric at 11:42 AM
January 6, 2012
Struggling Nets Still More Sideshow than Legitimate Contender
Brooklyn Daily Eagle
by John Torenli
The Eagle, obviously, hasn't figured it out. The Nets aren't just not legitimate contenders — they're arguably the worst allegedly professional sports team extant.
The New Jersey (soon-to-be-Brooklyn) Nets were hoping this lockout-shortened 66-game campaign would be more about building excitement for their much-anticipated arrival at the still-under-construction Barclays Center in November, rather than their continued futility on and off the hardwood.
After doubling their win total from an embarrassing 12 to 24 last season under the guidance of coach Avery Johnson and the ownership of Russian presidential candidate Mikhail Prokhorov, Nets general manager Billy King vowed last month that the franchise was through with running out the clowns.
“There will not be a circus atmosphere like we had last year,” King insisted, referring to the Nets’ fruitless pursuit of a deal that would have landed Brooklyn native Carmelo Anthony in Jersey.
Well, that's true — circuses are fun, at least for the audiences.
It’s hard not to hear circus music when the team owner is making an allegedly serious run for the presidency of his home country, the team’s top rebounder has turned into “America’s Most Notorious Ex-Husband,” and the on-the-court product remains substandard.
NoLandGrab: Wow, if that's "substandard," we sure wouldn't want to lay eyes on bad.
Posted by eric at 11:49 AM
Knicks and Nets Open New Battle Front
Brooklyn Trolley Blogger
Self-appointed basketball "expert" the Brooklyn Trolley Blogger expounds on the "rivalry" between the Knicks and the Nets.
Suffice to say, nothing is going right for either team at the moment. The Knicks can't get a comitment by the players on defense, and the Nets just can't get a committment out of Deron Williams yet. Which brings us to the latest battle of this fledgling, soon-to-be inner city rivalry. The ultimate battle of Dubiousness -
...The Battle for Last Place.
NoLandGrab: Right, 'cause Deron is so key to the Nets' winning ways. And it's not really a battle — the Knicks may be bad, but the Nets are awful. Their one win in seven games came against the only team in the league that doesn't have any.
Are you psyched, Brooklyn?
Posted by eric at 11:27 AM
January 5, 2012
Nets to move 150 jobs to MetroTech Center in Brooklyn
NY Post
by Rich Calder
In a surprise, the primary beneficiary of the Nets' move to Brooklyn is revealed to be Bruce Ratner.
The Nets are finally beginning their move to Brooklyn.
The NBA team announced today that beginning next month they’re moving 150 jobs on its business side of operations to the MetroTech Center in Downtown Brooklyn.
The 10-year lease is for 35,145 square feet on the 11th floor at 15 MetroTech, which is part of the office complex owned by Forest City Ratner Cos. whose CEO Bruce Ratner cut the deals that are bringing the team to Brooklyn.
Posted by eric at 11:43 AM
January 4, 2012
New Jersey Nets Ink Office Deal at MetroTech Center
NY Observer
by Daniel Geiger
How's this for economic development? The Bruce Ratner (minority)-owned New Jersey Nets are moving to the Bruce Ratner-owned MetroTech!
The team is relocating its corporate headquarters from East Rutherford to Downtown Brooklyn, where the organization is taking 35,145 square feet at the office building 15 MetroTech Center. The Nets will take the space for between five and 10 years at rents in the $30s per square foot, said sources.
The Nets will sublease 15 Metrotech’s entire 11th floor from Visiting Nurse Health Care System, Inc., which is consolidating its operations onto another floor it leases at the property, the tenth.
The Nets will take possession of the office space in the coming months in preparation for the 2012-2013 season. That season, which begins this October, will be the first the team will play at the Barclays Center, the new arena being built for the organization by developer and partial Nets owner Forest City Ratner as part of a large mixed use real estate project over Brooklyn’s Atlantic Yards.
Although Forest City Ratner owns 15 MetroTech and the Atlantic Yards arena in which the basketball team will play, the negotiations were between Visiting Nurse Health Care System and the Nets.
Related coverage...
Atlantic Yards Report, Nets moving offices to Brooklyn, subleasing space from downsizing MetroTech tenant
The Nets are moving their offices to Brooklyn, and to a Forest City Ratner building to boot, but that represents no net gain to the developer, as the team is subleasing space from a downsizing tenant.
...The team was originally supposed to move to the arena itself, but the 2009 arena downsizing moved the offices off-site.
Posted by eric at 12:05 PM
Prokhorov and Ratner Preparing to Move Semi-pro Team into Naked Arena
Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn
One has to wonder, what exactly are Bruce Ratner and Mikahil Prokhorov planning on bringing to Brooklyn. A team that can hardly call itself professional and a naked arena?
The New Jersey Nets, once again, are stinking up the joint and the Barclays Center arena is in jeopardy of being facadeless come projected completion in September 2012 now that the custom manufacterer of the rusty panels has gone belly up.
...Will the arena in Brooklyn be ready when the semi-pro Nets are ready to move? That is now a question worthy of a "no comment" from Forest City Ratner.
Related coverage...
Brownstoner, Barclays Center Facade Maker Goes Out of Business
Posted by eric at 11:56 AM
January 3, 2012
Nets, Struggling on Offense, Watch Pacers Find Rhythm
The New York Times
by Jake Appleman
New year, same awful Nets.
When the two worst-shooting teams in the N.B.A. got together Monday night, the Nets played down to their standing and fell to the Indiana Pacers, 108-94.
The Pacers, who shot 53 percent to the Nets’ 37 percent, also made 13 of 21 3-point attempts. If sinking shots — and the Nets’ hopes — seemed like no contest for the Pacers, it was because most of the 3-point attempts were not contested.
“We just didn’t do a good job of running them off the 3-point line, of paying attention to details,” Deron Williams said.
Um, you just didn't do a good job, period.
With the Knicks telecast blocked out of many homes in the New York metropolitan area because of MSG Network’s dispute with Time Warner Cable, the Nets, for many, were the only game on. In front of 12,519 at Prudential Center, the undermanned Nets never led.
NoLandGrab: Looks like "professional" sports won't be coming back to Brooklyn after all.
Photo: Julio Cortez/Associated Press
Posted by eric at 4:30 PM
Barclays Center Enlists Help From Disney
Future home of the Brooklyn Nets signs deal with the people behind Mickey & Co.
Park Slope Patch
by Paul Leonard
The most Mickey Mouse operation in (allegedly) professional sports has made it official.
First it was the Brooklyn Nets, then Jay-Z. Now the people behind Mickey, Pluto and pals are getting into the Barclays Center mix.
On Monday, the Nets basketball organization announced a partnership with Disney Institute with the aim of having some of the entertainment giant's magic rub off on the quickly rising Barclays Center.
“Anybody who has visited Walt Disney World recognizes that Disney delivers the preeminent customer experience and that’s what we plan to bring to our guests at Barclays Center,” said Barclays Center CEO Brett Yormark.
..."Our goal is to bring the best entertainment value to our customers," said Nets senior vice president of communications Barry Baum.
NoLandGrab: "Entertainment value" like this?
Posted by eric at 4:27 PM
January 2, 2012
Time for some second thoughts on college sports: giving up on college football and paying (football and basketball) athletes
Atlantic Yards Report
It's time for some second thoughts on big-time college sports, including the sport that feeds the NBA and the soon-to-be Brooklyn Nets.
In his year-end column for The Nation, 2011: The Year I Learned to Hate College Football, Dave Zirin wrote:
In a decade of sports writing, I’ve always used a very basic framework: don’t reject sports, reclaim it. In other words, no matter how greedy, hateful, or ugly sports become, you fight for it to change. No matter how many publicly funded stadiums or Redskin logos, or how much sexist doggerel is expectorated by the athletic industrial complex, you remember what you love about sports. You stand your ground and never forget the fun, fellowship and artistry these games have the potential to produce. That’s been my framework, until now.
...It’s not just because the bowl season has turned into an orgy of commercial branding that would shame a NASCAR event... It’s not the ugly use of football to sell the business of war...
This year I was broken by just how disgusting the institution of college football has become.
Zirin pointed to the scandals at Ohio State University and the University of Miami, where, as a result of the "hypocritical" system, athletes were slammed for extracting "modest compensation," then Penn State University "and the way the economic, social and cultural imperatives of big-time college football were put ahead of the safety and welfare of small children." Finally, Ohio State hired free agent head coach Urban Meyer for $24 million over six years.
Posted by steve at 4:23 PM
Post salutes Nets' use of Disney trainers; shouldn't Atlantic Yards contractors similarly care about "redefining customer experience"?
Atlantic Yards Report
The New York Post reports, in ‘Mouse’ cleaning for Nets:
Trying to bring a theme-park feel to the team’s new arena in Brooklyn, Nets brass have hired Walt Disney Co.’s training arm to teach the Barclays Center’s employees the secrets of its Magic Kingdom.
“We want to create a magical experience where everyone is treated like a VIP no matter where they sit, and no one does it better than Disney,” Nets/Barclays Center CEO Brett Yormark told The Post.
The goal, he added, is “redefining customer experience” for sports and entertainment venues with “unmatched, street-to-seat” service and hospitality.
Maybe they should have started with contractors at the Atlantic Yards site, who, among other things, poured a mysterious powder on Pacific Street.
Posted by steve at 4:18 PM
December 27, 2011
Can a Sports Team’s Ill Fortunes Be Foretold in Its Name?
The New York Times
by Clyde Haberman
Developments in the New York sports world over the holiday weekend lead to a conclusion that has been bubbling for a while, and now seems inescapable: If you root for a team whose name ends in “ets,” you’re swimming in a sea of troubles.
...There is another “ets” team, the basketball-playing Nets of New Jersey, which is destined to move soon to Brooklyn in the arena that is rising at Atlantic Yards. This team is some catch. It lost 70 percent of its games last season. At that, it was vastly improved over the previous year, when it lost 85 percent of the time.
...By the way, the basketball team’s majority owner is Mikhail D. Prokhorov, a billionaire oligarch who announced this month that he would challenge Vladimir V. Putin for the Russian presidency in an election scheduled for the spring. Distracted as Mr. Prokhorov is by Russian politics, it is hard to see how much attention he will give to his flop of a basketball crew as it prepares to move to Brooklyn.
Maybe yet another name change is called for, particularly if this team doesn’t improve. Why not the Brooklyn Nyets?
Posted by eric at 11:23 AM
December 24, 2011
If "everything about the Nets is targeted toward the future," then Brook Lopez's foot injury cannot be good news
Atlantic Yards Report
In his 12/22/11 Grantland article, A Week With the New Jersey Nets: Our man in the Tri-State Area spends some time with Avery Johnson and his team, Jonathan Abrams explains:
Everything about the Nets is targeted toward the future: next year's move to Brooklyn, the retention of Deron Williams past this season, the luring of Dwight Howard, even majority owner Mikhail Prokhorov's bid to become the future president of Russia. Looking over the current roster, it is hard to imagine who, exactly, might be present after the move. Williams, certainly and hopefully. Rookie guard MarShon Brooks will probably be there as well. The rest of the roster is subject to being traded at a whim, having their contracts expire, or being cut before the end of camp.
How's that going? In recent weeks, there have been more than a few stories and tweets indicating that the Nets were Magic center Howard's first choice, part of a trade that had to include Nets center Brook Lopez. But Magic brass chose not to make a deal, so Nets strategists--who do have cap space and draft picks--must wait.
And, as No Land Grab's Eric McClure noted, the bad news for the Nets this week was not the booing of forward Kris Humphries (whose hoops skills far exceed his judgment in participating in for-the-camera weddings).
Rather, it was Lopez's stress fracture in his foot, which the Times deemed "a twin blow to the Nets’ prospects this season and their hopes of landing Dwight Howard."
Posted by steve at 4:52 PM
December 23, 2011
Nothin' but Nets!
The Mikhail Prokhorov/Bruce Ratner/Jay-Z-owned basketball team made news this week — and none of it good. Could it be The Curse of the Land Grab?
Yahoo! Sports, Kris Humphries, not LeBron James, is the NBA’s most hated player
First off, they coughed up $8 million to re-sign the league's least-popular player.
A year ago at this time, Kris Humphries was a fairly unassuming backup big man for the New Jersey Nets. Then he started casually dating America's sweetheart Kim Kardashian. That romance eventually turned into something more serious -- he went on her TV show, she went to Newark for a game -- and in August they married. It lasted only 72 days, because some loves are just too powerful to do anything but burn out.
Humphries now has a greater celebrity profile, but that fame has been welcomed with searing hatred by many Kardashophilic people of this nation. In fact, a recent Nielsen and E-Poll Market Research poll lists him as the most hated player in the NBA.
But that's not the real bad news. This is.
The New York Times, Foot Injury to Lopez Deals the Nets Twin Setbacks
Brook Lopez is heading for foot surgery, dealing a twin blow to the Nets’ prospects this season and their hopes of landing Dwight Howard.
Lopez sustained a stress fracture in the fifth metatarsal of his right foot in Wednesday’s preseason finale against the Knicks. Surgery is scheduled for Friday. The Nets have not announced a timetable for his return, but it is likely that Lopez will miss at least six weeks.
Lopez, 23, would be the key player in any trade for Howard, the Orlando Magic center, who has asked to be traded. The injury could delay any deal or perhaps scare off the Magic. The N.B.A. has a long history of big men having their careers derailed by foot problems, from Bill Walton to Yao Ming.
The severity of Lopez’s injury seemed to catch the Nets off guard. Although the foot was injured in the first half, Lopez played the entire game, finishing with 15 points and 9 rebounds in nearly 22 minutes.
NoLandGrab: Do you think Brook Lopez might be asking himself "would they have left me in for the whole game if they weren't planning on shipping me to Orlando?"
Posted by eric at 10:40 AM
December 22, 2011
Token Mets Owners vs. Nets "Owner" Jay-Z
Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn
Speaking of Hova's token role...
Today The New York Times, in a tongue-in-cheek (borderline sneering) manner, takes a look at the financially strapped New York Mets' effort to sell off $20 million shares of the team to minority owners who will have no say in the franchise's development but will receive perks such as access to the Mets' mascot Mr. Met and a parking spot at CitiField. For its story The Times obtained a term sheet given by the Mets' owners to prospective partners.
According to The Times a $20 milllion share represents about 4% of the team (our calculations peg it at about 2.6%).
What's this have to do with Atlantic Yards? Well "cultural icon" Jay-Z is a less than 1% owner of the New Jersey Nets, paying roughly $4.5 million for the right to be out front of the team's marketing campaigns. Yet one would believe from the media coverage (including The Times) and the Nets public relations strategy that he owns a substantial portion of the team. Or, as Norman Oder put it in a Salon article, "He's become the face of the franchise, the Teflon-coated superstar employed by his partners to distract attention from the hardball politics, sweetheart deals and private profits behind the arena and the rest of the 16-tower project."
...So $20 million to the Mets affords the investor the booby prize of getting to hang with the Mets' mascot. With the Nets, $4.5 million makes you the owner, at least in the eyes of the celebrity-obsessed press.
Posted by eric at 12:26 PM
NBA Preview, Part One: Breaking Down The Heat, Bulls, And The Rest Of The East
SBNation
by Andrew Sharp
SBNation picks the Nets to finish 12th in the 15-team Eastern Conference, and here's one reason:
The karma surrounding the Nets move to Brooklyn is not good. The scheming from Bruce Ratner, Jay-Z's token role in selling the whole thing, and even the way the team's ditching Jersey after years of putting together a horrid product. It all feels kind of shady, and even if it's all legal, that doesn't mean they'll get away without getting burned.
Posted by eric at 12:20 PM
December 20, 2011
Times gives lavish space to puff piece on new Nets announcer, ignores "sordid history" (by the way, he says cigars are healthier than cigarettes)
Atlantic Yards Report
Sure, Kim Jong-Il is dead, the Eurozone economies are in shambles, and it's an all-out race to the bottom among Republican presidential hopefuls, but whoa — get a load of that new Nets PA announcer's hair!
Number of paragraphs about Atlantic Yards in front-page New York Times article yesterday about EB-5 projects that stretch the rules: 1.
Number of paragraphs in Sports section article today about new Nets announcer David Diamante: 21.
A bit of a puff piece
The Times article, headlined New Nets Announcer Shows Flair and Hair, lets him describe his various jobs and hobbies--motorcyclist, DJ, surfer, boxing announcer. He's got long dreadlocks...
Related content...
The New York Times, Nets Announcer Shows Flair and Hair
Diamante was not among the original 400 prospective announcers who auditioned for the Nets in September. After learning of the tryouts, he contacted Nets representatives and was included in the final round of 20 announcers in October. He got the job, signed a multiyear contract and last week announced his first game with the team, at its current home in Newark.
NoLandGrab: Yet one more example of the flawed process surrounding Atlantic Yards.
The Brooklyn Paper, Brooklyn man to be the voice of the Barclays Center
The team will get a side benefit from hiring Diamante, who is active in charities in his spare time, most recently including holding an auction that raised more than $18,000 for Treasure Island Pre-school in Bay Ridge.
“I try to live my life like that,” Diamante said. “You have to be a good neighbor.”
The Nets have been struggling to be just that as the controversial Barclays Center nears completion. But Diamante thinks that any lingering hard feelings will disappear once the team hits the hard wood.
Posted by eric at 1:07 PM
December 7, 2011
New Jersey's NBA Goodbye Is Set
Uncle Mike's Musings
The Nets' New Jersey finale -- barring the Playoffs, but who's kidding who -- will be on Monday night, April 23, at the Prudential Center. Somewhat appropriately, it will be against the team to whom the New York Nets had to sell Julius Erving just to get into the NBA in 1976, the Philadelphia 76ers. Instantly, they went from being the best team in the ABA to being the worst team in the NBA, moved to the Rutgers Athletic Center in 1977, changing their name to the New Jersey Nets, to the Meadowlands in 1981, and to the Prudential a year ago.
The last day of the NBA regular season will be Thursday, April 26, and the Nets will play their last game as the New Jersey Nets at the Air Canada Centre against the Toronto Raptors. Come November 2012, it will be home games at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, as the Brooklyn Nets.
Damn you, Bruce Ratner. R.I.P. New Jersey Nets, 1977-2012.
Posted by eric at 11:05 AM
December 6, 2011
Lost in America's ghost franchises
The pending sales of the Dodgers and the Jaguars, and the dislocation damage done
ESPN.com
by Jeff MacGregor
This thoughtful essay from ESPN's This Sporting Life touches just briefly on the Nets, but it's well worth reading in its entirety.
I visited a grave the other day. It's where the Brooklyn Dodgers are buried.
This is out in Crown Heights, at the intersections of Sullivan Place and Bedford Avenue, McKeever Place and Montgomery Street. It's also the intersection of "The Boys of Summer" and "The Death and Life of Great American Cities." Of Roger Kahn and Jane Jacobs. Of the 19th and 20th centuries. Of memory and money and history and fantasy.
This is where Ebbets Field was.
With the sale of the Los Angeles Dodgers now upon us -- and that of an unloved football franchise down in Jacksonville, Fla. -- we note this week the staying power of impermanence, the fickle nature of devotion, the business of business, and the unbridgeable distance between "change" and "progress."
...Does ownership of a pro sports franchise constitute a public trust? Or is it just another hustle? Or does that calculus change according to our cynicism and the needs and wants of the leagues and the owners?
I'm not sure it matters. It didn't seem to matter to Walter O'Malley the year I was born. He took the Dodgers west to find his fortune and broke Brooklyn's heart. A year from now, the borough takes the Nets from New Jersey, and their new home will be Atlantic Yards (see this or this) -- just across the park from the fossil footprint of Ebbets Field.
Posted by eric at 12:43 PM
December 1, 2011
How Brooklyn Nets Can Cut In On Knicks
SBNation.com
by Jason Concepcion
Are there any more played-out tropes than Brooklyn Nets or Brooklyn Hipsters? What about combining the two for even greater inanity?!
The Nets are coming to Brooklyn in 2012 and they will be looking for fans deep in Knicks territory. Luckily there exists a group -- indigenous to the Balkanized borough of Brooklyn -- that remain largely untapped by team loyalties.
These are the hipsters. Residing in the Brooklyn neighborhoods of Williamsburg and Bushwick these post-modern tastemakers are ripe for the picking for any team who knows what attracts them. Our suggested gameplan follows.
Posted by eric at 6:01 PM
Deron Williams will not sign extension with Nets, agent says
NorthJersey.com
by Al Iannazzone
The good news? The Barclays Center will host a swanky equestrian event. The bad news? The Barclays Center will likely not host the Nets' best player.
The slim hope the Nets had of Deron Williams signing a contract extension has been dashed completely.
Williams’ agent said his client will play out this season and become a free agent next summer.
Deron will not be signing the extension,” Jeff Schwartz told The Record this afternoon. “Based on the new rules it doesn’t make any sense for him to sign the extension. It has nothing to do with how much he likes New Jersey. Because of the rules, he’s going to play the season out and probably opt out of his deal.”
Related coverage...
ESPN.com, Agent: Deron Williams won't sign
Sources close to the team said the Nets aren't concerned by the news, saying they
really prefer equestrian eventsknew it was going to happen.It is not surprising that Williams would take this route. He can earn roughly $30 million more by opting out at the end of the season and re-signing with the Nets, if that's what he decides to do.
Brooklyn Daily Eagle, Brooklyn’s Superman?
According to a report on ESPN yesterday, the Nets aren’t waiting long to find a running mate for superstar point guard Deron Williams.
Um, the guy who's not willing to sign an extension? That's kind of putting the cart before the horse-jumping, isn't it?
With the NBA lockout solved and the season set to begin on Christmas Day, the soon-to-be-Brooklyn franchise is reportedly preparing a trade for high-flying Orlando center Dwight “Superman” Howard.
Current Nets center Brook Lopez and a pair of future first-round picks could be part of a proposed deal that would lock Howard into position as Williams’ co-star when the team moves into the Barclays Center in November 2012.
NoLandGrab: Except that Williams isn't locked into anything, so why would Dwight Howard approve that trade?
Posted by eric at 5:42 PM
November 30, 2011
Meet The Women Behind The Brooklyn Nets
Forbes
Deep inside the steel skeleton of the soon-to-be Barclays Center in Brooklyn, NY, drills are whirring, hammers striking and cranes excavating. The air is dusty and the ground littered with piles of wires, metal beams and loose hardware. Despite her suit dress and open-toed heels, an unconcerned MaryAnne Gilmartin, the arena’s lead developer, simply steps around the debris. In just 10 months, these gaping bones will welcome the NBA’s New Jersey Nets to their new home—as the Brooklyn Nets—thanks to two powerful women working vigorously behind the scenes.
If real estate mogul Bruce Ratner and Russian billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov are the faces of the New York-bound basketball franchise, Gilmartin and Irina Pavlova are the feet on the ground, clearing the way. As EVP of Forest City Ratner Companies, Gilmartin manages development of the near $1 billion arena, which anchors the larger $4.9 billion, 22-acre Atlantic Yards project in the heart of Brooklyn. Pavlova represents the interests of Prokhorov, the minority owner of the arena and majority owner of the Nets, its major tenant.
We'll leave it to Atlantic Yards Report to dissect Gilmartin's fantasy version of events. Here's some of the bit on Pavlova.
Spearheading the excitement over the 18,000-seat arena, Pavlova, 41, gets a live video feed of construction on her desktop and gushes that she cheers so hard at Nets’ home games she loses her voice. The Russian-American has dual citizenship, speaks five languages (with varying levels of fluency) and has worked all over the world. She started her career at Prudential in New York, and in 2005 launched the Moscow office of Google. In 2010, the chief executive of Onexim, Prokhorov’s company, told Pavlova over a casual dinner about a little deal with an American team, and asked if she’d be interested in “keeping an eye on things” in the States. “I don’t know a thing about basketball,” she said, but soon agreed.
Which would explain why she shouts herself hoarse at Nets' games.
And she learned quick. “It took me a few months to get my hands around the business and get comfortable with how things work,” Pavlova says with a subtle accent. “I’ve learned it’s tickets, sponsorships and suite sales. It’s not rocket science.”
Which would explain how the Nets' CEO qualifies as a "Yormarketing genius."
Posted by eric at 11:57 AM
November 29, 2011
Two sports columnist react to the resumption of the NBA and the meaning of Brooklyn
Atlantic Yards Report
Grantland editor Dan Fierman, a contributor to The NBA Is Back! An over-the-top, totally ridiculously long, undeniably giddy appreciation of the return of the NBA by the Grantland staff:
One of the very hardest things about leaving Brooklyn was sacrificing a front-row seat to how the Nets move played out. The real estate battles, the simmering class warfare over the Barclays Center, and the arrival, as if from space, of the gangly billionaire from Russia was the greatest drama we had going in the borough. The storylines were ready-made: The return of professional sports to the County of Kings! The Deron Williams contract debate! Jay and Bey courtside every night!
These things were (obviously) media crack in the only city in America that has its own 24-hour cable news channel. But to me and my 30-something peers, the Nets move was more than that. Brooklyn is a borough rapidly filling with children. Schools are bursting at the seams. Teachers can't be hired fast enough. The parks overflow with new parents who were themselves moved out of NYC as children by overprotective fathers and mothers. As someone who was very recently one of their number — the father of a son just now old enough to understand what goaltending means, and maybe even to comprehend the importance of inside positioning — I can tell you how much that move to Brooklyn meant to those parents. See kid, look! Look at how Deron throws the outlet pass! Watch how Lopez keeps those hands above his head! Listen to the goddamned crowd roar! How can you possibly not love this game?
Only if you forget how it was done.
New York Times sports columnist George Vecsey, in Welcoming Back N.B.A. With Open Yawns, allows for a side notice:
My flicker of enthusiasm for the Nets included their move from that dismal spot in the swamps into that struggling, but recognizable, urban center, Newark. Next year they will move into a much more vibrant place — the land grab near downtown Brooklyn being a separate issue. Just the mention of Brooklyn evokes the scent of restaurants and walks in cool neighborhoods.
The lingering question: will people agree with Mayor Mike Bloomberg, as depicted in the documentary Battle for Brooklyn, that “Nobody’s going to remember how long it took, they’re only going to look and see that it was done”?
Likely many sports reporters and columnists won't remember. Others, understandably, will experience, "issue fatigue." But people will remember. The movie's just one sign of that.
Related content...
The New York Times, Welcoming Back N.B.A. With Open Yawns
Posted by eric at 11:23 AM
November 16, 2011
Nets Rally Amid Dreary NBA News
Though the NBA lockout continues, the Nets held a rally in Downtown Brooklyn to drum up support in their new home.
Park Slope Patch
by Jamie Schuh
Though the NBA lockout continues, and the players have now rejected the league’s contract offer and shut down their union, the Nets still went ahead with their “Brooklyn Experience” rally outside of Borough Hall yesterday, according to the New York Times.
Though still located in New Jersey, the team will move to the Barclays Center area when construction is finished. Ironically, the rally was held on the same day that construction workers held a press conference about their legal suit against the developers behind the Atlantic Yards mega-project, which includes the new stadium.
Still, fans lined up outside of Borough Hall to shoot hoops, while others enjoyed music from a D.J. and Nets dancers shimmied adopt a 40-foot promotional trailer.
Posted by eric at 4:54 PM
November 15, 2011
Nets Hold a Rally Amid a Lockout and an Uncertain Season
CityRoom
by Liz Robbins
While seven Brooklynites who'd been duped by phony promises of Atlantic Yards jobs were holding a press conference about their lawsuit in front of the district office of City Councilmember Tish James, The New York Times was on the case — covering a pre-packaged, phony New Jersey Nets "media event" at Brooklyn Borough Hall. Really.
On Tuesday, the day after one of the bleakest in the history of the National Basketball Association — when the players rejected the league’s contract offer, disbanded their union and the season seemed closer to being doomed — the Nets held a rally to promote their “Brooklyn Experience” outside Borough Hall.
This was for a team still located in New Jersey and that will play in Downtown Brooklyn next year in an arena now half-built — in a league that may not operate for the foreseeable future.
The gleeful scene amid such uncertainty, and under the threat of a new lawsuit, was a bit absurd, not to mention surreal, like a Mad Hatter’s tea party held under ominous skies.
Happy fans lined up to shoot baskets — most of them woefully off the mark — against the tricked-out 40-foot mobile promotional trailer that had television screens inside and screens outside showing video games in which the Nets played against themselves.
NoLandGrab: Note to media — if the Nets dancers and Sly Fox are on hand, it's probably not a real news story.
Posted by eric at 11:00 PM
Nets To Lose Less With No Season?
NetsDaily
The Nets might find a silver lining in a lost NBA season — fewer operating losses.
Forbes, which chronicles what the rich do with their money, thinks that a lost season could benefit the Nets financial picture, that they're one of five NBA teams that will lose less money this year than they would have if the team played games. The financial picture was laid out a few days back by Mike Ozanian.
According to Forest City Enterprises, Bruce Ratner's parent company, the bulk of the team's $35+ million in losses will have to be eaten by the Cleveland firm. Under the 2009 deal between Ratner and Mikhail Prokhorov, the Russian agreed to handle up to 80% of the Nets losses in New Jersey with a ceiling of $60 million. That ceiling was reached in June and FCE is now responsible for much of the team's losses, just as it was before Prokhorov bought in.
And Prudential Center isn't going to miss the Nets much either. Bob Sommer, who runs the Rock, says the venue will be able to fill its dates whether the Nets play this season or not. “We won’t be financially disabled, perhaps we’ll even be better off," said Sommer. It appears the only people who will be hurt will be those dependent on the games for revenue, from restaurant and bar owners outside the arena to people like ball boys and scorekeepers inside.
Posted by eric at 11:48 AM
November 14, 2011
Press conference Tuesday afternoon at Borough Hall: new mobile 'EXPERIENCE'
Atlantic Yards Report
 |
A press release from the Nets, headlined Barclays Center and Nets Basketball to unveil new mobile 'EXPERIENCE' on plaza at Brooklyn Borough Hall: Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz, NETS General Manager Billy King, And NETS Head Coach Avery Johnson to Attend Event...
Posted by eric at 9:02 PM
November 11, 2011
P.S. 9 and M.S. 571 Celebrate New Playground
The ribbon-cutting of the $305,000 revamped space was marked with poetry, dance, song ... and a giant silver fox.
Prospect Heights Patch
by Amy Sara Clark
P.S. 9 and M.S. 571 celebrated the opening of its $305,000 playground yesterday with song, dance, poetry and even a visit from the NETS mascot, Sly.
...The revamped space was funded in part by Out2Play, a non-profit that raises funds to refurbish NYC public school playgrounds, the NYC Department of Education, Brooklyn Borough President’s Office, and the Barclays Nets Community Alliance, a partnership of Forest City Ratner, the NETS and Barclays that, since forming in 2007, has given area non-profits $1 million a year, according to a NETS news release.
NoLandGrab: Here's a recent Atlantic Yards Report piece on the Barclays Nets Community Alliance's playground funding.
Posted by eric at 10:44 AM
November 10, 2011
Catching up on the NBA lockout: contract may be resolved today, but a lost season would hurt the Brooklyn-bound Nets far less than rival teams rooted in their cities
Atlantic Yards Report
We're the 88% (who haven't noticed that the NBA is missing)!
What does the continued NBA lockout--which may finally be resolved today (see links at NetsDaily)--mean to the New Jersey Nets? Well, consider the post by Forbes magazine's Mike Ozanian, who considers the team among Five NBA Teams Would Lose Less Money With No Season.
That's consonant with one report--though they haven't been widespread--portraying principal owner Mikhail Prokhorov as a hardliner. CBSSports.com's Ken Berger wrote 11/6/11, in For hardliners on both sides, 96 hours left to save NBA season:
Prokhorov, who according to sources is fine with a strategy that would blow up his mediocre team's last season in Newark, is lucky in that he doesn't really have a fan base to hold him accountable. But where are the city attorneys, district attorneys, attorneys general and editorial page writers in some of those other cities to ask who's going to refund taxpayer money that's funding empty basketball arenas during a canceled season?
Then again, playing this season might help keep star point guard Deron Williams, who can opt out of his contract, on board. More importantly, under the owners' proposal, the Nets will have a lot of flex in their salary cap to sign free agents to complement Williams.
NoLandGrab: The Nets had a lot of flex last year, too, when they were rebuffed by LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, Chris Bosh and Amar'e Stoudemire and ended up with Johan Petro, Travis Outlaw, Anthony Morrow, and Jordan Farmar. Who?
Posted by eric at 11:05 AM
November 9, 2011
Barclays Nets Community Alliance no longer claiming "it has funded" refurbished playgrounds but rather "funded in part"
Atlantic Yards Report
The latest press release promoting a playground refurbished by the Barclays Nets Community Alliance has a subtle but significant change in language, as the team/sponsor no longer seem to claim all the credit. (I'm checking on the actual numbers.) They still get to issue the press release, though.
 |
Previous claim
About two months ago, the alliance was claiming that "it has funded" a refurbished playground, leaving the impression it deserved most of the credit, even though the alliance paid about one-eighth the cost.
Posted by eric at 10:12 PM
N.B.A. Needs Drastically Different Approach
The New York Times
by William C. Rhoden
Brooklyn Nets ad whiz Steve Stoute — who recently called Bruce Ratner "our generation's Robert Moses" — has a plan for ending the NBA stalemate: have the 1% partner up with the other 1%.
Commissioner David Stern likes to talk about partnership, but in the rough-and-tumble world of stalled labor negotiations, the fundamental relationship is anything but.
...The N.B.A. and the players are engaged in another season-threatening battle over the distribution of what has become about $4 billion a year in revenue. This is not what a partnership looks like. If the N.B.A. and the players were actually partners, with players having an ownership stake in the league, we might be watching basketball instead of owners against players, owners against owners and players against players.
The concept of players’ equity would probably be met with great resistance from the owners and take years to work out. But given the tangled state of current negotiations, why not strategize now for the next contract?
“There’s not a better time than now,” said Steve Stoute, the founder and chief executive of Translation Consultation and Brand Imaging.
NoLandGrab: Actually, there was a better time than now — before now. With 88% of the public saying "really, there's an NBA lockout?", would anyone care if the Nets never played a game in Brooklyn — or anywhere else?
Posted by eric at 9:08 PM
November 8, 2011
NetsDaily Off-Season Report #30
NetsDaily
With no actual basketball to write about, NetsDaily devotes itself to real estate development, and unearths an interesting modular-construction tidbit from SHoP's Gregg Pasquarelli:
In a little noticed discussion among New York architects on September 12, arena design architect Gregg Pasquarelli raised doubts that it's going to work.
It's horrifying for me to say this but we are working on 2.7 million square feet of affordable housing in the city in five towers....I mean we've got two parallel teams working on this modular project to see if there's a way to build a 40- or 50-story modular building because by keeping it in the factory we can control the cost in a lot better way that we can out in the field. And it's really hard. We've been working on it ...three separate teams of 25 people working day and night on this for a year with developers who say I want a good building supportive developers who say build me the best building you can but here's the budget. It's almost impossible.
Pasquarelli doesn't mention Atlantic Yards, but it does seem that's what he's talking about and what Ratner wants him do. Pasquarelli's SHoP firm has a commission to design at least the first tower and has also been asked to revise the Frank Gehry master plan for Atlantic Yards.
Posted by eric at 10:27 AM
November 7, 2011
New Jersey left behind when Nets move to Brooklyn?
NorthJersey.com
by John Brennan
Bergen Record reporter follows up on the same NY1 report.
About seven years ago, I attended a Nets press conference about the plan to move the Nets to Brooklyn in a few years. At one point Bruce Ratner, then principal owner of the Nets, told me that he thought he could retain a good portion of the New Jersey Nets fans once they move to Brooklyn.
Considering that few New Jerseyans I know make many – if any – trips to Brooklyn, that seemed like a stretch.
Now comes some interesting numbers from Dan Lefton, vice president of suites sales and premium seating for the Barclays Center, which is scheduled to open near downtown Brooklyn in 10 months.
Lefton told NY1 television that 39 percent of sales of his product come from Brooklyn, 25 percent from Manhattan, and the rest a combination of “New Jersey, Connecticut, and Philly.
...I suspect that Lefton also would mean to include sales from Queens, Long Island, and Westchester County, further cutting into the portion of the 36 percent of remaining suite and club seat sales that come from New Jersey.
But what about single-game tickets?
Some Nets officials sensibly have theorized that the Nets could draw a respectable Jersey crowd for Saturday and Sunday afternoon games, when the least amount of traffic would be expected. But automobile-riding suburbanites may find it difficult to find parking, so the best hope for a Jersey audience is from those willing to take a subway or two. Of course, those lines run less frequently on weekends. That means the Nets may find it challenging to come up with a way to attract Garden Staters.
NoLandGrab: Especially since they've had little luck attracting Garden Staters while actually playing in the Garden State.
Posted by eric at 11:37 AM
Journalism or advertising? Inaccurate NY1 piece posits that "Barclays Suite Showroom Has Robust Sales"
Atlantic Yards Report
Norman Oder follows up on a ridiculously hollow bit of "news."
Let's take a closer look at the 11/3/11 NY 1 item headlined Barclays Suite Showroom Has Robust Sales.
Despite the headlined, there's no evidence in the piece that the sales are robust. We learn that "The Nets sales group says it has sold half of the available suites since they went on the market in March."
That's not true. Actually, suites went on sale three years earlier, in 2008. They had sold some 26 suites--about one quarter of the current total--by May 2008.
By July of this year, they had sold "close to half" of the 100 suites, according to Crain's. So in three years they went from one-quarter to about one-half. That's not so robust.
Journalism or advertising?
The rest of the piece is an advertisement, letting us know the strategy of those promoting the arena....
NoLandGrab: Honestly, Barclays Center suite sales have so far been more bust than robust.
Related content...
NY1, Barclays Suite Showroom Has Robust Sales
Posted by eric at 11:25 AM
November 1, 2011
Brooklyn Love & Basketball
The Wall Street Journal
by Jason Gay
Their love couldn't survive the lockout.
On Monday, the news arrived that the future First Lady of Brooklyn, Kim Kardashian, had filed for divorce from Kris Humphries, a broad-shouldered basketball free-agent-to-be, most recently of the basketball Nets.
The melancholy word came not from the NBA, but the TMZ.
In total, the Kardashian-Humphries union spanned 72 days. That's 51 days fewer than the NBA's work stoppage, which began on July 1.
...Every New York area sports fan should root for these two crazy lovebirds to make another try.
Who wasn't looking forward Kim and Kris in Brooklyn? There is no guarantee Humphries will re-sign with the Nets when (and if) the lockout ends, and the team does have to play one more zombie season in Jersey.
But Kim & Kris in Brooklyn was the weird home-spun fantasy, the magazine cover waiting to happen. The world's most overexposed couple in the world's most overexposed place. Borough president Marty Markowitz would drive them both to work in the morning.
NoLandGrab: Actually, their split saves us from having Markowitz make more inappropriate comments, a la his tasteless Beyoncé shtick at the arena groundbreaking.
Posted by eric at 11:28 AM
October 31, 2011
Kim Kardashian Files For Divorce
MTV.com
by Jocelyn Vena
OMG, he plays for the Nets? Weren't they like 12-70 two years ago? Eeewww!
Kim Kardashian and Kris Humphries said "I do" in an elaborate, very public ceremony over the summer, and now comes word that the reality starlet and her basketball player hubby are calling it quits just 72 days after tying the knot.
...The news comes as several tabloids have been reporting on Kim and Kris' marital woes. Kardashian and NBA player Humphries married on August 20 in California in a lavish ceremony in front of friends, family and E! cameras.
Posted by eric at 10:56 PM
October 29, 2011
A "tough guy from Brooklyn": new book describes Vinny Viola, Nets minority owner (and the one who brought Mary Higgins Clark on board)
Atlantic Yards Report
Had the larger-than-life Russian billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov not emerged on the scene, the buyer of the New Jersey Nets may well have been Brooklyn-born Vincent (Vinny) Viola, former chairman of the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX) and now chair of the firm Virtu Financial.
And Viola appears to be a colorful figure in his own right, according to The Asylum: The Renegades Who Hijacked the World's Oil Market, journalist Leah McGrath Goodman's dishy 2011 book about NYMEX. Still, given some careless reporting, we may have to take some of it with a grain of salt.
...
Viola, a New Jersey resident and longtime Nets season ticket holder (via NetsDaily, which offered a 6/26/09 bio sketch), got to know Bruce Ratner through real estate. Goodman writes:
After becoming a Nymex trader, Viola also dabbled in other businesses, running some community banks in Dallas and starting up proprietary trading shops active in the New York and London energy markets. After taking the chairmanship, he even invested in the Nets basketball team alongside real-estate developer Bruce Ratner, who'd worked on the construction of the Nymex building that had generated so much controversy. The two men moved the team from New Jersey to Viola's hometown of Brooklyn, with Viola bringing in other investors from Nymex--most notably, bestselling mystery romance novelist Mary Higgins Clark, whose daughter Patty Clark Derenzo was Viola's secretary.
Despite the past tense, the team has not yet moved.
Posted by steve at 3:27 PM
October 27, 2011
Nets fans deserve one last hurrah
Examiner.com
by Gregory Hrinya
The NBA will not play a full 82-game season in 2011-12, and odds are the league will not play any games at all.
The owners and players are back at the bargaining table Wednesday in an attempt to salvage some semblance of a season. A shortened season is never ideal, and while the NBA may not need it, New Jersey Nets fans need it.
Most of the Nets organization has already checked out and moved on to Brooklyn, be literally or figuratively. The Nets corporate offices are in transition from East Rutherford's PNY Center to One MetroTech Center North in Brooklyn. Basketball operations will remain in New Jersey for now, but before the 2012-13 season, the Nets will officially become New York property.
Posted by eric at 11:20 AM
October 21, 2011
Brooklyn Nets desperately need a new name: It sounds bad, and it means nothing
NY Daily News
by Alexander Nazaryan
Nazaryan, who's written insipidly about Atlantic Yards before, wastes more ink on the critical issue of the name "Nets." Seriously.
But the Nets, currently of New Jersey and soon of Brooklyn, are the nadir of athletic nomenclature. True, we may not have a basketball league to speak off, since the segment of our maligned 1% that can dunk a basketball can't settle its dispute with franchise owners. But if Brooklyn does host its first pro team since the Dodgers decamped for Los Angeles in 1957, that team cannot be called the Nets.
Related coverage...
Atlantic Yards Report, Department of Diverted Attention: Daily News devotes long op-ed to question of Nets' name change
We'll leave it to Norman Oder to suggest more worthy topics.
But, really, is this what deserves extended discussion when the state has failed to hire a community relations rep and extended construction is disturbing neighbors?
NoLandGrab: Well, at least it keeps Nazaryan from writing nonsense about bikes and bike lanes.
Posted by eric at 11:48 AM
October 14, 2011
Nets Move (Offices) To Brooklyn
NetsDaily
The Nets have begun shifting business operations from New Jersey to Brooklyn, with eight staffers moving recently to One MetroTech Center North in Brooklyn, near the Barclays Center. MetroTech is owned by Forest City, Bruce Ratner's company and the developer of the arena.
Officials said the offices are not the Nets' permanent home. The team expects to move all its business operations to the borough early next year, well before the arena opens in September.
NoLandGrab: What, they couldn't find any State or City agency to take the space?
Posted by eric at 9:08 AM
October 13, 2011
Iannazzone: Nothing would surprise Nets fans
Bergen Record
by Al Iannazzone
The announcement that the NBA would cancel the first two weeks of the regular season probably drew this kind of reaction from Nets fans all over the state: It figures.
Deep down, you had to know that in the Nets’ final season in New Jersey, things would not go smoothly. Why should they when they haven’t in the previous 34 years?
Every team has drama, but it seems the Nets are among the league leaders in that category every season — even when they had some very good years in the early 2000s.
There was Jason Kidd nearly leaving via free agency in 2002; the Alonzo Mourning experiment and experience; the mutiny against former coach Byron Scott after the Nets reached back-to-back NBA Finals; and the sale of the franchise to a real estate developer who cared more about bringing the team to Brooklyn than he did about a championship.
Bruce Ratner isn’t responsible for some of the bad draft picks the Nets made from 2003-2007. But his arrival and some of the subsequent moves led to Kidd souring on the organization, and the Nets haven’t been the same since.
NoLandGrab: Nor has Prospect Heights.
Posted by eric at 11:15 AM
October 11, 2011
First two weeks of NBA regular season canceled in labor strife; commentator says it's not about the fans or the game
Atlantic Yards Report
Writes ESPN's J.A. Adande, in NBA shows it has no game: Why did the league cancel two weeks? Because it plays the fans for fools, mostly:
You haven't heard the fans, or the game itself mentioned much lately, have you? That's because they don't factor into this discussion at all. It was always about people saving themselves: owners asking the players to bail them out of bad business moves, players asking to preserve their cushy status with the highest average salaries among American team sports.
But Bruce Ratner says the under-construction Barclays Center, beneficiary of triple tax-exempt bonds and a fiendishly clever use of PILOTs (payments in lieu of taxes) to pay off construction, is "largely for the children and youth."
In contrast with Adande, it should be noted, analysts such as Malcolm Gladwell come down firmly on the side of the players.
NoLandGrab: It's a bit hard for we other 99% to sympathize with either side in this sad battle of greed vs. avarice.
Related coverage...
Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn, NBA Cancels First Two Weeks of Season
Posted by eric at 11:15 AM
October 10, 2011
NBA Start Canceled as Talks Yield No Deal
The Wall Street Journal
by Kevin Clark
NBA Commissioner David Stern canceled the first two weeks of the season after two straight days of last-ditch negotiating failed to resolve the labor dispute.
Mr. Stern said both sides were "very far apart on virtually all issues. ... We just have a gulf that separates us."
The league says it stands to lose hundreds of millions of dollars.
The sticking point was how players and owners will split the league's $4 billion in revenue. The National Basketball Association says it's losing $300 million a year, and that 22 of its 30 teams are losing money.
NoLandGrab: They would have us believe that 22 of 30 NBA teams are losing money, but 30 out of 30 NBA arenas are goldmines for the taxpayers who paid to build them.
This might not be the beginning of the end, but one of these days the pro sports bubble is going to burst, and it ain't going to be pretty.
Posted by eric at 10:33 PM
Putting the Nyet in the New Jersey Nets! Deron Williams . . . Turkey?
Noticing New York
Michael D.D. White relates a National Public Radio story about the NBA's labor strife, which featured a description of erstwhile Nets' star Deron Williams's not-so-happy debut for a Turkish squad, and concludes thusly:
I guess I can feel for some poor lonely bloke getting “booed mercilessly” when he is away on foreign soil. Nevertheless, I am not a fan of professional sports in general* and am myself booing mercilessly the construction for the Nets of the Ratner/Prokhorov (“Barclays”) arena, all the wretched connivances behind it and all the public detriment it will bring. If an NBA player’s strike lasts long enough or can otherwise effect a toppling of Messrs. Ratner and Prokhorov’s publicly financed arena bonds I'll be thrilled. When it comes to booing or cheering locales, brownstone Brooklyn is where I don't want to see the Nets' players deployed.
(* See: Friday, September 24, 2010, Sports Culture Capper: Yankees, Professional Sports and Criminals Wearing Yankee Hats.)
Posted by eric at 10:22 PM
Yessss! Hundreds compete to be Nets announcer
The Brooklyn Paper
by Eli Rosenberg
Ladies and gentlemen, your soon-to-be Brooklyn Nets new announcer is … still undecided.
More than 300 wannabe Bob Sheppards auditioned last Friday to be the new voice of the Barclays Center-bound team — but after hours of tryouts, Nets officials had succeeded in winnowing the field down to 15.
Posted by eric at 11:33 AM
October 7, 2011
How Brooklyn Nets can reach hipsters
ESPN.com
by Kurt Snibbe
Music mogul Jay-Z, a part-owner of the NBA's New Jersey Nets, recently announced that the team will officially become the Brooklyn Nets when it moves to that borough of New York for the 2012-13 season.
In order to appeal to Brooklyn's largest demographic -- its thriving hipster community -- the team will need to develop a marketing campaign targeted to the borough's too-cool-for-everything citizens.
Page 2 offers up a few suggestions ...
Related coverage...
The L Magazine, How Will the Brooklyn Nets Net Brooklyn Hipsters?
All ESPN's suggestions take the form of phone pole tear-away flyers, and though most are unfunny—like jokes about beards and obscure musical tastes—a couple hit the mark...
Posted by eric at 12:14 PM
October 6, 2011
Stoute's Plan to Market the Nets? Kissing Up to Brooklyn
Translation CEO on Borough Pride, City Rivalry and Bruce Ratner as a Modern-Day Robert Moses
Advertising Age
by Kerem Ozkan
Savor this one — it's surely the last time that Brooklyn Nets' adman Steve Stoute will be allowed to speak to the press.
Nets officials have been busy hyping Brooklyn as an iconic globally-recognized brand. Translation Founder-CEO Steve Stoute, whose agency is handling marketing for the team, said the New York City borough is marketing gold. "The power of the Brooklyn brand is so resounding. It means so many things: hard work, gentrification and diversity, music, culture." And while there are still critics upset over the use of eminent domain to make way for the Barclays Center where the team will play, Mr. Stoute said Brooklyn residents should "be ecstatic" about the move.
Honestly, it isn't easy to contain ourselves.
Mr. Stoute talked to Ad Age about the move, the branding and, sure to rile up critics of how the stadium came about, this "gift" from developer Bruce Ratner.
Oh, this ought to be good.
Ad Age: Another factor in all this is that the Atlantic Yards project has been steeped in controversy. What will you say to win the neighborhood over?
Mr. Stoute: I think that there's always going to be people who resist change. It's a human reality. I look at what they had to go through and say it wasn't easy, but it made sense. It was there to improve, to uplift, to contemporize, to bring back sports to the borough. It's the Barclays Center of Brooklyn. It's of the people. This is Bruce Ratner's gift to them. He is our generation's Robert Moses.
NoLandGrab: Robert Moses? You mean the guy who destroyed neighborhoods by paving them through with highways, displaced thousands and thousands of people, made us slaves to the automobile, ran the Dodgers out of town, and precipitated decades of urban decay? That Robert Moses? Did someone shoot this guy up with truth serum? As far as we can tell, that's the first time anyone selling the public on Atlantic Yards has ever told it like it is. We can almost forgive him all that of-the-people, Bruce's-gift nonsense.
Related coverage...
Atlantic Yards Report, Ratner hires advertising agency. Agency CEO calls him "our generation's Robert Moses."
Norman Oder posted a comment to Ad Age (which, unlike the Brooklyn Paper, hasn't barred him from doing so):
Mr. Stoute may be an able adman, but "Our generation's Robert Moses"? Wow.
Moses is steeped in controversy, but what he built--roads, parks, pools--aimed at the public interest. Bruce Ratner's job is to build projects and make a profit.
"Bruce Ratner's gift to them"? Wow, again. Maybe that would be closer to fact had Ratner paid his own way, but if you add the public subsidies and tax breaks, the arena is a loss to NYC taxpayers, according to the NYC Independent Budget Office.
By the way, it's "eminent domain," not "imminent domain." Thanks to New York State's very flexible definitions of "blight," Ratner was able to get the state to declare a gentrifying zone blighted as a precursor to eminent domain. His cousin Chuck Ratner, then-CEO of parent Forest City Enterprises, called it a "great piece of real estate."
NLG: The article initially referred to the use of "imminent" domain, but was corrected after Mr. Oder pointed out the error. Of course, when Bruce Ratner and the ESDC are involved, "imminent" domain might be more accurate.
Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn, Bruce Ratner Is "Our Generation's Robert Moses," Minus the Good Stuff
If Mr. Stoute and the Nets think it is a good idea to compare Bruce Ratner to the most notorious power abuser in American urban history, we can't disagree. Although, say what you will about Moses, he did oversee public works, rather than purely self-aggrandizing, for-profit real estate deals.
As for Ratner's munificent "gift" to the people of Brooklyn aching in their stomachs for the return of the Dodgers—when Ratner returns our homes, businesses, streets, tax dollars, zoning laws, democratic processes, and our Constitution we'll be sure to send him a big thank you note.
Posted by eric at 10:00 PM
October 5, 2011
NBA negotiations stall, and a partial season cancellation looms; sportswriters slam owners who gain many advantages beyond the team
Atlantic Yards Report
Why was Jay-Z, owner of a minuscule slice of the Nets, front-and-center at the September 26 promotional event announcing the unsurprising news that the team would be the Brooklyn Nets and he'd open the arena with some concerts.
Why is he the face of a marketing campaign?
Well, not only is he a celebrity, labor negotiations prevent the teams from using any of their players. And now it looks like at least some of the season will be lost.
Posted by eric at 11:59 AM
October 4, 2011
NBA Lockout Allows Owners To Cheat Fans, Embrace Greed
The NBA lockout will reach a head on Tuesday, all because the league's owners can't get enough money and refuse to prioritize anything over the quest for wealth.
SBNation.com
by Tom Ziller
In the NBA, fans aren't just customers. We are investors. We bankroll the whole operation. Of the $2 billion spent on building and renovating NBA arenas since 2000, $1.75 billion of it has been public money. Without a public willing to play Stern's extortionist games -- ask Seattle what happens if you refuse to build a gym on the league's terms -- the NBA would be hosting its biggest games in rinky-dink arenas, or worse, on college campuses. Instead, the public plays along and bites on the threats, Stern's NBA rakes in $4 billion a year and owners have the luxury of demanding a bigger slice.
...You wonder how a player like Antoine Walker can go broke after making $108 million in the NBA? Ask how [Phoenix Suns owner Robert] Sarver can do the same thing on a much grander (if less stylish) scale. Ask how the mighty Maloof brothers can crush their family's empire and take a whole city's sports identity down with it. Ask how Bruce Ratner can burn through stacks of money like firewood without even one eye on the product on the court. But the biggest difference is that when Antoine Walker burns his loot, the guy has to shimmy down to Puerto Rico and to the D-League to making a living. He has get back on his feet on hustle. Sarver? He gets a bailout. The Maloofs? They pawn off one of their dad's businesses. Ratner? He remembers that the Nets he lost so much money on were simply Vaseline for a real estate project in Brooklyn that will make his company billions more than an NBA team could ever be worth.
Posted by eric at 11:09 AM
October 3, 2011
Occupy the NBA!
The Nation
by Dave Zirin
“The purpose of Occupy Wall Street is to reclaim the country from corporate interests. The protesters feel as though their political system has been hijacked by Wall Street's corporations, and as a result their elected officials now serve the interests of the wealthy upper-1 percenters instead of what they call the ‘99 percent.’”- Allison Kilkenny, Citizen Radio
After decades of corporate greed run amok, a viral clarion call has sounded to strike back and “occupy everywhere”. What started as several dozen people saying they would "occupy Wall Street" has become a national movement. Now we have thousands of people who are part of Occupy Boston, Occupy DC, Occupy Los Angeles, Occupy Las Vegas, even Occupy Nebraska. Now we have labor organizations like the Transit Workers Union and 1199 joining the charge. Now it’s high time to take this movement and bring it to the National Basketball Association. We need to “Occupy the NBA.”
Why not? Do you really want to talk about corporate greed piledriving the interests of “the other 99%”? Look no further than the NBA. The League’s billionaire owners have locked their doors and threatened to cancel the 2011-2012 season following the most lucrative year in league history. They haven’t only locked out the players union, but thousands of low-wage workers – the people cleaning the arenas, parking the cars, and selling the overpriced flat, foamy swill the League calls beer. They've also locked out secretaries and scouts, managers and mascots. Somewhere in Phoenix there's a guy in a gorilla suit with a sign that reads, "Will dunk for food."
It’s Wall Street’s version of the high pick-and-roll, their go-to play: magically turning our tax dollars into their profits. Look at the billions that have gone to NBA arenas while public workers are laid off and the infrastructure of our cities rot. As economist David Berri has noted, $2 billion has gone into building eight new facilities. Of that amount, 84%, $1.75 billion, has come out of our pockets. That number also doesn’t include the $2 billion in tax dollars being funneled into the Atlantic Yards Project for the soon-to-be Brooklyn Nets. To David Stern claim that 23 of 30 owners are "losing money" on the NBA, while leaving public subsidies out of his math, only demonstrates his ugly contempt for us 99 percenters.
...As Henry Abbot wrote on ESPN’s True Hoop blog before being methodically tortured in an undisclosed Bristol, Connecticut safe-house, “So long as taxpayers pay for the stadiums, and players do the work, why, again, do we cut owners in on the deal?”
Posted by eric at 11:51 AM
October 2, 2011
Jay-Z's offhand comment: "thinking about" moving to Brooklyn but "prices are really high"
Atlantic Yards Report
At a charity auction for his foundation, Jay-Z was briefly interviewed by E Online, which turned it into a 9/20/11 headline, Jay-Z Talks Baby, Moving to Brooklyn, Obama:
Speaking of money, Jay said he may move to Brooklyn like his basketball team, the New Jersey Nets...if he can afford it!
"I have been thinking about it, but the prices over there are really high," he laughed. "It's not like before!"
The Daily News turned that secondhand comment into a headline, Jay-Z: I'm 'thinking about' moving to Brooklyn but 'prices are really high'.
It's hard to believe that wasn't more than an offhand comment, but it's still tone deaf. As one reader commented on E Online:
No way Brooklyn is more expensive than Tribeca!
(Jay-Z has a place in TriBeCa and a house in Scarsdale.)
Or, as a New York Daily News reader commented:
Is he serious! He can afford to buy Brooklyn! Sheesh. People with money cry, while they have a loaf of bread under arm.
Or another:
I am certain Jay-Z was being facetious. With the amount of cash he and his wife have, they could live anywhere. Does anyone actually believe that Brooklyn is more expensive than Manhattan? That's a joke!
Also note how Jay-Z's less than 1% interest in the Nets becomes "his basketball team."
Posted by steve at 10:36 PM
September 30, 2011
Comic: Gladwell Goes HAM
HoopSpeak.com
by Anthony Bain
 |
Posted by eric at 12:41 PM
Malcolm Gladwell, in Grantland, gets the Atlantic Yards big picture: "a man buys a basketball team as insurance on a real estate project"
Atlantic Yards Report
Well, New York Daily News sports columnist Mike Lupica was right all along, writing 11/13/05:
If Caring Bruce Ratner is still the owner of the Nets in five years, I'll eat my hat.
...He doesn't want the team.
He never really did.
He wants the land.
After the March 2010 groundbreaking, Lupica commented, "It was a hustle in broad daylight by Caring Bruce Ratner from the start."
Enter Gladwell
That same sentiment comes from New Yorker writer and Grantland contributing editor Malcolm Gladwell, in a 9/26/11 essay in the latter headlined The Nets and NBA Economics: David Stern would have you believe the Brooklyn-bound franchise embodies everything wrong with the league's finances. It's not true.
His conclusion:
The rich have gone from being grateful for what they have to pushing for everything they can get. They have mastered the arts of whining and predation, without regard to logic or shame. In the end, this is the lesson of the NBA lockout. A man buys a basketball team as insurance on a real estate project, flips the franchise to a Russian billionaire when he wins the deal, and then — as both parties happily count their winnings — what lesson are we asked to draw? The players are greedy.
Related coverage...
Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn, It's A Tipping Point: Malcolm Gladwell Nails Bruce Ratner on His Trojan Horse Nets
Malcolm Gladwell is about eight years late to the party nonetheless he has penned a must-read column revealing the bogusness of Bruce Ratner the Basketball Man, and how his toying with the Nets exemplifies the absurd notion that NBA owners are suffering financially.
The main point, which has been one of our mantras since DDDB's inception, is that Atlantic Yards has never been about basketball.
Rainman Suite, Even Malcolm Gladwell Thinks Bruce Ratner Is A Scumbag
Malcolm Gladwell wrote a piece on Grantland about the scam Bruce Ratner pulled on New York to get his massive development built in Brooklyn under the guise of moving the Nets and helping the community. It’s been under-the-radar for a long time but I think this is the most informative article I’ve read about the subject.
NoLandGrab: Under-the-what?! You must have missed our 18,000 or so posts on the subject.
Posted by eric at 12:27 PM
September 28, 2011
Two views of the Barclays Center hypemasters: smiling, and grimacing
Atlantic Yards Report
Before the big announcement Monday, Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz, on his Facebook page, posted Paul Martinka's photo of himself (center), Atlantic Yards developer Bruce Ratner (left), and superstar Jay-Z.
The same day, Tracy Collins captured Jay-Z and Nets/Barclays Center CEO Brett Yormark looking a little tense.
Related coverage...
Gothamist, The Time Jay-Z Posed With Marty Markowitz And Bruce Ratner
The newly rechristened Brooklyn Nets are really serious about using Jay-Z as the face of their brand while the Barclays Center continues to rise over the Atlantic Yards. And you know what that means? Stupendously fantastic photo ops, like the one above. Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz (or whoever runs his Facebook page) captioned this "'Looking up' to Jay-Z (along with Bruce Ratner) outside Barclays Center" but we suspect that you can do better. Have at it in the comments!
Posted by steve at 11:26 AM
From New York magazine: more skepticism toward the Barclays/Nets' claim that they funded a playground renovation
Atlantic Yards Report
From this week's New York magazine (dated Oct. 3), Intelligencer section, another piece of skepticism towards the Barclays/Nets' claim that they had funded a playground in Canarsie. I had the news on 9/20/11, but didn't get a credit.
Posted by steve at 11:05 AM
Is Keeping the Name ‘Nets’ a Net Loss for Jay-Z and Brooklyn?
The New York Observer
“I asked for two things out of my partners in ownership is that we rename the New Jersey Nets the Brooklyn Nets, and the second one is that I open it with a concert,” Shawn Carter said at a press conference in front of the under-construction Barclays Center yesterday, which made official the team’s name.
Really Jay? One of the best lyricists in hip-hop history, and the best you could come up with was the Brooklyn Nets?
NoLandGrab: Really New York Observer? With all the issues around Atlantic Yards, the best you could come up with is a discussion of the name "Nets"?
Posted by steve at 11:02 AM
September 27, 2011
How the New Jersey Nets are like Van Gogh’s “Starry Night”
Billy Paultz Reconsidered
by Mike Gross
Terrific piece here from Malcolm Gladwell on the NBA lockout, and especially the colorful recent business history of the New Jersey Nets.
Gladwell’s overarching point here, and in a previous piece on Grantland, is one I’ve made many times. Pro sports teams are not businesses. They are luxury goods like works of art, yachts, Ferraris or Italian Villas.
...Consider the Nets’ situation, in which the previous owner, Bruce Ratner, wanted the team as part of a mega-real estate arena project in Brooklyn. A competing offer to buy the property from the city, from a developer named Gary Barnett, would have used less land, been far less intrusive to the existing neighborhood, and would have resulted in just apartment buildings. No arena. No Nets.
Oh: And Barnett’s offer was triple Ratner’s.
Gladwell: “Barnett lost. He never had a chance. He wanted to build apartments. Ratner was restoring the sporting glory lost when the Dodgers fled for Los Angeles.”
Related coverage...
Nets Are Scorching, Gladwell on the Nets and NBA Economics
That said, you don’t need financial expertise to detect BS from billionaires, and Ratner laid it on thick today about youth — citing the prospect of a child seeing their first circus at the Barclays Center as his driving inspiration. Come on, Bruce. If this didn’t give you the opportunity to make boatloads of money, you wouldn’t do it. I’m sure that Barclays will do a lot for kids, but it’s not about them.
The sad truth, though, is that Ratner can always pretend otherwise. We can paint him as a greedy, dirty billionaire as much as we want (fair or not), and he’ll remain a billionaire. That’s the game. I’d just rather watch a different one.
NoLandGrab: It's small consolation, but Bruce Ratner, while rich, is by all reports worth considerably less than a billion dollars.
Posted by eric at 12:57 PM
The Brooklyn Nets and The Barf: No News Is...No News
Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn
Not everyone buys the hype, however.
We'll happily let others cover today's non-news news event. That would be the Atlantic Interminable Mall press get-together with "Cultural Icon Shawn 'Jay-Z' Carter," eminent domain abuse icon Bruce Ratner, insomnia icon Brett Yormark and hearty handshake and obsolescence icon Marty Markowitz, where the hip hop star announced that after putting their heads together they've decided that the New Jersey Nets would become the...Brooklyn Nets, and that he'd do a few shows at the arena when it opens. (How is it news that the .3% owner of the team will perform in the team's new home? It would be news if he didn't.)
...We're also betting that there won't ever be a big press event to announce the fulfillment of 10,000 jobs or 2,250 "affordable" housing units.
Related coverage...
'An I Heard 'Em Say, Sure Jay-Z’s Rich, But He’s Still a Pawn for Really, Really Rich Dudes
And it's not just the usual suspects who aren't buying it.
First, while many are celebrating the arrival of the Nets, they forget that an entire community was essentially evicted to make way for the stadium and Atlantic Yards complex using some very sketchy eminent domain law. Simply put, a lot of every rich and powerful people, lead by real estate developer Bruce Ranter, got together, realized they could make a shit ton of money and tossed out everyone already living there to make room.
Gladwell’s piece is largely about the economics behind the NBA lockout – it’s ridiculous for teams like the Nets to claim they’re losing money and blame players when they’re involved in multi-billion dollar real estate deals – but what really caught my eye was this brief mention of Hova. Here’s Gladwell on Bruce Ratner’s plan to use the Nets, and Jay-Z, to procure some rack on racks on racks:
“Ratner knew this would not be easy. The 14 acres he wanted to raze was a perfectly functional neighborhood, inhabited by taxpaying businesses and homeowners. He needed a political halo, and Ratner’s genius was in understanding how beautifully the Nets could serve that purpose. The minute basketball was involved, Brooklyn’s favorite son — Jay-Z — signed up as a part-owner and full-time booster.”
What really struck me about that paragraph is that while the hip-hop sphere tends to treat Jay-Z like the most powerful man on Earth, it’s a reminder that he’s really just the most powerful man in hip-hop, which really isn’t that powerful. Although a completely willing, and extraordinarily well-payed pawn, Jay’s essentially being used as a pawn here by real estate moguls, Russian billionaires and New York politicians with more money and power than Jay could ever dream of.
Posted by eric at 12:24 PM
More Non-News About the Brooklyn (Same-Old) Nets and Jay-Z
The Brooklyn Paper, Jay-Z confirms that he’ll christen the Barclays Center
Park Slope Patch, Jay-Z To Kick Off Barclays Center Opening In 2012
The Wall Street Journal, Jay-Z Wants You to Meet the Brooklyn Nets
NY1, Rapper Jay-Z Announces Barclays Concerts
NY Post, Jay-Z says team to be renamed Brooklyn Nets
And we saved the best for last. OMG!
NY Post, Jay-Z will design jersey for new-look Brooklyn Nets
He’s not only part-owner of the soon-to-be Brooklyn Nets — he’s helping design their uniforms, too.
Posted by eric at 11:47 AM
September 24, 2011
Urban Parent Expo today: lead sponsor is Barclays/Nets
Atlantic Yards Report
The Urban Parent Expo, held today at St. Francis College in Brooklyn Heights, has a Platinum Sponsor: the Barclays Center/Brooklyn Nets.
(Hm, not sure if that team name is official yet.)
 |
The activities include:
- Brooklyn NETS Basketball & Conditioning Activities (Show your basketball skills with conditioning drills and exciting contests!)
- NETS Airbrush Tattoo Artist (Free NETS airbrush tattoos)
- NETS Dancers (Enjoy a performance, learn some moves and get an autograph.)
- Team Hype & Sly the Mascot
NoLandGrab: The Nets Dancers must be there to help build self-esteem in girls.
Posted by eric at 10:20 AM
September 22, 2011
Q&A: ‘Anything Good You Can Find In This Country, You Can Find In Brooklyn’ — Brett Yormark
The Big Lead
by Barry Janoff
He's baaaaaack! Here are some "highlights" from Part Two of The Big Lead's interview with Brett Yormark.
Big Lead Sports: What reaction have you gotten to using the name Brooklyn?
Brett Yormark: We have done a lot of research. We know how important the brand of Brooklyn is. My feeling is that anything good you can find in this country, you can find in Brooklyn. We went out and tested the pickles, the knishes, the cheesecake, and the best of the best will be here. The main thing about Brooklyn from a marketing point of view is the diversification. It’s a marketer’s dream to be able to target so many ethnic groups that help to make the borough what it is. Our responsibility, our job is to make sure that everyone is welcomed at the Barclays Center. And that we communicate with each of them in a relevant way.
Tested the pickles? The Nets are the Good Housekeeping Research Institute of the NBA.
BLS: You have college hockey coming to Barclays Center, so it can be converted into a hockey arena. Any interest in having the New York Islanders move in?
BY: Let me just say that we can convert it to a hockey venue and have a great destination for professional hockey. And although it is not legalized in New York State, we can handle MMA when and if it is legalized.
Mixed Martial Arts is a sophisticated sport that draws a nice crowd. Why not?
BLS: Back at the Izod Center, you were able to take unused or under-utilized spaces and turn them into proactive real estate that brought in revenue. But you’ve built Barclays Center from scratch. Will you miss uncovering long-hidden areas that you can turn into assets?
BY: It’s funny you should ask that. Every month, I sit down with my GM and I ask him to walk me though the building [on the blueprints]. Every time I look at it on paper, I see a different space that I hadn’t seen. I’m auditing the building for inventory and opportunities all the time. Our building is about 670,000 square feet, and I think it’s fair to say that we will effectively use every square inch for something.
Wait, didn't he say yesterday that sponsors "don’t want clutter?"
Related coverage...
Atlantic Yards Report, Brett Yormark interview: no over-commercialization of the arena (?!), project on schedule, Brooklyn brand will be hyped, "professional hockey" viable
The $400 million fantasy
It's not the most incisive interview. The first installment included the discredited claim that the Barclays naming rights agreement was worth $400 million, not $200 million, and, despite my comment appended to that report, the claim continued to appear in the second installment.
Posted by eric at 11:32 AM
September 21, 2011
Q&A: For Brett Yormark, CEO Of The Nets And Barclays Center, No Sleep ‘Till Brooklyn
The Big Lead
by Barry Janoff
And now, for the entertainment portion of today's blogging — Brett Yormark rarely fails to disappoint.
In the first of a two-part interview, Brett Yormark, CEO of Nets Basketball and president and CEO of Brooklyn Sports and Entertainment, spoke with Big Lead Sports about basketball, Brooklyn and the Barclays Center.
Here are some highlights.
Big Lead Sports: What are the major challenges between now and September 2012?
Brett Yormark: My toughest challenge is that there won’t be an opportunity to sleep. I don’t sleep that much to begin with, but now there will be even less time. I say that kiddingly. But, obviously, there is so much to do.
BLS: In addition to Barclays, which has a 20-year, $400 million naming rights deal, you have 12 founding and top-tier partners. Do you envision room for more corporate partners?
BY: We have an incredible base of partners. But we are still aggressively marketing and selling. There are some key categories that we are finishing off: insurance, auto, airline, to be specific. We should be able to close those out and make announcements within the next 30-40 days. That said, our philosophy in Brooklyn when it comes to the commercialization of the building is that less is more. So we are not going to overdo it.
[Editor's Note: Yormark failed to correct the 100% inflation of the naming-rights fees.]
BLS: Have there been discussions with the NBA about hosting an All-Star Game?
BY: Let me put it this way: We are in the big event business, and the All-Star Game certainly would be classified as a big event. Our goal is to be aggressive to host every big event that we can.
In addition to big events, the Nets also host Nets games.
This is just Part One of a two-part interview. Stay tuned!
Posted by eric at 11:33 AM
September 18, 2011
Nets expect most but not all contracted revenues in hand by arena opening
Atlantic Yards Report
I wrote 9/8/11 that, according to the latest Forest City Enterprises press release, "Approximately 56 percent of forecasted contractually obligated revenues for the arena are currently under contract."
That, I pointed out, was up from 51% a year ago, which suggested slow progress.
Mike Ozanian of the Forbes SportsMoney blog tweeted 9/12/11, "Nets say they will not have contracts for all contractually obligated revenue when Brooklyn arena opens 9-12. Say will have 'most sold.'"
NetsDaily yesterday:
All that [progress] said, the Nets still have some challenges at the arena. Only Approximately 56 percent of "forecasted contractually obligated revenues" for the arena are currently under contract. That includes naming rights, sponsorships, suite licenses, Nets minimum rent, and food concession agreements. Only about half the 104 suites are sold. The lockout can't be helping.
Posted by steve at 11:00 PM
August 23, 2011
Revised TV deal for Nets doubles current rate, worth at least $200 million; yet another factor ignored in the cost-benefit analyses
Atlantic Yards Report
From NetsDaily:
Sports Business Journal reports that the Nets and YES have quietly settled their local TV rights dispute with the Nets receiving a big bump-up --about double what the team received this seaons-- and YES retaining the Nets' rights through 2031-32, a ten year extension of their original deal.
The Nets will receive $20 million a year immediately with increases through the end of the deal. Previously, the Nets were receiving about half that figure, putting them near the bottom of NBA local rights deals. The Nets have had the lowest local TV ratings the last two seasons, but the move to Brooklyn should improve them.
In other words, a new arena, in Brooklyn, is worth a lot--if $20 million a year immediately nearly doubles the current take, that's $200 million over ten years, and likely more, given that increases continue.
...Bottom line: gains to the public are speculative (and, to the IBO, losses to the city are likely), while gains to the developer and team are far more certain.
NoLandGrab: No doubt about 95% of that 100% increase can be chalked up to Kim Kardashian.
Posted by eric at 10:55 AM
August 1, 2011
Owner Profiles: Atlantic Division
HoopsWorld
by Jason Fleming
New Jersey Nets – Mikhail Prokhorov
Ownership Group: Prokhorov owns an 80% stake in the Nets. Bruce Ratner, the previous owner, has the majority of the remaining 20%, with the rest owned by Sean "Jay-Z" Carter.
Purchase Price (year): $260 million (2010)
2010 Forbes Valuation: $312 million
2010 Forbes Revenue: $89 million
Education: Bachelor's, State Institute of Moscow
...Notable Team Achievements: The Nets won just 12 games in 2009-10, but doubled that total to 24 in 2010-11.
NoLandGrab: Wow, doubled their win total! Impressive. Unless Prokohrov bought out all the other minority owners brought in by Ratner, there should be numerous other names on the list of ownership stakes.
Posted by eric at 9:54 AM
July 22, 2011
Casinos, gaming and horses, oh my!
Real estate moguls look to win in a new field
The Real Deal
by Michael Stoler
Becoming successful in real estate is not easy. Not only does it take a stomach for risk, it also takes the ability to bounce back from failed projects -- as many are trying to do now.
But once real estate executives achieve a certain level of success, they often seem to branch out to other areas of business.
...Over the last decade, a number of successful real estate leaders have also been investing in their hobbies -- which include big moneymakers like baseball and football. Fred Wilpon, head of real estate investment firm Sterling Equities Associates (and more recently, a Madoff victim), is the principal owner of the New York Mets. In February 2008, Related's Ross famously purchased 50 percent of the Miami Dolphins football team, its venue Dolphin Stadium and the surrounding land from Wayne Huizenga for $550 million. A year later, he completed his purchase of 95 percent of the franchise for $1 billion.
Meanwhile, Bruce Ratner is the minority owner of the New Jersey Nets, after heading up an ownership group that paid $300 million in 2004.
NoLandGrab: Yes, Bruce Ratner was investing in his hobby, alright — his hobby being subsidy- and land-grabbing.
Posted by eric at 9:38 AM
July 21, 2011
The Devils Hired WHO? And the Last New Jersey NBA Schedule
Uncle Mike's Musings
Uncle Mike is not amused.
Also, the NBA schedule has been released -- a rather optimistic gesture, considering that, like the NFL, the league has officially locked its players out.
...The last home game of the regular season – and, most likely, the last game the team will ever play under the name “the New Jersey Nets,” unless they somehow make the Playoffs – will be on Wednesday, April 18, 2012, an 8:00 start, against the Chicago Bulls. Swell, a good team. Way to set up a victory in the team's finale, boys.
Why do I still care? Bruce Ratner can go f**k himself for all I care, and if Mikhail Prokhorov can't see that Newark can be every bit as good a basketball city as Brooklyn, then he can go f**ksky himself with a cold Siberian pitchfork.
Your New Jersey teams, ladies and gentlemen. Oy...
Posted by eric at 11:15 AM
July 12, 2011
Etude de cas: les Nets ont-ils perdu 44 millions de dollars?
Basket USA
by Julien Bordet
The Nets and Bruce Ratner sound much less offensive en Francais, n'est-ce pas?
La bataille de chiffres se poursuit entre joueurs et propriétaires.
Est-ce que la ligue est en aussi mauvaise position que Stern et les propriétaires veulent bien le dire, ou utilisent-ils des artifices comptables pour masquer le fait que tout va très bien pour eux.
Pour tenter de se faire une idée plus précise, Darren Rovell de NBC a récupéré les comptes des Nets à l’époque où Bruce Ratner en était encore le propriétaire. Les comptes étaient alors publics.
Posted by eric at 10:03 AM
July 8, 2011
Nets guard Deron Williams agrees in principal to deal with team in Turkey as NBA lockout continues
NY Daily News
by Stefan Bondy and Mitch Lawrence
Deron Williams may still represent the future of Brooklyn basketball. But if the NBA lockout continues, he'll be better known as the trailblazer in Istanbul.
In a bold move that adds a new wrinkle to labor negotiations and may further complicate a delicate situation with his team, the Nets point guard has agreed to become the first superstar to play overseas and thumb his nose at the lockout.
Williams reached a deal with an ambitious team in the Turkish League, Besiktas, the same squad that last year signed Allen Iverson. The contract allows him to return to the NBA when the lockout ends.
NoLandGrab: They mean if the lockout ends. And he doesn't suffer a career-ending knee injury.
Posted by eric at 12:20 PM
Exclusive: Recent New Jersey Nets Books Reveal Huge Losses
CNBC
by Darren Rovell
News flash! Under Bruce Ratner's stewardship, the woeful New Jersey Nets lost a lot of money.
The biggest battle in the NBA lockout right now might be the public relations battle. Are the losses the owners are claiming real or fictional?
...Not many teams have balance sheets that are publicly available, but there is one team whose balance sheets anyone can view and it happens to be a team that at least claims to have lost a ton of money.
With that in mind, we were provided the financial statements of Nets Sports & Entertainment LLC, that included the finances of New Jersey Nets properties in 2009 and 2010 (through June 30). The team was owned through April of 2010, by Bruce Ratner, chairman and CEO of Forest City Ratner Companies.
If you go through the report, audited by PWC, and you understand how the NBA reported what was in this document to the Players Association, you will understand that it's not out of the realm of possibility that the league's owners were losing north of $300 million for years.
...For the 2008-09 season, the documents reflect that the Nets lost $77,227,184.
NoLandGrab: The news that the Nets lose big money isn't news. Also not news is that NBA owners and players disagree about how losses (or profits) are measured, which is at the core of negotiations over a new NBA collective-bargaining agreement.
Related coverage...
Atlantic Yards Report, CNBC analysis: even if the Nets lost $44 milion, not $77 million, it suggests NBA losses (but what about the new arena?)
CNBC's analysis of Nets Sports and Entertainment Consolidated Financial Statements for the years ending June 30, 2010 and 2009 (embedded below) is billed as an "exclusive," but the exclusive, I believe, is the analysis, not the documents, which were made available to the Securities and Exchange Commission.
According to CNBC Sports Business Reporter Darren Rovell's analysis, even if the team's claimed $77.2 million loss in 2008-09 is overstated, a more realistic $44 million figure could be used to back claims of NBA losses.
...I'd suggest an additional conclusion: the new arena will help the team do much, much better.
Atlantic Yards Report, Nets financials point to 11% loan from Prokhorov, 5% (minimum) development fee to Forest City for arena
The document describes the loan between Brooklyn Arena Holding Company (ArenaHoldCo) and entities controlled by Mikhail Prokhorov (MP Entities) that filled an arena financing gap. The loan was reported back in May 2010, but not, to my knowledge, that it bore a junk-bond level interest rate of 11%:
On May 12, 2010, ArenaHoldCo entered into a loan agreement with an affiliate of the MP Entities in the amount of $75,842,086 (the “Loan”). The Loan bears interest at 11% per annum, compounded monthly and matures on June 12, 2013. Both interest and principal are due at maturity. As of June 30, 2010, accrued interest on the loan of $1,162,947 is recorded as part of the Loan from affiliate and has been capitalized to Land and Arena under construction.
A fee equal to $1,000,000 is due on the date the Loan is paid in full, or a pro-rated portion on the date of any partial repayment of the Loan, which is recorded in Accounts payable — affiliates. In the event the Loan is not paid upon maturity, the Loan converts into an equity position in Brooklyn Arena based on a stipulated formula.So if ArenaHoldCo, which is controlled by Forest City Enterprises, does not pay Prokhorov back, his share in the arena would be converted to equity (as has been reported).
Ratner gets at least 5%
Since July 2007, when the Times reported it, we've known that Forest City Ratner would get a development fee of 5%. This document suggests the fee could be somewhat more:
Developer Agreement
On June 1, 2005, Brooklyn Arena entered into a Development Agreement with an affiliate (the “Developer”), pursuant to which the Developer will plan, develop and oversee construction of the Arena for a fee not to exceed the lesser of $7,000,000 per year or 5% of the total project cost at completion. Through June 30, 2010, $35,000,000 of development fees have been incurred and capitalized to Land and Arena under construction.
...Forest City likely would earn much more, especially if it can cut costs via modular construction and continue to finagle low-cost financing from immigrant investors.
NBC Sports, Books show Nets with $44 million loss in 2008-09 season
Posted by eric at 11:17 AM
July 7, 2011
Yormark Says Nets To Move Team HQ to Brooklyn "Late Next Spring"
NetsDaily
In a tweet late Wednesday, Brett Yormark said Nets executive offices will move to Brooklyn "late next spring" and that he had "Just finished looking at office space in brooklyn for the nets". The team will likely wait until after the season --and playoffs-- before relocating.
For the Nets, that means after the regular season, if by some long shot there is an NBA season.
A spokesman said Yormark visited a site in Brooklyn Heights, adding he's looking at several but wouldn't speak to specifics. Bruce Ratner's buildings are likely high on Yormark's list.
NoLandGrab: If by "likely high" they mean "the only ones," then yes, that would be true, given Bruce Ratner's need to try to fill his surplus of office space.
Posted by eric at 10:39 AM
July 1, 2011
NBA lockout could jeopardize next season, affect composition of the Nets
Atlantic Yards Report
Norman Oder rounds up coverage of the NBA lockout. Which set of multi-millionaires will blink first?
While a strike jeopardizing construction of the Atlantic Yards arena has been averted, the next NBA basketball season--or, perhaps, just part of the off-season--could be in jeopardy, as collective bargaining talks broke down.
Posted by eric at 7:17 PM
Exclusive: How (And Why) An NBA Team Makes A $7 Million Profit Look Like A $28 Million Loss
Deadspin
by Tommy Craggs
Deadspin takes a fascinating look at how pro sports franchises "lose" money while actually making money. And what team do they use for their example of flim-flamming? Bet you'll never guess.
We've excerpted part of the article, but the whole thing is well worth a read.
We've obtained audited financial data for the New Jersey Nets covering the three fiscal years from June 2003 to June 2006. Though the numbers end five years ago, you can still see the roots of the argument that will have NBA owners, come midnight, again locking out their players. You can also see how a team makes money and how it pretends not to be making any money at all.
It's not hard to see the benefits. Owners who've set themselves up as a partnership or a Subchapter S corporation can pass their "losses" onto their personal income tax forms. Let's assume that's what the Nets owners did, and let's put them in the 33 percent tax bracket. (The audit here covers the last year that Lewis Katz and Ray Chambers owned the team, the fiscal year ending in June 2004. In August 2004, six years after buying the Nets, they sold the franchise for $300 million to real estate developer Bruce Ratner. In 2009, Ratner sold an 80 percent share to a Rocky and Bullwinkle character named Mikhail Prokhorov for $293 million in equity.) That $27.6 million loss would mean tax savings of $9.1 million ($27.6 x .33).
If we're trying to arrive at some idea of how much money the Nets really made in 2004, we'll need to do a little crude math. Knock out the $25.1 million RDA — a paper loss, remember — and add the $9.1 million in tax savings. Suddenly, that $27.6 million loss becomes a $6.6 million profit.
...Bruce Ratner's ownership group took over in fall 2004, and the Nets became a small piece of Forest City's $12 billion portfolio. This includes the Atlantic Yards land grab in Brooklyn, the future home of the Nets and the best explanation for why a buccaneering real estate developer like Ratner might buy a middling franchise like the Nets in the first place. As Neil deMause, co-author of Field of Schemes, explains: "If Ratner had gone to Brooklyn politicians and said, 'Hey, I want to build offices and residential buildings on public land,' they'd have hung up on him. But when he says, 'I'm going to bring professional sports back to Brooklyn,' suddenly here's [Brooklyn Borough President] Marty Markowitz holding press conferences and sobbing about the Dodgers. [Buying the Nets] helped him get a foot in the door with Brooklyn politicians."
Related coverage...
The Star-Ledger, Report says Nets made money in 2004, despite what the team's books said
According to the story, the Nets claimed to lose $27.6 million in 2003-04, when the team actually made a profit of nearly $7 million.
The team took advantage of a 1959 law that allowed them to reduce its tax obligation by $25 million under something called the roster depreciation allowance (RDA) which says that players, once signed to contracts, begin to depreciate almost immediately, a little bit like new cars, whose value dips the minute they are driven off the sales lot. According to the story, once you eliminate the $25 million RDA, and add the $9.1 million in tax savings the RDA got them, the team earned about $6.6 million in profit.
ESPN.com, Is the NBA really losing money?
The [NBA] contends that 22 of the 30 teams are losing money, to the tune of about $370 million per season collectively. The individual team owners are seeking a complete overhaul of the league's financial model, and have submitted proposals to the players that feature a $45 million hard cap and rollbacks to existing salaries (reductions in existing contracts of 15 percent to 25 percent, based on the players' starting salary) -- a proposal the players association termed "a non-starter." They have also discussed an alternative in which salaries are pegged near their present levels, so the players' share of revenues declines over time as revenues increase over the next 10 years.
That sounds exactly like Bruce Ratner "negotiating" with construction unions.
"There has been ongoing debate and disagreement regarding the numbers, and we do not agree that the stated loss figures reflect an accurate portrayal of the financial health of the league," Hunter said in a statement released during the All-Star break.
The players association contends that a significant portion of the losses is merely an accounting artifact, and doesn't reflect an actual operating loss.
"There might not be any losses at all. It depends on what accounting procedure is used," Hunter said. "If you decide you don't count interest and depreciation, you already lop off 250 [million] of the 370 million dollars."
Atlantic Yards Report, Deadspin: Nets exemplify how basketball team owners use paper losses to mask profits (also see ESPN analysis of sale price)
Larry Coon of ESPN.com adds some analysis:
Brooklyn Basketball (the Nets' parent company) paid $361 million for the team. In order for the balance sheet to balance, it had to show assets in that amount. Some of these are real, physical assets; accounts receivable; and the like. Other parts are "intangible" assets, which represent the amount the buyer paid above the value of the tangible assets. These assets (but not the franchise itself) are amortized over their "useful lives," with a portion of their value (a total of $200 million for the Nets) counted as an operating expense each year. For the Nets this expense added up to $41.5 million in 2005 and $40.2 million in 2006.
In other words, $41.5 million of the Nets' $49 million operating loss in 2005, and $40.2 million of its $57.4 million in 2006, is there simply to make the books balance. It is part of the purchase price of the team, being expensed each year. This doesn't mean they cooked their books, or that they tried to pull a fast one on the players. It is part of the generally accepted accounting practice to transfer expenses from the acquisition to the profit and loss over a certain time period. However, it's an argument that doesn't hold water in a discussion with Hunter and the players association, who would claim that the Nets didn't really "lose" a combined $106.4 million in those two years, but rather that they lost $7.5 million and $17.2 million, respectively.
...Unless the players can share in the profit when a team is sold, they don't want to be burdened with the costs associated with buying the team in the first place. And if they don't have a say in the team's management decisions, they don't want to pay the cost when those decisions go awry.
Posted by eric at 6:48 PM
June 22, 2011
The Nets Take Their Pitch to Brooklyn
The Wall Street Journal
by Amara Grautski
Guess what, Brooklynites! That ennui you've been feeling is your inability, after 50-odd years, to get over the Dodgers.
Given that only 8% of the Nets' 2010-11 season-ticket holders hail from Brooklyn, the team has work to do before it begins play next year at its new home, the under-construction Barclays Center. Not surprisingly, the Nets are hard at work making themselves visible. Let the handshaking and baby-kissing begin.
The team has put up seven billboards and has sent its envoys out to make a spate of public appearances. In March, there was a clinic hosted by center Brook Lopez at Bushwick High School. On June 9, Johnson read the book "Salt in His Shoes" to a group of children at the central branch of the Brooklyn Public Library.
And on Friday, joined by Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz, former Nets center Darryl Dawkins participated in, perhaps, the acme of the team's public relations attack: a tree-donating ceremony in Fort Greene Park.
...Although Brooklyn residents and business owners account for 40% of the 2012-13 Nets premium season tickets sold thus far, there's no guarantee the efforts of the Barclays-Nets Community Alliance (which invests $1 million per year in local non-profits) and other displays of affection will grow a fan base.
The borough has yet to recover from the relocation of its beloved Dodgers and the demolition of Ebbets Field—Brooklyn Dodgers T-shirts and hats are still worn at Cyclones games.
NoLandGrab: And all those Che Guevara t-shirts are worn by people who still haven't recovered from the Cuban Revolution.
Related coverage...
Atlantic Yards Report, Cliche alert: Wall Street Journal says Brooklyn "has yet to recover" from loss of Dodgers and Ebbets Field
The wearing of historical shirts and hats is evidence more of homage than of wound. But boosters of the team's move, including Nets Sports and Entertainment CEO Brett Yormark, like to make the connection.
To repeat... As I wrote in March 2009, Michael D’Antonio's revisionist biography of Brooklyn Dodgers owner Walter O’Malley, Forever Blue: The True Story of Walter O'Malley, Baseball's Most Controversial Owner, and the Dodgers of Brooklyn and Los Angeles, put Dodgers nostalgia in perspective, blaming it on Roger Kahn’s book The Boys of Summer.
The Dodgers left in 1957.
Posted by eric at 1:29 PM
June 21, 2011
Nets start planting roots in Brooklyn (we mean that literally)
The Brooklyn Paper
by Natalie O'Neill
Really? This is a story?
The Brooklyn-bound basketball continues to pitch itself as a good neighbor, this time by promising to donate hundreds of trees to the borough.
In September, the team will plant 300 oaks and maples in open spaces around the borough — like in Fort Greene Park — as part of its “Trees for Threes” effort, which matches one tree with every three-point shot made during the team’s 24-58 season.
NoLandGrab: They'll need to plant about three million trees to offset all the carbon emissions that their traffic-choking arena will generate.
Related coverage...
Atlantic Yards Report, The Brooklyn Paper covers an Atlantic Yards story (it's about tree-planting)
The Brooklyn Paper comes a little late to the media event June 17 that was the tree-planting sponsored by the Nets and the Barclays Center, but there's a story today headlined Nets start planting roots in Brooklyn (we mean that literally).
Last week, as I pointed out, the newspaper neglected to cover three Atlantic Yards-related meetings, though today's story does mention the lingering anger (which the newspaper first wrote about last month) over planned traffic changes.
Posted by eric at 9:57 AM
June 16, 2011
Lebron James Victim of Racial Double Standard
BeyondChron
by Randy Shaw
While team owners betray loyal fans by relocating franchises to maximize profits, and players routinely sell their services to the highest bidder, the nation’s sports fans have instead concluded that Lebron James’ move from Cleveland to Miami makes him the worst person in the world. The unrelenting attacks on James over the past year reached a crescendo during the NBA finals, with criticism of almost everything about him reaching unprecedented levels. No white sports star has ever been subjected to such abuse.
That seems a little much. James has been criticized primarily for basically disappearing in the fourth quarters of games (one joke making the rounds goes "I pulled a LeBron and left work 12 minutes early") and for his classless parodying of Dirk Nowitzki's illness.
This, however, we can agree with:
How about the New Jersey Nets, whose billionaire Russian owner has not been criticized for moving a team out of struggling Newark as part of a massive gentrification scheme centered in the Atlantic Yards section of Brooklyn. This too is all about greed, but the predominant white sports community could not care less about primarily African-American Newark losing its only pro sports franchise (and the jobs it brings).
Posted by eric at 12:10 PM
June 14, 2011
Will Barclays get naming rights to Brooklyn schoolyards too?
Atlantic Yards Report
Apparently the Barclays Nets Community Alliance, which has contributed funds to the nonprofit Out2Play to rehab school playgrounds, also gets signage, as Patch reports, following up news reported earlier by Pardon Me for Asking (which has photos too).
It's a local version of the naming rights Barclays bought for the Atlantic Yards arena (after the state gave naming rights away) and Forest City Ratner bought for Barclays at the Atlantic Avenue/Pacific Street transit hub.
P.S. 58 in Carroll Gardens has a nice new playground (right; click to enlarge). Some parents are dismayed at the signs advertising Barclays, and some aren't.
Public funds, private layer
I'd point out that, when Out2Play seeks individual donations, they don't advertise the possibility of getting your name on a school playground. That must be reserved for bigger donors.
Out2Play explains:
Every dollar we raise from the private sector often translates into nine dollars in public funding. Each of our playspaces costs an average of $250,000.
How much did Barclays give to P.S. 58? I haven't checked, but would note that the initial $150,000 grant was supposed to help refurbish eight playgrounds.
That's less than $20,000 a playground--pretty good if you get a sign out of it too.
Related coverage...
Pardon Me For Asking, What's The Deal With Barclays Signs On PS 58 Schoolyard Fence?
...whatever monies Barclays coughed up shouldn't give the bank the right to turn a schoolyard into a place for advertisement. What's next? McDonald signs? It's kind of a slippery slope.
Posted by eric at 10:07 AM
June 10, 2011
With new Brooklyn Nets website, promoters invoke expected Brooklyn icons: Dodgers, Brooklyn Bridge, Peter Luger
Atlantic Yards Report
A new Brooklyn Nets website, essentially confirming the (not much in doubt) fact that the team will be renamed the Brooklyn Nets, heralds the move:
On September 28th, 2012, Brooklyn will become the official home of NETS Basketball. The most populous of New York’s five boroughs, Brooklyn is home to nearly 2.6 million others as well. It is a borough rich in culture, and diversity. And while Brooklyn is well-known for its history, the future is bright.
Through this blog, we will get to know our future home. From its many neighborhoods, to its notable monuments, museums, parks, and restaurants, we’ll explore it all.
There's nothing about the new Battle for Brooklyn documentary, of course, but there are obligatory citations of the Brooklyn Bridge and Peter Luger steakhouse.
Related content...
Nets Basketball, Welcome to Brooklyn
Posted by eric at 10:16 AM
Nets' Big Losses Continue ... Even Beyond Prokhorov's Cushion
NetsDaily
As part of his agreement to buy the Nets, Mikhail Prokhorov agreed to fund team losses in New Jersey for up to two years and up to $60 million. Forest City Enterprises, Bruce Ratner's parent company, said Monday losses continue and exceed Prokhorov's guarantee. So, FCE will have to fund them as it did in the past.
FCE's new CEO David LaRue said "entities controlled by Mikhail Prokhorov committed to fund up to $60 million of the team's losses from acquisition to the completion of the arena. We now anticipate that $60 million cap will be reached sometime in the second [current] quarter of the year, at which point Nets Sports and Entertainment, the ownership group of which we are the managing member, will need to fund the overage."
NoLandGrab: Here's betting that the NBA's first Russian owner is wishing he was the NBA's first Cuban owner.
Posted by eric at 9:19 AM
June 8, 2011
Behind the calculated noisemaking at NBA arenas, technology for amplification
Atlantic Yards Report
Norman Oder reports on why you really, really ought to wear earplugs if you attend an NBA game.
...yesterday, in an article headlined Stoking Excitement, Arenas Pump Up the Volume, the New York Times reported that such hype is standard practice:
At sporting events across the nation, and in the N.B.A. in particular, noise has become a part of the show — rarely more so than in Dallas, where the Mavericks face the Miami Heat in Game 4 of the N.B.A. finals Tuesday night. It is hard to tell if the Mavericks’ favorite machine during these playoffs is Dirk Nowitzki, their star player, or their sound system.
The Mavericks’ equipment involves more than simply pumping up decibels to levels that some experts fear could contribute to long-term hearing loss. Rather, with fans spoiled by earbud fidelity and 5.1-channel home theater systems, owners like the Mavericks’ Mark Cuban have turned hosting a game into producing an event — with “assisted resonance” and “crowd enhancement,” buzzwords for insiders and euphemisms for others.
Sixty mammoth speakers hanging above the court thunder music and clamorous sound effects louder than a jumbo jet engine.
NoLandGrab: Residents living near the Barclays Center are even more concerned about what the noise will be like outside the arena.
Posted by eric at 7:06 AM
June 6, 2011
New Jersey Nets intend to provide NBA fans in Brooklyn with cheaper alternative to New York Knicks
NY Daily News
by Stefan Bondy
While the owner of the Knicks is confusing and frustrating his team's supporters, the opposition is gearing up for a run at the city's basketball fan base.
Such is the state of the turf war as an arena rises in Brooklyn, representing the first legitimate threat to the Knicks' territory in 65 years.
The Nets, specifically minority owner Bruce Ratner and CEO Brett Yormark, claim there are enough basketball fans in the city to support two pro teams, professing their respect for the Knicks about a year removed from angering Jim Dolan by hanging a giant billboard above the Garden.
...But there's a reason the Barclays Center was designed to be the Garden's opposite: the Nets want to be the alternative to the Knicks, not their New York City sidekick, and certainly not the same second-class citizen from across the river. There may be a lot of basketball fans in New York, but not as many who will buy tickets and merchandise. And with the Knicks raising their ticket prices about 50% for next season, the Nets are promoting themselves as the cheaper alternative just five miles away.
NoLandGrab: "Cheaper" is a relative term, since the New York Post reported in March that the average Nets ticket price would be $132 and "are expected to be among the NBA’s highest in their inaugural season in Brooklyn."
Posted by eric at 10:35 AM
June 1, 2011
Nets Pitch Self-Contained Brooklyn Arena. Sure, That'll Be Great for the Neighborhood
Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn
We repost this in full from our friends at DDDB.
$99 - $1,500 tickets to see the Nets? That's affordable? Don't worry, on StubHub they will be.
2012-13 Nets Begin Pitching Premium Seats
The Barclays Center in Brooklyn still lacks a roof, seats and a basketball court. But the Nets are already pitching their fans on tickets in their new home, which is expected to open in September 2012.
On Thursday the Nets will begin selling "all-access" tickets to the general public, which include unlimited food and drink. About 4,400 seats in the lower bowl will be included, with tickets from $99 to $1,500. Nets season-ticket holders in these seats will also get first crack at tickets to other events, including concerts, boxing and college basketball.
"We want customers to come for more than the Nets," said Fred Mangione, the chief marketing officer of the Nets. "For us, the question is how we add value."
...Tickets will include unlimited food and drink and the customers will come "for more than the Nets." Sounds to us like this doesn't bode well for sports bars and clubs that are clamoring to open up next to the arena.
And the unlimited drinks don't bode well for the stoops, sidewalks and olfactories in the surrounding neighborhoods.
...The Nets are introducing a new advertising campaign to jump-start their ticket sales. The ads will include pictures of Brooklyn landmarks like the Brooklyn Bridge and Coney Island. Famous Brooklyn natives will also appear in the ads.
We'll be very interested to see which ones, but we're sure Nelson George won't be one of them.
Related content...
Off the Dribble (New York Times NBA Blog), 2012-13 Nets Begin Pitching Premium Seats
Posted by eric at 4:53 PM
May 11, 2011
Foul! Nets pitch tickets to leader of B'klyn arena opposition
The Brooklyn Blog [NYPost.com]
by Rich Calder
He’s likely the last person on Earth who’d buy Nets tickets, but that didn’t stop the club from attempting a full-court press to sell him season passes at its new Brooklyn arena.
Daniel Goldstein – yes, the same guy considered the public face of the opposition movement against the under-construction Barclays Center and the rest of the embattled Atlantic Yards project – got a shocking e-mail yesterday from the Nets marketing department.
Dubbed, “Exclusive Brooklyn Opportunity,” the email asks the co-founder of the Atlantic Yards opposition group Develop Don’t Destroy Brooklyn to consider buying season passes for some of 4,000 "All-Access" premium seats now on sale for the 18,000-seat arena.
Obviously, the marketing employee who sent the email had no clue who Goldstein is.
...“I once had a prime spot right there without buying tickets, but they took that away from me. Besides, I like the Knicks,” Goldstein told the Post.
Posted by eric at 11:02 AM
May 10, 2011
Exclusive Brooklyn Opportunity!
Looks like Brett Yormark's marketing machine — like his basketball team — needs a little fine tuning complete and total overhaul! The following email was forwarded to us today by a former Atlantic Yards footprint resident of some note.
From: xxxxxx@brooklynnets.com
Date: May 10, 2011 3:13:46 PM EDT
To: Daniel Goldstein
Subject: Exclusive Brooklyn OpportunityDear Mr. Goldstein,
I hope you are well. I was unable to reach you over the phone before and as I know you are interested in the NETS exciting relocation I wanted to ensure you are aware that sports and entertainment will be returning to Brooklyn after a fifty-five year absence.
My name is xxxxxxx xxxxx, and I will be your direct contact at the Barclays Center of Brooklyn, opening 2012.
We have partnered with leaders in the entertainment and hospitality industry including Live Nation Entertainment, Golden Boy Boxing, Legardere Unlimited, IMG College and Feld Entertainment. The Barclays Center will feature 6 exclusive clubs & restaurants with upscale food and beverage offerings from award winning Levy Restaurants.
I would like to set-up a time for us to discuss all of the great opportunities within the Barclays Center of Brooklyn. Please let me know the best time to reach you.
Thank you,
xxxxxxx
xxxxxxx xxxxx
Premium All Access Manager
NETS Basketball
The New York Times Building
620 8th Avenue, 38th Floor
New York, NY 10018
NoLandGrab: Perhaps the Nets' Premium All Access Manager was unable to reach Mr. Goldstein "over the phone before" because his phone is buried under piles of rubble created by the former majority owner of the team she works for! We're pretty sure never will be a good time for her to reach Mr. Goldstein.
Posted by eric at 5:27 PM
May 2, 2011
The charity strategy: Barclays/NETS Community Alliance now giving to Brooklyn Steppers, Neighbors Helping Neighbors
Atlantic Yards Report
I wrote last June how the Barclays/Nets Community Alliance had not only given donations to playgrounds and to the Brooklyn Historical Society, it had begun to support the Brooklyn Public Library's summer reading program.
Let's add a few more recipients to the growing list. On April 17, as the graphic at right indicates, the Brooklyn Steppers drumline--a stalwart at Atlantic Yards events, by the way--held a fundraiser, the Battle of the Drumlines, featuring "a head to head battle of two of the nation's top Historically Black Colleges and Universities - North Carolina A&T State University vs. South Carolina State University."
Also, the alliance serves as the lead sponsor of the 2011 Benefit Bash for Neighbors Helping Neighbors, a Sunset Park nonprofit that aims "to empower low and moderate income Brooklyn residents to secure quality housing and build financial assets."
The charity strategy
Using charitable donations to make friends and neutralize potential critics is not a new strategy; after all, Forest City Ratner has practiced this tactic for years, as has--on a much grander scale--Mayor Mike Bloomberg.
And organizations that need money, in an era when government support is scarce, can't help but be grateful.
Ultimately, however, these gifts are an easy call for the donor, since the public is essentially paying the freight.
Posted by eric at 12:12 PM
May 1, 2011
The Brooklyn brand now extends to a store called "by Brooklyn"
Atlantic Yards Report
The Brooklyn Paper points us to by Brooklyn, a new boutique focusing on Brooklyn-made products, just another stop on the road for the resilient and resurgent Brooklyn brand.
Will the "Brooklyn Nets" be seen as part of this brand, or, with every piece of the Barclays Center arena boasting a corporate logo, something alien?
Posted by steve at 9:59 PM
April 14, 2011
In Little Noticed Move, NBA Takes Control of BrooklynNets.com
NetsDaily
The NBA has taken control of the url, BrooklynNets.com, and now automatically directs traffic from that link to the BarclaysCenter.com NetsBasketball page. According to the domain's history, the web address was controlled for years by a motorcycle site, which first registered it in 2003, not long after Bruce Ratner expressed interest in buying the team. On March 21, NBA Media Ventures LLC at the league's New York headquarters was listed as the website's registrant for the first time.
For years, the site featured one page, featuring a drawing of a basketball player and a top-hatted, tuxedo-wearing, one-eyed plutocrat doing battle and the phrase, "Tim Hailey's Brooklyn Nets vs. The Residents".
Posted by eric at 11:55 AM
April 12, 2011
N.J./BKN NETS ~ The Billboard Wars Continue; Nets Claiming Their Turf
Brooklyn Trolley Blogger
While the Nets' season might be coming to a close after playing to a less than desirable record, and while their cross-Hudson River rivals are making preparations for the post-season and the Boston Celtics, there is one key match-up in-where the Nets stand toe to toe with the Knicks: Signage.
"Less than desirable?" How about awful?
The Nets launched their latest offensive in the Battle of the Billboards.
Unfortunately, billboards don't win games or sell tickets. Especially this one.
Yesterday, the Nets unveiled a second billboard in Brooklyn featuring Deron Williams and Barclays Center. It follows the same theme as their Times Square ad focusing on the move to the Borough of Kings.
It Reads:"WELCOME TO BROOKLYN"
NoLandGrab: Apparently the Nets haven't rehired the marketing staff they laid off in April 2009. Surely they didn't pay someone to come up with that line.
Posted by eric at 9:51 PM
April 11, 2011
JAY-Z, NJ NETS FINED $50K FOR VISIT TO KENTUCKY WILDCATS
The Boombox
by Nadeska Alexis
The University of Kentucky celebrated their Elite 8 victory in the recent NCAA tournament with a visit from Jay-Z that will now cost the mogul and his New Jersey Nets a $50,000 fine.
Following the March 27 game at Newark's Prudential Center, Hov paid a visit to the Kentucky Wildcats' locker room where he congratulated players on their victory over the University of North Carolina. He also offered a few motivational words for their upcoming run in the Final Four series, but when photos and videos of the interaction surfaced, the NBA launched an investigation into Jay's visit.
Due to his minority stake ownership in the New Jersey Nets, Mr. Carter's contact with amateur players was deemed a violation of rules. Two Wildcats team members -- Terrence Jones and Brandon Knight -- are potential lottery picks in the upcoming NBA draft. Although Jay-Z's visit to the locker room was reportedly not for recruitment purposes, NBA rules prohibit team owners from having unnecessary contact with the players until their official declare themselves for the NBA Draft.
Posted by eric at 11:13 PM
April 7, 2011
Nets Accelerate Drive To Brooklyn For 2012 With Marketing, Finances, Optimism
NYSportsJournalism.com
by Barry Janoff
On April 6, the Nets launched a supporting multi-media marketing campaign, "Brooklyn Bound." The opening leg of the campaign is an 80’ x 60’ billboard featuring point guard Deron Williams, located in Times Square (on Broadway between 42nd and 43rd Streets) just blocks away from Madison Square Garden, home to the rival New York Knicks.
“This Times Square billboard tips off our dynamic ‘Brooklyn Bound’ campaign, which will see us doing major outdoor advertising in Brooklyn on billboards and phone kiosks,” Brett Yormark, CEO of Nets Basketball and Brooklyn Sports & Entertainment, said in a statement. “Deron is arguably the best point guard in the NBA and he will be the face of our campaign as we prepare for the team’s exciting relocation to the Barclays Center of Brooklyn in 2012.”
NoLandGrab: Williams will be a free agent prior to the 2012 season.
Posted by eric at 11:03 AM
Mo' Money, Mo' Problems: Jay-Z Better Off Investing in New York Knicks than New Jersey Nets
Bleacher Report
by Joey Rotunno
The hip-hop generation and the NBA are forever intertwined, but so far, Shawn Carter’s status as an iconic MC—one who many an athlete has idolized—has had no bearing on his ability to attract professional basketball’s cream of the crop.
That being said, perhaps the franchise he owns is simply that unappealing to potential suitors, and it’s going to take a lot more than a move to Brooklyn to create any buzz.
While it’s a bit of a hassle to back out of his arrangement with the Nets, it is always an option for Jay-Z to sell his share and reinvest in the team on the other side of the East River.
...I can hear the remix now: If you’re havin’ money problems I feel bad for you son, I got 99 problems but the Knicks ain’t one.
Posted by eric at 10:55 AM
April 6, 2011
Nets Forward Kris Humphries – and Sly Too – Clean up Prospect Park
The group of about two dozen Nets employees raked leaves while joggers and toddlers alike paused for a better look.
Prospect Heights Patch
by Amy Sara Clark
Like Carl Kruger is fond of saying, "I guess the park, f**k the bridge."
New Jersey (but soon to be Brooklyn) Nets forward Kris Humphries and about two dozen others put rake to the grass yesterday afternoon to help clean up sodden leaves at Prospect Park.
The group of about two dozen, which included several Nets dancers and the team’s mascot, Sly, raked and bagged for about two hours while joggers and toddlers alike paused for a better look, said Prospect Park spokesman Eugene Patron.
And they took the job seriously.
“They went out and they worked – it wasn’t just a photo opp,” he said.
NoLandGrab: "Yesterday afternoon?" We believe Sly Fox is only allowed to be off-leash between 8 a.m. and 9 a.m.
Posted by eric at 10:13 PM
Mayor Bloomberg scores four season tickets for New Jersey Nets before stadium is even finished
NY Daily News
by Adam Lisberg
Maybe it's us, but we're guessing they meant "Brooklyn Nets" in that headline.
Mayor Bloomberg is bullish on Brooklyn basketball - snapping up four season tickets at the new Nets arena when it opens next year.
"The Nets are going to provide some great entertainment," he said. "It's going to be exciting basketball."
The steel skeleton of the arena, rising above Atlantic and Flatbush Aves., is 30% finished.
"We are thrilled that the mayor has decided to become a season-ticket holder," said Nets CEO Brett Yormark. "The mayor is one of the most astute investors in the city, and we are pleased that he sees the Nets in Brooklyn as a great investment."
NoLandGrab: The astute Mayor must indeed be viewing those tickets as an investment, because we surely don't expect to see him court-side beyond opening night. Of course, when your net worth is reportedly more than $20 billion, it's no big deal to piss away $176,000 (assuming a $1,000-per-ticket face value) on something as awful as Nets basketball. The equivalent purchase for someone with just a million dollars to his name would run less than nine bucks.
Posted by eric at 9:58 PM
Deron Williams Will Join Nets in Brooklyn in 2012, Implies Nets Billboard
NYMag.com
by Joe DeLessio
The Great Knicks-Nets Billboard War continues: The Nets today unveiled the Times Square billboard you see here, reminding people that they'll be moving to Brooklyn. (Their Atlantic Yards arena, as you surely knew already, is scheduled to open in 2012.) Of course, whether Deron Williams will actually be on the Nets by the time that happens very much remains to be seen: He's due $17.8 million in 2012–13, but he can opt out of his contract after the 2011–12 season. The Nets can begin negotiating with him on an extension beginning on July 18 (assuming the league's labor situation doesn't push that date back). Though by slapping his face on a billboard — on this billboard — it's clear they're not lacking in confidence.
NoLandGrab: Not lacking in confidence, or yes lacking in common sense?
Photo: New Jersey Nets
Posted by eric at 9:52 PM
April 1, 2011
Mixed Reviews: Prokhorov Makes Waves But Doesn’t Get Results in Season One
Brooklyn Daily Eagle
by John Torenli
The best thing an audience can say about an upstart reality television series or hot new dramatic cable saga is that they can’t wait to see what happens next season.
Based on that scenario, Mikhail Prokhorov’s first full campaign as principal owner of the New Jersey (soon-to-be-Brooklyn) Nets has been a smashing success.
Since the 45-year-old metal tycoon has taken charge, the Nets have been more newsworthy than usual, gaining arguably their most attention since Jason Kidd led them to back-to-back NBA Finals appearances in 2002 and 2003.
A check of the franchise-in-transition’s record, both on and off the court, however, indicates that the positive results have been based much more on style than substance.
Posted by eric at 11:13 AM
CAN YOU INVEST STOCK IN THE NEW JERSEY NETS?
Sports Choice
Question by Matt D: Can you invest stock in the New Jersey Nets?
Can you invest stock in individual NBA teams?
Best answer:
Answer by jken2030
um, No.
Posted by eric at 10:40 AM
March 31, 2011
NBA probing Jay-Z’s visit to Kentucky locker room
AP via Yahoo! Sports
An NBA spokesman confirms that the league is investigating Jay-Z’s presence in Kentucky’s locker room after the Wildcats clinched a Final Four berth.
The rapper visited the players after their victory over North Carolina on Sunday at the Prudential Center in Newark, N.J, home of the Nets. Jay-Z is a part-owner of the team and attended the Nets’ 120-116 loss at New York on Wednesday.
NBA rules prohibit team personnel from having contact with players who are not yet draft eligible, and spokesman Tim Frank told the Associated Press the league is looking into it.
Posted by eric at 3:01 PM
Knicks and Nets: Two Teams That Need an Introduction
The New York Times
by George Vecsey
Both the Knicks and the Nets are mutants — teams that keep evolving, on their way to someplace else. Eventually the dust and disorder at the Garden will be replaced by a vastly more expensive new version of the arena, while the Nets continue their loopy hegira from the Meadowlands to Newark and onward to Brooklyn, three-card monte with players. Now you see them, now you don’t.
...The Nets have an owner who speaks (Russian and English), the charismatic Mikhail D. Prokhorov, and they plan to move to the Atlantic Yards section of Brooklyn, with all the urban disruption and mixed blessings that entails. They are a work in progress, sharing the old slogan with the Knicks: Dig We Must.
NoLandGrab: "Atlantic Yards section of Brooklyn?" That must be the section also known as Prospect Heights.
Posted by eric at 10:35 AM
March 30, 2011
New Jersey Nets start selling tickets for games — in Brooklyn
The Brooklyn Paper
Don't everyone burn up those phone lines at once. The Nets, according to the press release reprinted by The Brooklyn Paper, are beginning to sell "Brooklyn" Nets tickets for the 2012-2013 season.
From the press release:
The first-of-its-kind All Access season tickets for NETS Basketball at the Barclays Center of Brooklyn are going on sale today for current season ticket holders. The team is distributing by mail premium-designed, five-panel ticket packages that showcases the NETS and the Barclays Center in preparation for the team’s relocation to Brooklyn for the 2012-13 NBA season.
Season tickets for these premium locations will feature the unprecedented NETS All Access Pass. This Pass will offer fans several distinctive elements, including the opportunity to purchase tickets before the general public to non-NETS events that will be staged at the Barclays Center. The All Access Pass can also be used for unlimited food, prepared by award-winning Levy Restaurants, at designated clubs and all fixed concession stands during NETS games; a first-time offering for a major New York metropolitan area sports team.
Additional All Access Pass benefits will include: a private entrance, dedicated VIP speed lines at all entrances, concierge service, early access into the Barclays Center, membership to the Barclays Center Business Alliance - a corporate networking program exclusive to sponsors and season ticketholders - and much more.
While All Access Passes are the first ticket offerings being made available, non-premium NETS season tickets for the Barclays Center will be implemented in different phases in 2011.
When all price points are unveiled, the NETS ticket prices will be available for everyone’s budget. Two thousand tickets will be priced at $15 and under for each game, and an allotment of tickets for all events at the Barclays Center will be made available to the community, which was committed to in the Community Benefits Agreement of 2005.
Fifty percent of all season tickets will be priced at $55 or less per game, and lower level season tickets start at $65.
There will be no Personal Seat License for NETS tickets.
NoLandGrab: No PSLs? Why thank you, Nets — as if that was remotely a possibility.
Related coverage...
NY1, Nets' New Home To Feature All-Access Pass
A deluxe package will soon pamper some lucky Nets fans when the team moves to Brooklyn.
Current Nets season tickets holders are getting first dibs on the All-Access pass for the 2012-2013 season.
It'll give fans premium treatment at the Nets' new home at the Barclays Center.
The pass starts at $99 a game and includes unlimited food, a private entrance, concierge service, and access to a business center.
But non-season ticket holders have to hold on a bit longer for their chance to buy tickets.
Posted by eric at 7:57 PM
March 29, 2011
Jay-Z’s $450 million Business Empire
Yahoo! Finance
by Daniel Gross
Jay-Z's career and business interests are vivid testimony to the mainstreaming of hip-hop culture. Deals come his way in part because he is, simply put, much cooler and culturally relevant than older guys in suits. It's not simply that he can attract a crowd, but that he lends a kind of legitimacy to all sorts of ventures — including the efforts to build a huge arena/ development to house the New Jersey Nets in Brooklyn. The New Jersey Nets, as Greenburg notes, had long been a second-tier team in the NBA, and an afterthought in New York. Facing political obstacles and community opposition, Nets owner Bruce Ratner offered Jay-Z a small ownership stake in exchange for becoming one of the public faces of the project. Another potential bonus: the other owners thought Jay-Z could help attract top talent like LeBron James to the Nets.
That hasn't quite worked out.
Posted by eric at 10:39 AM
March 28, 2011
Nets' new home moving forward
Bergen Record
by John Brennan
The spot that will one day be the site of the Barclays Center basketball court is a mud patch, and only about a quarter of the arena’s circumference is apparent.
But 12 months after a high profile groundbreaking for the $1 billion arena near downtown Brooklyn, concrete and steel testify to the reality of the Nets’ pending exit from New Jersey.
The first of the arena’s halfdozen large roof trusses was erected 10 days ago, now defining the height of the 675,000square-foot facility for the many passers-by. About 30 percent of the steel is already up, and the foundation is 70 percent complete, arena officials say.
The precast steps will be put in place within the next 30 days or so, giving a sense of the bowl to curious neighbors. The first part of the facade is expected to be in place by mid-July, and the roof should be in place by year’s end. If construction continues at this pace, the arena is likely to open on schedule in mid-2012 — just months before the Nets move in that fall.
Guess who's PUMPED! about the advent of the arena.
Nets chief executive Brett Yormark is renowned for his unbridled optimism — a trait that didn’t waver, even during last season’s record-breaking futility of an 0-18 start en route to a league-worst 12 wins in 82 games. So it’s a given that Yormark would gush about the possibilities in Brooklyn, where the arena is a key piece of the Atlantic Yards project being built by developer Forest City Ratner.
“We’ve been talking to artists and promoters, and the biggest names in the business want to play here,” Yormark said during a tour of the arena site last week. “I think our opening-month celebration is going to be unprecedented. When we put out the artists’ names that are going to appear here. … Everyone sees the movement in Brooklyn. They understand that this is going to continue the renaissance in Brooklyn, and they’re embracing it. They want to be a part of it.”
...Yormark said season-ticket holders will begin receiving invitations to reserve Barclays Center seats in the next 10 days.
“We’re only marketing our 4,400 best seats to start,” said Yormark, whose arena will include 3,200 premium, or “club” seats. Yormark said that all 16 “brownstone suites,” featuring 16 seats, have sold out at $450,000 apiece. Yormark said about 40 percent of the suites are sold overall, with the nine most-expensive, event-level, Jay-Z-designed suites being held off the market until the fall.
...But many Nets fans in New Jersey undoubtedly can’t visualize crossing two major rivers and numerous potential traffic bottlenecks to make it to the Barclays Center — even though the arena is less than 20 miles from downtown Hackensack and less than 30 miles from Wayne.
...Parking also figures to be a challenge, although Yormark said there will be 1,100 spaces at the site, 600 more at the Atlantic Center, and another 1,600 to 1,700 spots in lots within six to eight blocks. Yormark said that studies show about 70 percent of Knicks fans arrive by mass transportation, and that he hopes that at least half of Nets fans will do the same.
Posted by eric at 11:10 AM
March 10, 2011
Nets Center Visits Future Home in Brooklyn
NBC New York
by Geoffrey Decker
The New Jersey Nets aren’t due in Brooklyn for another year and a half, but star center Brook Lopez is scouting the territory.
He visited Bushwick High School this week for a basketball clinic where he shot hoops, signed autographs, and posed for pictures with about 50 students.
“Being that Brooklyn will be our home in a few years, it’s nice to get out here whenever I can,” said the third-year seven-footer.
...At Tuesday’s event, which was hosted by the U.S. Army to promote physical fitness, an informal poll of the crowd revealed that no one intended to switch allegiances from New York just yet.
“I think I’m a Knick fan for life,” said Keith Williams, a senior guard at Bushwick.
Posted by eric at 10:30 AM
March 5, 2011
As team prepares for move, hope is Nets-Knicks will be new Dodgers-Giants
Associated Press
This article mostly deals with the Nets' chances of building a Brooklyn fan base, but it does manage to mention one reason Brooklynites will not be fans.
The Nets' campaign to build a fan base has been hampered by a drawn-out battle between neighbourhood residents and developer Bruce Ratner over the Atlantic Yards development, anchored by the Barclays Center. Many Brooklyn residents opposed the project's scale and the use of eminent domain to clear the land.
Eric McClure, a spokesman for the group Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn, said, "I used to root for the Nets until they announced that they were going to be taking people's homes to build a taxpayer-subsidized basketball arena."
Further coverage...
Atlantic Yards Report, AP offers big-picture piece on meaning of Knicks-Nets rivalry; ex-Brooklynite professes "cosmic scale has swung"
After the New York Observer's big think piece on the meaning of a Knicks-Nets rivalry, now comes a similar article from the AP, headlined As team prepares for move, hope is Nets-Knicks will be new Dodgers-Giants.
The article acknowledges some bitterness:
The Nets' campaign to build a fan base has been hampered by a drawn-out battle between neighborhood residents and developer Bruce Ratner over the Atlantic Yards development, anchored by the Barclays Center. Many Brooklyn residents opposed the project's scale and the use of eminent domain to clear the land.
Eric McClure, a spokesman for the group Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn, said, "I used to root for the Nets until they announced that they were going to be taking people's homes to build a taxpayer-subsidized basketball arena."
But the "he-said, she-said" technique ends up with a source who's upbeat about the move:
But some Knicks fans say they may switch their allegiance once the Nets are in Brooklyn.
Michael Shapiro, the author of another book about the Dodgers, "The Last Good Season: Brooklyn, the Dodgers and Their Final Pennant Race Together," said the Nets' move to Brooklyn means "the cosmic scale has swung."
"It's going to be really hard for me to root against a Brooklyn team," he said. "Call me in two years."
Shapiro--a native Brooklynite who lives on the Upper West Side--is worth talking to, but it's dismaying that a journalism professor is more concerned about fandom and "the cosmic scale" than, say, the shenanigans behind sports business today.
Unfortunately, he's also helped perpetuate the "same site" error, mythically connecting the arena site with the hoped-for location for a new Ebbets Field.
Posted by steve at 6:12 PM
March 3, 2011
Did Barclays do the Nets a favor in buying naming rights, or was the favor from New York State, which gave the rights away?
Atlantic Yards Report
The Nets are in London as part of the NBA's (and their) march toward world branding.
In Nets Repay Barclays for the Favor, Nets Daily blogger Net Income (aka "the Leni Riefenstahl of the New Jersey Nets") has an exclusive:
This much is indisputable about the Nets' move to Brooklyn: If Barclays hadn't agreed to a $400 million naming rights deal in 2007, the arena now known as Barclays Center would never have been built. It was the critical commitment at the critical time for the Nets. Without it, the whole effort would have lacked credibility.
So dressed in suits and ties (Jordan Farmar and Johan Petro wore bow ties), Nets players and Avery Johnson spent part of their first day in London at a presentation to some 300 Barclays Capital executives and employees Wednesday. It was the first team event, other than a photo at the London Tower Bridge.
The "favor" did not come from Barclays.
Barclays made an investment, from its advertising budget. (You could argue that American taxpayers sure helped.)
The favor came from the state of New York, which gave away naming rights, and then neglected to count that gift as a subsidy.
And, of course, what was announced as a $400 million deal was cut significantly, after two renegotiations nearly in half.
Posted by eric at 11:23 AM
March 2, 2011
Nets' rebirth should include Renaissance of classic hoops name
CBSSports.com
by Jan Hubbard
[Prokhorov] has to create instant tradition and his location provides a perfect setting. His new arena is being built in the Atlantic Yards area of Brooklyn, where a renaissance is taking place. Less than 15 miles from that arena is a place where one of the great basketball teams in history was formed -- the Harlem Renaissance, also known as the Harlem Renaissance Big Five and the New York Renaissance.
That is the perfect name for the rebirth of Prokhorov's franchise. The New York Renaissance is a name grand in tradition. The shortened name, the Rens, is friendly to tabloids and one-column headlines alike.
NoLandGrab: OK, we get the paying tribute to a famous all-black basketball squad from an era well before any professional sports were integrated, but could there be a more insulting name to residents around the arena? The actual renaissance of those neighborhoods was well under way long before Bruce Ratner cooked up his land-grab scheme, and implying that the abysmal Nets — however you package them — would somehow be fueling the Borough's climb would be just one more slap in the face to the "Atlantic Yards area."
Posted by eric at 10:23 PM
B-Brawl! Prokhorov, the Nets’ Rakish Russian, Aims A.K. at Garden Party as Dolan’s Knicks Brace for Red Scare
NY Observer
by Reid Pillifant
If Mr. Prokhorov has any hope of capturing the city's affection, he must first conquer Brooklyn, which could prove a rocky beachhead.
The rosiest scenario has the Nets replacing the bygone baseball Dodgers as the borough's pro sports heroes, but the prospect of a glorious homecoming is quite a bit more complicated.
"For someone like me, who's a Brooklynite through and through, it's going to create dilemmas," said Senator Charles Schumer, who was born and still lives a short bicycle ride from the new arena site. "Because I've been a Knicks fan all along, and I guess I'll have to wait until they arrive and see what happens. But my inclination is to stick with the Nets"—he shook his head—"with the Knicks."
The team's arrival has already suffered years of bad press, thanks to the protracted battle over the $4 billion development at the Atlantic Yards site in downtown Brooklyn. Before a series of court rulings resolved it and construction started in earnest last year, the battle pitted neighborhood activists, many of them newcomers who spawned the borough's gentrification, against the team's former owner Bruce Ratner, the site's developer.
The bitterness lingers.
Related coverage...
Atlantic Yards Report, Chuck Schumer's dilemma and Marty Markowitz's return to candor: footnoting the Observer's article on the Knicks-Nets rivalry
A couple of observations on the New York Observer's long article about the owners of the area's two hoops teams, headlined B-Brawl! Prokhorov, the Nets’ Rakish Russian, Aims A.K. at Garden Party as Dolan’s Knicks Brace for Red Scare:
1) They weren't able to interview either owner, Jim Dolan or Mikhail Prokhorov, so all the talk of rivalry is secondhand. But the Knicks are, yes, on the defensive--somewhat.
2) Somehow they didn't quote my observation about the meaning of the EB-5 investment.
3) I would wager I know who said this:
(A person familiar with the plans said Mr. Prokhorov is assembling an in-house retreat for himself 10 times the size of a standard luxury box "for he and his Russian friends.")
That's Brett Yormarkian tactics, and grammar.
4) Sen. Chuck Schumer, who's a Brooklynite, admits to dilemmas, since "I've been a Knicks fan all along." What? Schumer's been a huge supporter of Atlantic Yards. If the prospect of 10,000 phantom jobs no longer "enervates" him, what exactly does he support?
Follow the link for the rest of Norman Oder's Top 7 list.
Posted by eric at 11:57 AM
February 24, 2011
A day after losing out on Anthony, Nets get superstar point guard Williams; he's got a contract extension to sign, but for now, it's seen as a big win
Atlantic Yards Report
After being seen as losers to the Knicks in the (costly) effort to attract star Carmelo Anthony, the Nets yesterday got superstar point guard Deron Williams, unhappy at the Utah Jazz in exchange for point guard Devin Harris (the face of EB-5 flackery), rookie forward Derrick Favors, and more.
For Nets fans, the optimistic perspective is that Williams will sign a contract extension and help attract more stars. The pessimistic one is that Williams won't sign and will leave.
But the consensus, for now, is that the Nets made a good deal.
Cut to round-up of sports stories praising trade. And then back to reality.
Would that any of these writers, who pay such intense attention to hoops, considered the "Debbie Downer" issue of "the crooked crap that actually matters," such as how team and arena owners make their money.
NoLandGrab: Yes, Williams isa good player, but when was the last time you saw someone outside of Salt Lake City sporting his jersey? And the Nets traded their two best players not named Brook Lopez, and two potential lottery picks, for the guy who caused legendary NBA coach Jerry Sloan to quit.
Posted by eric at 10:27 AM
February 23, 2011
Carmelo Anthony’s Impact on Jay-Z’s Net Worth
Forbes.com
by Zack O'Malley Greenburg
When Carmelo Anthony suits up for his first game as a Knick tonight, there will be a thick soup of euphoria in the air. There will be cheers, laughter and maybe even a few tears of joy. Because for the first time in a decade, New York basketball fans have a championship-caliber team to root for, helmed by two name-brand superstars.
But for Brooklyn native and Nets co-owner Jay-Z, the focus will be on the other side of the river, and what might have been – not to mention a lost opportunity for the rapper to add another seven-figure sum to his net worth ($450 million, by our latest estimates) through a bump in the value of his 1.5% stake in the Nets.
“Had the Nets been able to acquire Carmelo at a reasonable price, the franchise value would have increased,” says Marc Ganis, president of Chicago-based consultancy SportsCorp. “A star of his caliber combined with a rebranding and move to Brooklyn could have added more than $100 million to the franchise’s value.”
A simple back-of-the-envelope calculation suggests that Carmelo’s trade to the Knicks, and not to the Nets, will cost Jay-Z about $1.5 million in equity. It also represents lost value of $80 million for Russian billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov, who holds an 80% stake in the team as majority owner. And now, as the Nets prepare for a move to Brooklyn in 2012, both moguls must determine what it is that they’re moving.
Related coverage...
Gothamist, Hey, the Nets Made a Big Trade Too!
In the aftermath of the conclusion to the Carmelodrama, the Nets made their own splashy move today, trading Derrick Favors, Devin Harris, two first-round draft picks and cash to the Utah Jazz for two time All-Star point guard Deron Williams. After they lost the LeBron sweepstakes last summer, and the Carmelo one this week, the Nets were determined to emerge with a franchise player this time; and though it seemingly came together very quickly, coach Anthony Johnson says it was in the works for awhile: "This is not a Plan B. It was just one that wasn't announced. One that nobody got -- until recently. He's not a Plan B. He's a Plan A also. We've been working on this for a while."
If it's true, then this gives further credence to the suggestion that the Nets only re-entered the Carmelo trade discussions last week in order to drive the price up for the Knicks, and piss them off at the same time. It's also interesting that over the weekend, it was reported that Williams told associates he was interested in joining with Amare in NY in 2012. But now, Williams will be the face of the Nets come 2012/2013, when the team moves into the Barclay Center at Atlantic Yards.
NoLandGrab: Not so fast — the Forbes story goes on to point out that Williams can opt out of his Nets contract at the end of next season.
Atlantic Yards Report, My thoughts on the meaning of the BK Nets? Don't forget the EB-5 story, as immigrant investors are misled into thinking they're supporting an arena
Debbie Downer, aka Norman Oder, still thinks the mainstream press ought to focus on all the crooked crap that actually matters, instead of the faux hoops hoopla for a league that's likely not even going to be in business next season. He just doesn't get how the media works, does he?
I was asked today to comment for a New York Observer article "about the post-Melo fight between the Nets and the Knicks for New York's psyche. Would you be interested in sharing your thoughts as to what this team does or does not mean for Brooklyn and the city as a whole?"
My response: "I think it means that Chinese millionaires think they're investing in an arena in exchange for green cards, via the developer's dubious deployment of the federal government's EB-5 program."
Don't put on blinders
Yeah, it sounds like a non sequitur, but the point is: when it comes to sports, I lean toward Dave Zirin, who can't forget how team owners wangle profits, not Will Leitch, who willfully puts on blinders.
And the New York Observer, however worthy its effort to cruise the borough basketball zeitgeist, should also have been reporting on what surely is misrepresentation and may be fraud.
It was former Assemblyman Richard Brodsky who famously said, "[T]here is nothing like professional sports to make public people nutty."
That applies to the press, as well.
NLG: In non-EB-5-related news tonight, 'Melo had 27 points and 10 boards in his New York debut, as the Knicks defeated the Milwaukee Bucks, a team they'd beaten only once in their last eight tries, 114-108.
Posted by eric at 10:44 PM
February 22, 2011
So Now What?
NetsAreScorching
by Mark Ginocchio
If there’s one thing we’ve learned about the current state of the NBA, it’s the players – most notably the “star” players – run the show, and if ‘Melo was dead set on going to the New York Knicks, the same way LeBron James and Chris Bosh were dead set on joining Dwayne Wade in South Beach – there’s no amount of powerpoint, Russian vodka our Jay Zee playa-ship that’s going to change that outcome.
...In addition to repeatedly offering the sun and the moon for a player who maybe could have snuck this organization into a bottom playoff seed next year (if there even IS a next year), the front office has once again proven why the Nets will continue to be second-class citizens in the New York area. And assuming all of the main players in the front office and coaching staff remain the same, I don’t know how the stench will be erased. Yes, bravado and risk-taking is a nice change-of-pace from the Bruce Ratner years, but you can only lead with the chin so many teams before you’re left concussed, and needless to say, the 2010-11 New Jersey Nets have been officially knocked out.
What we’ve also learned is as rich as Mikhail Prokhorov is and as charming as he may appear in his 60 Minute interviews and press conferences, the average NBA superstar just does not care. He alone will never sell these players on this organization. The Nets need to stop getting involved in scenarios where the player’s hold all of the leverage. The current framework of this organization is not going to change anyone’s mind. If that’s the Blueprint for Greatness, on merits alone, quite frankly it stinks.
Posted by eric at 10:38 PM
As Nets lose out to (high-paying) Knicks in Anthony trade, Prokhorov takes some hits; goodbye, Devin Harris, face of EB-5 flackery?
Atlantic Yards Report
Norman Oder wraps up coverage of the Nets' latest spectacular failure.
Well, Bruce Ratner has convinced Daily News columnist Denis Hamill (who conveniently forgot about affordable housing and permanent jobs) of the importance of the in-construction Barclays Center arena, it's a tougher sell for Nets majority owner Mikhail Prokhorov, who lost to the Knicks (who paid dearly in a turf war with the Nets) in the trade for departing Nuggets star Carmelo Anthony.
Writes the Daily News' Mitch Lawrence, in Mikhail Prokhorov is all talk, no action, lets Carmelo Anthony slip through Nets' fingers to Knicks:
There's no other way to sum it up: Monday night was another bad night for the Nets under Prokhorov.
Just as last July was a bad month for the Nets' owner, when the Knicks got Amar'e Stoudemire and he got Travis Outlaw.
Prokhorov likes to tweak his counterpart, Garden chairman Jim Dolan. He likes to put up billboards across the street from the Garden, challenging the Knicks. He likes to send statements out of Moscow saying he doesn't want the Nets to become the Knicks, he wants them to become the Lakers.
Prokhorov is all talk. No action.
Under Prokhorov, the Nets haven't done a thing.
It's not entirely Prokhorov's fault. He goes to see superstars like James last July and Anthony in Los Angeles over the weekend and all he can give them is Brooklyn as an idea. There's nothing in Brooklyn now for the best players in the game to come to. Maybe when the arena is finished, that's when Prokhorov will be able to convert his vast fortune into some NBA superstars.
But not yet.
There's plenty more where that came from.
Posted by eric at 9:40 AM
February 21, 2011
KNICKS-NETS; The Carmelo Tug-of-War Helps Spur Rivalry
Brooklyn Trolley Blogger
The Brooklyn Trolley Blogger posts an epic — epic what, we can't really say — about the Nets and the Knicks.
To say the Knicks and Nets maintain a contentious local rivalry is a lie; They don't - Or, they didn't - Or, not yet anyway. But they will!
...The media remains lukewarm to the County of Kings at best. In this Brooklynites' opinion, they aren't taking the viability of Brooklyn hosting an NBA franchise seriously enough. They laugh off any notion the Nets, or any entity there-of located in Brooklyn can adversely impact the New York Knickerbockers' dominant grip on NYC's basketball loyalties. What they always fail to realize however is we (Brooklynites) could care less what happens in Manhattan. For us "out here" this is what it has always boiled down to for us; - We are Brooklyn and the rest is whatever. We make our own way. We'll have Ours and Manhattan will have theirs. And that's just the way we like it. One day that will get played out on the court and not in the newspapers and on TAWK-shows.
Don't wait to read some nostalgic piece in some magazine or in a book about the birth of a new rivalry written later in your life when one of these Media naysayers decides to tell the story about this, and tell you how they were there When Brooklyn....blah blah blah...., No; not when so many of them are dismissive of the whole thing today. I however, am living it. And I don't do this to get paid either. Just pay attention and put this story together for yourself. It's happening.
NoLandGrab: We agree about the blah blah blah part.
Posted by eric at 9:00 AM
February 18, 2011
There's a sucker fleeced every minute
The Daily Blahg [NYDailyNews.com]
by Filip Bondy
When the Nets return from their road trip for a game at the Rock on Feb. 28 to face the Suns, they may or may not have Carmelo Anthony. But one thing is for sure: parking will only be $25 in the adjacent Edison lot, not $30.
You have to give the Edison people credit: They stick meticulously to their guns, and to the standings. The price of parking has nothing to do with the Nets, but instead with the opponent. When a first-place team comes to visit, the price of parking is $30. For second-place teams and below, the charge is $25.
That has meant parking for the low-buzz Spurs went for $30, while parking for 'Melo and the Nuggets was a mere $25.
I've heard of teams like the Mets going to tier pricing by opponents, but never the parking lots. However, the cost of parking in the Bronx doubles for the Yankee playoffs, even though your car isn't going to watch a single inning.
All of this nonsense -- and I haven't mentioned PSLs in the NFL -- has contributed to the general alienation of fan bases being squeezed for every penny in their change purse. The Nets may be itinerant wanderers now, but when they hit Brooklyn they should install a fan-friendly philosophy about pricing on all fronts, build up some good will.
If nothing else, you have to figure the price of a subway ride to Atlantic Yards won't double when the Lakers are in town.
NoLandGrab: Don't be so sure, Filip. Bruce and the MTA have a very close working relationship.
Posted by eric at 10:44 AM
February 16, 2011
Stern: Ratner Group Lost "Several Hundred Million" Selling Nets
NetsDaily
In defending his and owners' hardline in labor talks, David Stern told Bloomberg News that the Nets old ownership group, headed by Bruce Ratner, took a serious hit when they sold the franchise to Mikhail Prokhorov.
While discussing the NBA negotiations --and the owners' hardline, Woodruff asked, "Is it a contradiction to say that the current model does not work, and yet, franchises are being bought for huge sums by billionaires like Mikhail Prokhorov who just bought the Nets?"
"Stop there," said Stern, interrupting. "He just did [buy the Nets], and the previous ownership lost several hundred million dollars on that transaction".
While Ratner, his partners and parent group, Forest City Enterprises, did lose more than $200 million, Prokhorov assumed 80% of team debt as part of his purchase. He also agreed to eat up to $60 million in losses while the team is still in New Jersey, bringing the price tag for the team and part ownership of Barclays Center to nearly a half billion dollars.
David Stern Interview (Video) - Judy Woodruff - Bloomberg Television
NoLandGrab: Boo hoo. Ask Jay-Z, it's a business, man. But let's be clear. Bruce Ratner didn't really lose anything, when you factor in the full deal — Atlantic Yards. So who is left holding the bag? Residents in and around Prospect Heights, and New York's taxpayers.
Posted by eric at 9:57 AM
February 12, 2011
Daily News, straightfaced, quotes Yormark as saying Kidd comments pushed marketing campaign. Nah.
Atlantic Yards Report
The Daily News Sports section reports, without a glimmer of factchecking, Former Nets guard Jason Kidd may have accelerated New Jersey's move to Brooklyn with comments:
Jason Kidd provided his former team with a reality check about its move to Brooklyn. The Nets' CEO took it to heart.
So after Kidd said last month that players won't believe in the future until an arena opens, CEO Brett Yormark and his public relations team jumpstarted a campaign to relay a message of inevitability to players and fans.
..."When Jason left (for the Mavericks), there wasn't anything coming out of the ground yet. Probably there was a bit of a question mark from his perspective with respect to the project. Shortly after his comments, we felt obligated to put the heat on our messaging and get it out there."
Kidd made his comments around January 22. A month earlier, Sports Business Journal reported:
Translation, another commercial entity in which Jay-Z and Steve Stoute have an interest, has been hired to orchestrate the first pitch for "Brooklyn Nets" tickets, with initial ads expected in February.
Posted by steve at 5:41 PM
February 11, 2011
Brooklyn Hopes Players Will Move to Borough Along With The Franchise
via NetsDaily
In other news, we're still waiting for pigs to fly, and thinking we might need to give up on having that tooth beneath our pillow swapped for cash by a fairy.
Devin Harris has long lived happily along the Hudson in New Jersey. Most if not all the Nets live in the Garden State as well but the Daily News writes of Brooklynites' hopes that some of them, specifically Harris, will follow their team to the borough, much like the Dodgers did in the 1950's. (The article appeared only in the newspaper, not online.)
NY Daily News
by Jay Mwamba
It echoes back to the time of the Brooklyn Dodgers -- a historic and special era more than 50 years ago when professional athletes held court and lived in the borough. Back then, for many Brooklynites and their fans, the players were superstars and neighbors.
A part of that nostalgic memory will be rekindled when the New Jersey Nets basketball team moves to the Barclays Center arena in downtown Brooklyn for the 2012-2013 NBA season.
With the neighborhoods of Prospect Heights, Park Slope and Fort Greene in close proximity, there may be pro athletes in the borough again.
The excitement is palpable in the Nets organization and the community as work proceeds briskly on the high-tech venue that will seat as many as 19,500 people.
NoLandGrab: Yes, we can almost feel the palp.
Related coverage...
Atlantic Yards Report, Daily News, in cliche-filled article, swallows FCR claims about taxes and jobs
The Daily News published an article headlined Brooklyn Hopes Players Will Move to Borough Along With The Franchise and, though it was in print only, NetsDaily, always happy to boost the Brooklyn move, published it in full.
In it, freelancer Jay Mwamba quoted chief cheerleader Brett Yormark on the Dodgers and swallowed ridiculous Forest City Ratner claims whole:
The Barclays Center is part of a 22-acre residential and commercial rel estate project dubbed the Atlantic Yards that's expected to generate more than $5 billion in new tax revenues over the next 30 years.
In addition to tax benefits, the project will create thousands of new jobs: upwards of 17,000 union construction jobs and as many as 8,000 permanent and as nearly 8,000 permanent jobs.
In a not-exactly broad canvass, the article did find three people excited about the arena: two restaurant managers and a realtor.
NLG: Add them to your boycott list — Blue Ribbon, Kombit Bar and Restaurant, and Brown, Harris, Stevens.
Posted by eric at 10:25 AM
February 10, 2011
NBA's Nets Tap Translation to Burnish Move to Brooklyn
Agency Must Stoke Pride in Lackluster Team Moving to Stadium Plagued by Protests
Advertising Age
by Rich Thomaselli
The foundation is in place, the steel is poured and the suite concourse level is starting to take shape. Still, the impending move of the New Jersey Nets to Brooklyn and the opulent Barclays Center now under construction has been so fraught with controversy, the franchise felt compelled to hire a branding firm to help "position" the move.
New York-based Translation is charged with speaking to a variety of constituencies surrounding the Nets' move from New Jersey, including potential new season-ticket holders, current season-ticket holders, longtime fans of the team, local businesses and, perhaps most important, to a vocal though now dwindling group of citizens who have long opposed a new arena in Brooklyn, saying it will change the dynamic of the beloved borough.
Dwindling?
"Obviously this is a moment we've been waiting for for six years and we only get one shot to get it right," said Nets CEO Brett Yormark of the move to Brooklyn, which was first announced in 2005. "We figured we'd outsource some thinking. We like Translation and we like their leader and the fact that they have a deep bench. The initial work we've received from them has been dead on. They'll help us not only on the Nets brand, but also identifying the Barclays Center."
Actually, the move was first announced in 2003.
"We have a brand, the arena, for housing great talent. And we have a brand, the Brooklyn Nets, and we need to make them a phenomenon in 2012," Mr. Stoute said. "We won't be treating this like a relocated team. We'll be treating this like a team that has a new brand value. Our work is going to be as diverse as Brooklyn itself."
NoLandGrab: Turning the 16-37 Nets into a "phenomenon" by next year is going to take a lot more than an advertising campaign. And as the first commenter points out, the reporter failed to note that Translation is co-owned by none other than Nets spokesmodel Jay-Z.
Related coverage...
Atlantic Yards Report, The marketing of the Nets, via Translation
Ad Age has a story about the hiring of the marketing agency Translation, which was announced in December.
The new article quotes me:
"I suspect they're trying to reinforce a sense of inevitability -- that the arena is coming -- after years of false promises about the timetable," Mr. Oder said. "That said, they likely have multiple audiences to play to. For one thing, they've only sold a small fraction of the luxury suites and they need those sales to pay off construction. They have the advantage of newness, being a new team in the market, but they also have to fill a building at a time when, at least for now, people have less and less discretionary income. The working assumption has always been that 30% of current New Jersey fans of the Nets would also attend games in Brooklyn. But the team has gotten worse [the sixth worst record in the league at 15-37], and it has been a very long goodbye. If that means fewer New Jersey fans, then they have to reach out as broadly as possible, geographically and demographically, in and around Brooklyn.
Posted by eric at 12:07 PM
February 8, 2011
Are Nets' Attendance, YES Ratings at Rock Bottom of NBA Numbers?
NetsDaily
Sounds like Brooklyn won't be getting a "professional" sports franchise anytime soon. So glad we taxpayers are kicking in a billion bucks for this.
In spite of a move to Newark and a marketing campaign that things are "all new", the Nets attendance and TV ratings appear to be at the bottom of the NBA.
The Nets list their average attendance at "The Rock" as 12,868 so far this season, down nearly 2% from last year.
That's also about 1,000 lower than the next lowest, the Kings, who play in the league's most antiquated arena.
...Meanwhile, Sports Business Journal reports that the Nets' television ratings on YES are the lowest local ratings in the NBA, at 0.29, meaning only about a quarter of one per cent of all households in the New York area tune into watch the 15-37 Nets. The next lowest rating, for the Clippers on FOX Sports West, is nearly three times higher.
Posted by eric at 10:28 AM
February 7, 2011
A Peek Into the Nets' Future... Through a Locker Room Door
NetsDaily
"NetIncome," the Leni Riefenstahl of the New Jersey Nets, was "permitted" to "take an exclusive peek inside the team's plans for what officials are calling 'best in class' locker room facilities."
Now there's an exclusive.
The design is a big deal for Mikhail Prokhorov, say associates and he doesn't want it to be just "state of the art".
"I would say best in class," is how Nets' technology consultant Milton] Lee describes the goal, borrowing the phrase that's printed on the back of his and every Net official's business cards. "Prokhorov and (Bruce) Ratner, because he's the majority owner of the arena, have been consistent in that they want this to be best in class."
NoLandGrab: "Best in class?" Maybe the 15-37 Nets should stamp that on the back of their jerseys. Or maybe Bruce Ratner should hang it on a banner on the Atlantic Center mall.
Posted by eric at 10:25 AM
February 2, 2011
For the Nets, a Brooklyn Stars Can’t See
The New York Times
by Harvey Araton
Sounds like we have this Times columnist to blame for the whole Atlantic Yards mess.
There are some in the news media and even N.B.A. sophisticates who didn’t or still don’t see the pragmatism in the Brooklyn transfer because their familiarity with the borough began and ended with Junior’s, if not the Dodgers. Having lived for many years in downtown Brooklyn, I once had to explain to a league official how accessible the arena site at the Atlantic Yards would be by subway and rail and how surrounded it would be by restaurant-rich neighborhoods full of upscale young people with disposable income.
On the other end of the telephone was the longtime Westchester resident David Stern, the N.B.A. commissioner.
If Stern had to be sold on what Brooklyn might become as an alternative to the failed Meadowlands experiment, what can we expect from the league’s reigning prima donnas?
Travis Outlaw isn’t one of them. As a consolation-prize free agent last summer, Outlaw, a 6-foot-9 forward from Starkville, Miss., received a rather generous deal from the Nets: $35 million over five years, at least two to be played in Newark.
Asked Monday night if he and the typical N.B.A. player had a sense of the approximate location of the new arena to Midtown, or to Madison Square Garden, Outlaw shrugged.
“I don’t think guys think it’s too far, but they probably don’t really know if it’s that close or not,” he said.
Told the arena was only about a 15-minute subway ride from the Garden, Outlaw said: “That’s it? That ain’t bad at all. That’s crazy. I didn’t know that at all.”
Of course, most future Nets won’t be inclined to ride the No. 2 train, so Outlaw promptly said, “What about driving?”
NoLandGrab What about driving? Yes, that's the problem with siting an arena with thousands of parking spots at Brooklyn's worst intersection.
Related coverage...
Atlantic Yards Report, Times columnist suggests Brooklyn arena would be only 15 minutes from MSG. Nah.
New York Times Sports columnist Harvey Araton thinks the Atlantic Yards arena would be only 15 minutes by subway from Madison Square Garden, but he's off by about 100 percent--it's nearly twice as long a trip, according to HopStop (and likely even longer, given the underground passageway planned).
...Click on the graphic to enlarge, and see the contradiction.
Posted by eric at 10:40 AM
February 1, 2011
Carmelo no longer Nets' problem as New Jersey chooses to move on
SI.com
by Chris Mannix
Maybe it was a coincidence. Maybe the Nets had been planning for weeks to display photos of the Barclays Center construction in a back hallway of the Prudential Center, a hallway that just happens to be the path that visiting players take on their way to the locker room. That it happened when the Denver Nuggets were in town, well, that was nothing more than a delicious irony.
"That was interesting," Carmelo Anthony said with a chuckle. "That was interesting."
Indeed, it seems even if New Jersey's basketball operations staff has abandoned the pursuit of Anthony -- and multiple sources continue to insist that they have -- minority owner Bruce Ratner's group continues to fuel the flames. It figures. The Barclays Center has been Ratner's Hell's Angels, an interminably long project that has encountered countless roadblocks along the way. Now that the finish line is within reach, sponsors must be wooed, season-ticket packages sold. Those jobs get exponentially easier with a superstar like Anthony on board.
But that's not going to happen. Not now, probably not ever. Ratner's team may not have believed Mikhail Prokhorov when he said the Nets were out of the Anthony sweepstakes. But Anthony did.
Posted by eric at 10:05 AM
January 28, 2011
Prok Speaks, Nets Listen: Owner’s Words Prove Prophetic As Brooklyn-Bound Franchise Heats Up
Brooklyn Daily Eagle
by John Torenli
The Eagle — and Nets' coach Avery Johnson — are impressed by the inspirational skills of team owner Vince Lombardi Mikhail Prokhorov.
The Nets had lost six straight games, 11 of 12 and owned an ugly 10-31 record last week when Prokhorov pulled the plug on a potential blockbuster deal that would have landed Denver Nuggets superstar Carmelo Anthony in Newark, and eventually Downtown Brooklyn.
...Prokhorov, no stranger to the art of the business deal, flew in from Russia last Wednesday and insisted the Nets would no longer play the foil in Denver’s on-again, off-again discussions regarding a potential 14-player swap.
He even hinted that the eight Nets players whose names had been mentioned throughout the laborious process were suffering from the strain and tension of not knowing where they’d be playing at any given moment.
...While some scoffed at the notion of the Nets, who won all of 12 games last season and barely avoided the distinction of being the worst NBA team ever, playing poorly because of the trade rumors, recent history indicates Prokhorov was right on point.
...The Nets have since gone on to win four of their last five contests — their best stretch since 2009 — including Wednesday night’s come-from-behind 93-88 triumph over visiting Memphis.
Buoyed by their owner’s refusal to let the Anthony talks drag out, the Nets have clearly re-focused their attention on the hardwood.
“Right now the spirit of our team is at an all-time high, just in terms of all the things we’re tried to implement and trying to change this culture,” noted coach Avery Johnson, the man charged with carrying out Prokhorov’s vision of an NBA championship contender.
NoLandGrab: Calm down, Coach. "An all-time high" might be a bit hyperbolic, given the Nets' 14-32 record. Their four recent wins came against teams with a combined 74-109 record, which, to be fair, represents a winning percentage a full 100 points better than that of Prokhorov's charges.
Posted by eric at 10:57 AM
January 27, 2011
NBA Team Valuations: #21 New Jersey Nets
Forbes.com
According to Forbes's annual rankings of NBA team finances, the Nets actually increased in value by 16% this year, but they have a whopping debt-to-value ratio of 224% — the only team in the league with more debt than equity.
The skinny
In May, 2010 Russian billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov invested $293 million in equity for an 80% interest in the Nets, a 45% stake in Brooklyn Arena, LLC, the operating company that will run the team's new building, and up to 20% of Atlantic Yards Development LLC, which will develop real estate near the new Barclays Center arena. We estimate that the enterprise value for the team and arena comes to $365 million. The Nets plan to move into their state-of-the art facility in 2012 and are expected to see sponsorship, premium seating and concession revenues of $75 million a year, $60 million more than what the team received at the IZOD Center last season. Debt service on the new building, which was financed with $511 in PILOT bonds, will be between $27 million and $30 million a year.
NoLandGrab: Can you guess the NBA's new most-valuable team? The New York Knicks.
Posted by eric at 9:19 AM
January 26, 2011
Nets coach is second-to-last in the standings, but standing tall with God
The Brooklyn Paper
by Gary Buiso
We'll save Norman Oder the trouble, and point out that while the Brooklyn Paper devotes ink to the preaching of the Nets' coach, it continues to ignore the Atlantic Yards EB-5 scam.
Praise the Lord and pass the roundball!
New Jersey Nets head man Avery Johnson delivered an impassioned sermon to an enthusiastic crowd at a Crown Heights church on Tuesday night, quoting from Proverbs and preaching about life — and predicting “pandemonium” when the team finally moves to Brooklyn.
“Have your applications ready,” Johnson advised the mostly black crowd at the First Baptist Church. “We’re bringing jobs, we’re bringing hope and excitement to Brooklyn!”
Avery’s squad barely has a prayer in the NBA’s Eastern Conference, where it has posted a 13-32 record — good for the less-than-inspirational second-to-last place.
“Everyone is telling me to keep my head up,” he said. “I’m not looking at New Jersey — I’ve got my eyes on Brooklyn!” he said to cheers.
...The talk was organized by the Mighty Men of Valor, a ministry at the church, which is led by the father of former Brooklyn Democratic Party boss Clarence Norman Jr.
NoLandGrab: Given the Nets' record, it's pretty obvious Johnson has taken his eye off New Jersey. So he might want to pray that he's still the coach should the Nets ever make it to Brooklyn.
Posted by eric at 10:59 AM
January 25, 2011
Cavaliers at Nets? Priceless (Almost)
The New York Times
by Benjamin Hoffman
For slightly less than the $2.50 cost of a single-ride MetroCard, a basketball fan could have treated himself and 21 of his friends to an N.B.A. game Monday night in Newark.
Early in the day, SlamOnline reported that tickets for the game between the Nets and the Cleveland Cavaliers were selling for as little as 25 cents each on the online ticket seller StubHub.com. That seemed to set off a bit of a price war, with many tickets falling below that price. By the time the site shut down ticket sales, the least expensive seats available were listed at just 11 cents for the game between the two worst teams in the Eastern Conference.
With 22 tickets available at that price, the total to buy them would have been $2.42, though service and delivery fees would have increased the total purchase to a whopping $12.37. A single fan traveling from New York City would spend almost that much just getting to the game and back; transportation from Manhattan to the Prudential Center via New Jersey Transit costs $5 each way.
NoLandGrab: And why, you might ask yourself, are New York's taxpayers kicking in more than a billion dollars to land a team for which the market demand is 11¢ a ticket?
Posted by eric at 4:19 PM
January 23, 2011
Mike Lupica, November 2005: "If Caring Bruce Ratner is still the owner of the Nets in five years, I'll eat my hat."
Atlantic Yards Report
New York Daily News sports columnist Mike Lupica wrote 11/13/05:
If Caring Bruce Ratner is still the owner of the Nets in five years, I'll eat my hat.
A Nets hat, even.
He doesn't want the team.
He never really did.
He wants the land.
Dan Doctoroff thought he didn't have to buy people left and right to push his agenda with the West Side Stadium, he was Deputy Mayor.
Ratner was much smarter about all this, which is why he's got all these "community leaders" on scholarship now.
Lupica was right (though it doesn't look like he wrote a follow-up). The sale of a majority interest to Mikhail Prokhorov was announced in September 2009.
Posted by steve at 11:26 AM
Dallas Mavericks beat Nets 87-86; former Net Jason Kidd wonders if move to Brooklyn will ever happen
New York Daily News
By Stefan Bondy
Jason Kidd sees fault in the Brooklyn strategy.
As the Nets continue their exhaustive search for Kidd's replacement - selling the outer borough to stars like LeBron James and Carmelo Anthony as a hip and trailblazing destination - the Mavs' guard spoke from experience last night when he said players can't see a future at the Barclays Center.
"Unless it's built, you can't believe it," Kidd said before Dallas edged the Nets, 87-86, courtesy of Dirk Nowitzki's game-winner with six seconds remaining. "Until it's built, guys can't, won't, believe it."
Posted by steve at 11:19 AM
January 21, 2011
Mikhail Prokhorov calling off pursuit of Carmelo Anthony trade shows that Nets have begun new era
NY Daily News
by Stefan Bondy
Mikhail Prokhorov sat in the press conference room at the Rock and owned it, just as he owns $17 billion worth in assets and a team of nondescript players unbecoming of his own personality. Just as he thought he could own Carmelo Anthony, with a simple pep talk and a new arena in Brooklyn.
Instead, his biggest moment as Net owner became a very public surrender, the waving of a white flag, as Prokhorov sold it as something far more proactive. Prokhorov is used to getting his way, but the business of the NBA is unlike anything he experienced while building an empire in post-communist Russia.
The players and their agents run the show here, at least until the collective bargaining agreement expires in July. And unfortunately for Prokhorov, the Nets still aren't the Knicks, no matter how much they trump up Brooklyn and distribute updates of the construction site in Atlantic Yards.
Posted by eric at 10:48 AM
January 20, 2011
No ’Melo, just more drama for Nets
Yahoo! Sports
by Adrian Wojnarowski
Ouch.
Mikhail Prokhorov can unfurl his portrait murals on the sides of Manhattan skyscrapers and marvel over the construction of his new basketball palace in Brooklyn. The Russian billionaire can promise championship parades within five seasons and employ exhaustive research to dispose of the Nets moniker and unwrap something new to call his franchise.
Only, there’s no scrubbing away the residue of decades of dysfunction and disarray with the fresh paint job. There’s no scrubbing it all away with carefully orchestrated news magazine profiles. Prokhorov isn’t the NBA’s most mysterious man, but one more clumsy, clueless creation of the commissioner’s endless failure to resurrect this franchise. All his money and clout and global reach, and yet Prokhorov and his posse look like one more incompetent ownership group killing time and brain cells until the lockout.
It was a stunning, senseless and perfectly fitting performance for Prokhorov on Wednesday night at the Prudential Center: As full-of-it grandstanding ploys go, Prokhorov was brilliant. Once he sensed the Nets couldn’t convince Carmelo Anthony to sign a contract extension, that his trip to the Rockies would be met with one more failure as owner, he made a dramatic declaration the Nets were done recruiting a deal and out of the running for Anthony.
This was no white knight sashaying into the States on a horse, but a basketball dummy on a donkey.
...One by one, they’re all passing over Prokhorov: LeBron James and Dwyane Wade, Amar’e Stoudemire and Chris Bosh. Carlos Boozer and Rudy Gay. A-listers and B-listers, and now ’Melo couldn’t be sold on the owner’s Brooklyn vision. Prokhorov was right to never get on the plane to avoid the public humiliation of ’Melo rejecting the Nets, so he used the bully pulpit on Russian Cultural Night in Newark to play the part of the bad-ass owner jetting in to take control of his franchise.
From the man whose charisma and mystique brought you Travis Outlaw and Johan Petro on the free-agent market, here was the white flag of surrender two months too late.
...’Melo is probably on his way to the New York Knicks, the Russian is headed back to Moscow and the Nets remain a punch line. All these billions of dollars, all these big, shiny ideas and tough talk, and it never, ever changes.
Same old sitcom, same old shameful scene. Same old Nets.
NoLandGrab: Unfortunately for Prokhorov, we're pretty sure his out clause expired when New York State handed the keys to Daniel Goldstein's home to Bruce Ratner.
Posted by eric at 11:33 AM
January 19, 2011
Prokhorov ends Nets’ pursuit of Anthony
Yahoo! Sports
by Adrian Wojnarowski
Meet the new boss. Same as the old boss.
In a stunning and surreal declaration during a live, televised news conference, Russian billionaire owner Mikhail Prokhorov declared his New Jersey Nets had canceled a planned Thursday meeting with Denver Nuggets star Carmelo Anthony(notes) and ended the Nets’ part in the long, acrimonious trade talks for the All-Star forward.
“It’s been too long and too expensive,” Prokhorov said.
New Jersey general manager Billy King sent text messages to Denver and Detroit officials to tell them that talks of a proposed three-team trade that would’ve brought Anthony to the Nets were done.
When asked who had been driving the talks over the past several months, Prokhorov said, “It was purely on the basketball level.”
Nevertheless, sources insist the Nets’ ownership and marketing sides had been relentless proponents of bringing Anthony to New Jersey as a prelude to their planned move to a new arena in Brooklyn in 2012.
Marketing? Et tu, Yormark?
NoLandGrab: Plan A, LeBron. Plan B, Dwyane Wade. Plan C, Chris Bosh. Plan D, 'Melo. Plan E, Teen Wolf?.
Related coverage...
Atlantic Yards Report, Yahoo columnist: Anthony deal, now off the table, was about marketing Brooklyn (and those unsold suites)
It can be tough to untangle the logic behind some basketball moves--did the Nets really want Yi Jianlian for his skills or for the China market?--and that issue has come up again, as the Nets have abandoned pursuit of Nuggets star Carmelo Anthony.
Posted by eric at 11:22 PM
January 17, 2011
Nets’ pitch to ’Melo: swing and miss?
Yahoo! Sports
by Adrian Wojnarowski
Mikhail Prokhorov is exactly halfway into his first season as Nets owner, and already, the bloom is off the oligarch.
The New Jersey Nets had strutted around so full of themselves: big talk, blustery billboards and puffed-up promises. Even so, no one bought into the myth of Mikhail Prokhorov the way they did within that forlorn franchise. The Nets treat the Russian owner like some deity, like a Euro Mark Cuban, when he’s little more than an absentee landlord cutting big checks and delivering delusional proclamations of championship parades inside of five seasons.
If the Nets truly need to sell Carmelo Anthony on accepting the trade and signing a contract extension, they’re a bigger lost cause than they’ve ever been. The Nets can’t let Prokhorov and Jay-Z get on a jet and go sell that now because this process has already cost them too much credibility – and because billionaires aren’t supposed to beg. Make no mistake: The manufactured aura of this ownership dream team will be obliterated with a ’Melo rejection.
...The Nets’ suits need to sell sponsorships and fill a new arena in 2012 for a franchise that barely has a fan base in Jersey – never mind one that resonates across the Hudson River.
Yes, everyone senses desperation with these Nets – the Nuggets, ’Melo’s agents – and that’s for good reason. They’re selling and selling, but no one’s been buying the big, mysterious Russian billionaire who actually isn’t such a mystery after all. He doesn’t know the NBA. He doesn’t like the Internet because he says there’s too much information. He barely had any thoughts about who to hire or why. And he’s never around anyway.
Through it all this summer, New Jersey ran TV ads promoting salary-cap space. The Nets thrust bigger-than-life murals of ownership on the sides of skyscrapers and even shadowed Madison Square Garden with that Prokhorov/Jay-Z “Blueprint for Success” monstrosity. They taunted the Knicks, and promptly crumbled back to the bottom of the Eastern Conference.
All of the bravado was wildly entertaining, and all of it completely without substance. Blueprint? There’s no blueprint, just a serious of shots in the dark.
NoLandGrab: Wow, Brooklyn's getting all this, and it only cost we taxpayers a couple billion dollars? What a deal.
Related coverage...
Moreover, [Wojnarowski] says the Nets just keep giving in their trade talks. Now, they've agreed to add three first round picks (including two of their own) and Damion James to the list of Denver's settled demands, having already agreed to give up Derrick Favors, Devin Harris, Anthony Morrow, etc., etc. " "The Nets are behaving in a most desperate way and trying too hard to validate Prokhorov’s relevance in the sport. Anthony treats the Nets like the unattractive girl he refuses to tell his friends he’s seeing on the side."
Meanwhile, other writers in other precincts tell similar tales of desperation on all sides of the 'Melo Drama.
NLG: Can't be long now before NetsDaily commenters start a movement to bring back the second-worst owner in sports.
Atlantic Yards Report, As Nets continue pursuit of Carmelo Anthony, the Prokhorov backlash
Posted by eric at 9:49 PM
Projecting the New Jersey Nets: Now and Later
Newark Examiner
by Gregory Hrinya
More NBA fantasy talk, involving potential trades and free-agent signings (remember how well that worked out this year?) that will thrust the Nets into the league's elite for their move to Brooklyn.
But will the deal happen? Absolutely.
While Anthony undoubtedly has reservations about playing with the soon-to-be Brooklyn Nets, his own management is pushing him that way.
His agents, Leon Rose and William Wesley, want in on Mikhail Prokhorov's power and influence. While their whispers might sway the Nuggets star, the Nets' future surely will.
...Rose and Wesley are preaching Atlantic Yards, Brooklyn billboards, and an owner with endless pockets. They're preaching a rivalry with the Knicks and a team, if not city, Melo can call his own.
Luring Chris Paul is just as crucial. Could it happen? Just ask Paul's agent.... Leon Rose.
NoLandGrab: Meanwhile, back on Planet Earth, the Nets are holding down the 4th-worst record in the NBA, which, it must be said, is an improvement on last season.
Posted by eric at 10:35 AM
January 13, 2011
Empire wing of mind! Jay-Z invests big in Downtown chicken joint
The Brooklyn Paper
by Andy Campbell
He’s not a businessman; he’s a business, man — and that’s why rapper Jay-Z’s investment in Downtown’s newest wing joint has already put it on the map.
The King of Brooklyn just dumped some cash-money — and his famous name — on his cousin’s three-month-old chicken wing spot, Buffalo Boss, near Flatbush Avenue Extension.
...White wouldn’t disclose exactly how much was invested, but funding is a mute point once Mr. Z’s instantly recognizable moniker is tied to a business.
Take the Nets for example. The rapper formerly known as Shawn Carter was an original one-percent shareholder in the team — yet was paraded around by the ailing team’s ownership like he was the managing general partner. Jay-Z now owns a tiny fraction of that fraction — yet he’s still the public face of the Brooklyn-bound team as it prepares to move to the Barclays Center in Bruce Ratner’s Atlantic Yards mega-development.
Posted by eric at 10:06 AM
January 11, 2011
Window Closing Again on Melodrama
NetsAreScorching
by Mark Ginocchio
The bad soap opera otherwise known as the New Jersey Nets is taking its toll on fans. Take Mark Ginocchio, for example.
In a move that should surprise nobody who’s been following this saga since the Fall, new reports late last night indicate that talks between the Nets, Nuggets and Pistons are moving further and further away from the goal line and a Carmelo Anthony to Nets trade is in jeopardy.
...From my perspective, the problem is this has become a lose-lose proposition. With reports out there that Mikhail Prokhorov apparently wants ‘Melo at any cost, even suggesting he would forgo an extension, the Nuggets have the Nets over a barrel with no leverage. If the Nets end up having to take on a contract like Al Harrington’s, just to make this deal happen, it would be a terrible deal from a cap flexibility perspective, and it would make it increasingly more difficult for the Nets to get Chris Paul in 2012, which I think should be the ultimate end game here. But the Nets have also come too far to watch this deal collapses. With 8 players on the roster rumored to move, this team is surely all but mentally lost right now, and if this talks last until the deadline in mid-February, the toxicity around this organization gets worse and worse.
Then there are the fear mongerers around the legitimate media and blogging community who believe if Anthony ends up as a Knick then Brooklyn “fails.” For one, what is the definition of failure here? Is construction going to stop in Brooklyn and Daniel Goldstein going to get his condo back? Would David Stern, after sticking his neck for Brooklyn, then Prokhorov, going to contract the Nets if they don’t sell out every game for their first five seasons? It’s a paranoid argument being used by those to capitalize on the inferiority complex of a fan base. I, for one, will continue to support this team with or without ‘Melo, New Jersey or Brooklyn. I root for the New Jersey Nets, not the stock price of Forest City Ratner, or Prokhorov’s Onexim.
NoLandGrab: A political opponent once quipped about then-presidential candidate George H.W. Bush that he was "born on third base and thought he hit a triple." Well, it seems that Nets' owner Mikhail Prokhorov was handed a sweetheart deal on former Soviet state assets and thought he was a charismatic Russian Warren Buffett.
Posted by eric at 11:04 AM
December 25, 2010
LeBron Likes the Idea of NBA Contraction
The Big Lead
Here’s LeBron James talking about how contracting a couple – I say four – NBA teams could help the NBA:
“Just imagine if you could take Kevin Love off Minnesota and add him to another team,” he said. “Or, looking at some of the teams that’s not that great, you take Brook Lopez or you take Devin Harris off these teams that’s not that good right now and add ‘em to a team that could be really good.
“I’m not saying, ‘Let’s take New Jersey, let’s take Minnesota out of the league.’ But, hey you guys are not stupid. I’m not stupid. I know what would be great for the league.”
Couldn’t agree more with LeBron. If it’ll help the league avoid a labor stoppage next summer, then contract four teams. How to determine who gets the ax? You can look at attendance figures, consecutive years of ineptitude, or at owners who don’t seem to give a shit.
If we were going to trim the league from 30 teams, we’d dial it back to 26. Four teams we’d target:
...
New Jersey Nets - Have more history than the two teams above, and their fortunes could change dramatically if they trade for Carmelo Anthony … but they’d be one of our four to go
Posted by steve at 8:51 AM
December 24, 2010
LeBron James not a Nets' fan
Bergen Record
Do we smell an LBJ-Hova feud coming on?
LeBron James thinks the NBA is watered down and hinted that contraction of teams, including the Nets, might not be a bad idea.
Speaking to reporters before Thursday night's game against the Phoenix Suns, James defended his decision to join Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh in Miami by saying the league was more popular in the 1980s because there were more teams with multiple star players.
..."Looking at some of the teams that aren't that great, you take Brook Lopez or you take Devin Harris off these teams that aren't that good right now and you add him to a team that could be really good. Not saying let's take New Jersey and let's take Minnesota out of the league. But hey, you guys are not stupid, I'm not stupid, it would be great for the league."
NoLandGrab: And the Nets wanted us to believe they actually had a shot at signing James?
Posted by eric at 10:21 AM
December 23, 2010
Prokhorov Tells Russian Media Nets Have "Explosive Profit Potential"
NetsDaily
In an interview published Thursday in Vedmosti, Russia's leading financial journal, Mikhail Prokhorov once again says the Nets will be NBA champions by 2015 and that his investment in the team and arena will be worth $700 million as soon as they move to Brooklyn in 2012. He also expects to earn an annual profit of $30 million in Brooklyn.
Prokhorov called the Nets a "project with explosive profit potential" noting, "We have a team, we're building the arena, we've hired professional management". He adds that he also holds an option to buy part (20%) of the overall Atlantic Yards. As for the current situation, the Nets' owner tries to divert the interviewer from their on-court problems by playfully noting they have just added draft picks!
NoLandGrab: As they say in Moscow, yada yada yada. And he forgot to reiterate his claim that they would make the playoffs this season.
Posted by eric at 6:26 PM
December 22, 2010
The Brooklyn New Yorkers? - Found in connection with IN THE FOOTPRINT
THE CIVILIANS BLOG
It looks like the current new name for The New Jersey Nets when they move into the Barclays Stadium in Brooklyn is THE BROOKLYN NEW YORKERS.
...Too bad they didn't ask our audinece members at the Let Me Ascertain You: Atlantic Yards cabaret, where we asked our audience members what they thought would make a good team name. Some suggestions were:
The Daniel Goldsteins
The Brooklyn Baby-Strollers
and
The New York Nyetsnot to mention the suggestion in In the Footprint of the New York Chipmunks.
Posted by eric at 10:35 AM
December 20, 2010
Nets battle perceptions?
NetsDaily
Even as Barclays Center construction goes horizontal as well as vertical –with steel for the first floor being installed last week– there remains within the sports industry, and among the team’s fans, confusion about the move to Brooklyn.
Sports Business Journal reports the perception of a clouded future has caused the organization to hire an ad agency with the sole purpose of making sure everyone knows “we’re here and there’s a lot going on.” The first step was a reception last week, hosted by Bruce Ratner and Nets chairman Christophe Charlier, to dispel the confusion and let 100 sponsors and season ticket holders know the arena will be done by summer of 2012.
Related coverage...
SportsBusiness Journal, Barclays Center pitch: We’re here and have a lot going on [Trial subscription required]
Last week, Barclays Center officials gathered their business partners for what was billed as the first corporate summit for the long-delayed 19,500-seat Brooklyn arena, scheduled to open in 2012.
NoLandGrab: Hope this ad campaign works better than their Knicks-taunting effort, as the rejuvenated 16-12 Knicks are playing to sold-out MSG crowds while the woeful (again) 8-20 Nets find themselves last in the league in attendance. Maybe Brett Yormark should spend a little less time talking to NY Times reporters and a little more time working his "genius."
Posted by eric at 10:22 AM
December 18, 2010
NJ/BKN NETS ~ C'Mon!? Brooklyn New Yorkers? Really?
Brooklyn Trolley Blogger
Of all the things to be outraged concerning Atlantic Yards (eminent domain abuse, a sweetheart deal, etc.), this has to be near the bottom of the list.
Don't even waste my time; It's Brooklyn or nothing! Anything other than Brooklyn will be a colossal mistake. A populace of 2.5 million should play second fiddle to no one.
Posted by steve at 8:05 AM
December 17, 2010
Roman Abramovich just a ‘poor’ relation to compatriot rolling into town
London Evening Standard
by Michael Weinstein
Forget William and Kate — Londoners can hardly contain themselves in anticipation of the big March showdown between the Nets and Toronto Raptors, two teams battling for last place in the NBA's Eastern Conference.
Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich will briefly lose his status as the richest Russian in town when the New Jersey Nets' Moscow contingent roll into London next March.
Abramovich (£7.1billion) trails Nets owner Mikhail Prokhorov (£8.5bn) in the Forbes rich list, although neither can hold a candle to Russia's mightiest oligarch, Vladimir Lisin, the 32nd richest man in the world with a £10bn fortune.
Chris Charlier, the Nets chairman who represents Prokhorov on the boards of six Russian companies, vowed: “Mikhail will be there in London.
“We'll come in force from Moscow and there will be a big Russian contingent. We're still in the process of getting Russia's people to think of the Nets as Russia's team and London is a big part of getting that done.”
...The former owner of CSKA Moscow's football and basketball set-up had to pass stringent NBA tests before he was voted in by his new peers in the summer.
NoLandGrab: If by "pass stringent NBA tests" they mean "prove that he wasn't Bruce Ratner, then by all means, yes he did.
Posted by eric at 10:51 AM
'Brooklyn New Yorkers' Is a Terrible, Terrible NBA Team Name
The Atlantic Wire
by Ray Gustini
Seriously?
 |
Nets Daily, which broke the story, notes attorneys from the Philadelphia law firm Pepper Hamilton "sought trademark protection for the name, "Brooklyn New Yorkers", three logos featuring either a basketball or a basketball player and the Brooklyn Bridge and even a slogan, "We Come to Play." In each case, the trademark sought is for clothing including among other things: shirts, jerseys, jackets, athletic uniforms, headbands, hats, caps and footwear." Additionally, the domain name brooklynnewyorkers.com was recently registered through a proxy service.
Basketball fans struggled to contain their aesthetic outrage.
Click below if you want links to any more of this silliness.
NoLandGrab: By comparison, that logo almost makes the arena attractive.
Posted by eric at 10:37 AM
December 16, 2010
Could the NJ Nets Become the Brooklyn New Yorkers? Fuggedaboutit!
NBC New York
by Jonathan Eiseman
The New Jersey Nets are a team that has been going through a lot of changes. A new owner in Mikhail Prokorov, new players in Sasha Vujacic, and a possible new home in Brooklyn’s Atlantic Yards. Could a new name come along with that?
NoLandGrab: For the record, our favorite name choice remains the New Jersey Nets.
Posted by eric at 10:07 AM
December 14, 2010
’Tis the Season
Nets Giving Away Toys, and Wins, During Holidays
Brooklyn Daily Eagle
by John Torenli
Though things have been tough on the court for the New Jersey (soon-to-be-Brooklyn) Nets of late, that didn’t prevent starting center Brook Lopez, rookie forward Derrick Favors and reserve players Ben Uzoh, Quinton Ross, Stephen Graham and Joe Smith from spreading a little holiday cheer in our fair borough Monday.
...New Jersey has dropped a season-high seven in a row and nine of 11 to slip into last place in the Atlantic Division at 6-18 after beginning the campaign with the promise of a new coach, Avery Johnson, and new ownership in Russian billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov.
NoLandGrab: Make that 6-19. Didn't Mikhail Prokhorov guarantee the play-offs this season?
Posted by eric at 9:28 PM
Nets donate toys to children at Borough Hall, with sponsorship; press release generates coverage
Atlantic Yards Report
In case you're wondering how an event generates "news" (such as coverage in the New York Post's Brooklyn blog and Prospect Heights Patch), consider this press release, issued by the New Jersey Nets and then by Borough President Marty Markowitz's office.
Note that Brook Lopez got bumped up to "star" in the headline, and the entire cast, most of them unknowns, were deemed "stars" in Patch, which did manage to get some candor from Lopez about how a sports team's move is "always tough."
Note the role of the Salvation Army, which has sent representatives to public hearings to support the Atlantic Yards project.
Also note the hand of marketer Brett Yormark, who manages to shoehorn in another Nets sponsor to get some publicity. Paging Daniel Boorstin?
Posted by eric at 11:02 AM
December 13, 2010
Are The New Jersey Nets Set To Become The 'Brooklyn New Yorkers'?
SB Nation
by Andrew Sharp
We just checked the calendar, which swears it's not April 1st.
Mikhail Prokhorov arrived on America's with big dreams and plan to make the New Jersey Nets the hottest ticket in the NBA. It takes time, though. One awesome billboard across from the Knicks isn't going to change decades of history. But moving to Brooklyn, with a state-of-the-art arena and a new name? That might do the trick.
Unless, of course, you opt for a nickname like the "Brooklyn New Yorkers." And according to SB Nation's Nets Daily, it certainly looks like they're leaning in that direction:
On September 30, two lawyers associated with a large Philadelphia law firm sought trademark protection for the name, "Brooklyn New Yorkers", three logos featuring either a basketball or a basketball player and the Brooklyn Bridge as well as a slogan, "We Come to Play".
[...] Separately, the url, brooklynnewyorkers.com, has also been registered in recent months. The url was registered through a proxy domain register. The owner is not identified.
HOLD UP: Are these people serious?
Posted by eric at 11:09 PM
Nets deliver toys to Brooklyn children
The Brooklyn Blog [NYPost.com]
by Rich Calder
Now here's a heart-warming story after that eminent domain downer.
Nets star Brook Lopez and four teammates came to their future home borough today to dish out 1,100 toys for Brooklyn children.
Lopez and teammates Derrick Favors, Damion James, Ben Uzoh, Quinton Ross, Stephen Graham, and Joe Smith gathered at Brooklyn Borough Hall for a holiday party where they helped distribute toys for needy children from five Salvation Army community centers in Brooklyn.
Wow, a veritable who's who? of NBA stars.
The toys were donated by the Barclays/Nets Community Alliance, which includes a partnership among Barclays, the Nets and Forest City Ratner Companies. Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz, and representatives of The Salvation Army and National Grid also attended the event.
"Every year during the Holiday season we celebrate and are thankful for what we have," said developer Bruce Ratner, chairman and CEO of Forest City Ratner Companies. "There is no better way to do this than by remembering and helping those who are less fortunate.”
He means "thankful for what we have been given by the State of New York, and the City. And the "better way" would be to give it back.
NoLandGrab: We wonder how many kids ended up in tears when they realized Amar'e Stoudemire wasnt coming?
Related coverage...
Prospect Heights Patch, Nets Players Distribute Gifts to Delighted Children
Asked how he felt about moving from New Jersey to Brooklyn, Lopez said. "Everybody has been welcoming, it's been a very positive experience."
But when prodded, Lopez admitted the move is bittersweet. "Whenever a sports team switches locations it's always tough," he said, adding, "Hopefully the way we have been playing will be good enough to have a few fans come with us."
6-18? Where do we sign up?
But 8-year-old Malakai Williams, of Bushwick, seemed less than impressed.
After getting her basketball autographed by Lopez, she said LeBron James was her favorite player, adding, with a sigh, "I wish he could be here."
New Jersey Nets Press Release, NETS C Lopez and Teammates to Deliver Toys to Brooklyn Children
Posted by eric at 10:55 PM
December 9, 2010
Times profile of Brett and Michael Yormark: in response to "opponents of the arena," twins "sniff at their critics"
Atlantic Yards Report
In an article headlined in print "Yormark Twins Put Their Marks on Nets and Panthers" and online as Twins that Look Alike, and Work Alike, the New York Times Sports section offers a predictable profile of uber-marketers Brett Yormark of the basketball Nets and Michael Yormark of the Florida Panthers hockey team.
(The article does come with an oddly dismaying photo of the twins at a Nets game, busy with their Blackberries, while Brett's children look off into the crowd.)
...Meanwhile, reporter Ken Belson, practicing "he said, she said" journalism, doesn't try to evaluate what [Daniel] Goldstein said.
Yormark has moved the goalpoasts, as I described in a January 2009 post that weaved together several statements, embedded below.
Posted by eric at 4:50 PM
Twins that Look Alike, and Work Alike
The New York Times
by Ken Belson
Must be a slow news day at The Times, which, almost inconceivably, spills yet more ink on Brett Yormark, CEO of the New York metro area's losingest pro sports team. And they toss in his brother as a bonus.
As salesmen, the identical twins talk relentlessly about the future, perhaps for good reason: The Nets won just 12 games last season, and the Panthers have not made the playoffs in a decade. They seem to relish the uphill battles, and they seem uninterested in joining big-name teams that would be easier to sell.
Big-name teams, which, no doubt, have not offered them jobs.
“We’ve both worked for franchises that are challenged, which breeds more creativity and competitiveness,” Brett said. “We’ve made the most of it.”
Detractors, including executives at rival clubs, contend that the Yormarks chase too many small deals. One sports consultant said last year that the Nets devalued their brand by giving away reversible jerseys with a Nets player on one side and stars like Kobe Bryant on the other side. Michael takes heat from Canadians opposed to any hockey team in Florida, while Brett has been criticized by opponents of the arena the Nets are building in Brooklyn.
“We, who have observed him, have learned not to take him at his word,” said Daniel Goldstein, a co-founder of Develop Don’t Destroy Brooklyn. “He, along with other people involved with the Nets and the Brooklyn arena, have moved the goal posts numerous times.”
The Yormarks sniff at their critics. “There are benefits of working in nontraditional environments,” Michael said. “I like to wake up in the morning and be ultracreative. It’s forced us to diversify.”
NoLandGrab: "Wake up in the morning?" Wait, we thought the Yormark boys went to bed in the morning and woke up in the evening on their way to working 36 hour days. Just ask them.
Posted by eric at 4:38 PM
December 1, 2010
He Shall Overcome: Jay-Z Is $450 M Beyond the Marcy Projects. Where Does He Go From Here?
NY Observer
by Rachel Kaadzi Ghansah
Another installment in "The Legend of Jay-Z," almost as long as his new book.
He vacations in the South of France; he makes songs with Coldplay's Chris Martin about sitting in his beach chair; and he cracks jokes over dinner with Bill Clinton. In the years since he divided his record label and clothing kingdom, Roc-A-Fella Records and Rocawear, between himself and his former partners, Jay-Z has spread his money and influence out into the city. From 2004 to 2007, he was president of the record company Def Jam. He is a minority owner of the New Jersey Nets with Bruce Ratner and Mikhail Prokhorov and in on their Barclays Center project in Brooklyn. Jay-Z holds a 1.5 percent stake in the team.
...At the groundbreaking, Jay-Z, Beyoncé and Mr. Ratner sat together on the platform. Everyone was smiling, and then Marty Markowitz, the bouncy Brooklyn borough president, stepped forward anxiously to introduce Jay-Z and gush over his beautiful wife. Cluelessly, Mr. Markowitz then praised him for making it from "bricks to billboards." Sure, it was an allusion to one of Jay-Z's lyrics, but bricks is one of the better-known slang terms for packages of cocaine. Jay-Z's very formidable face froze and then bulged with shock. One wonders if he will ever be able to leave the bricks behind. If anyone will ever let him. When I emailed Marty Markowitz for a comment, he emailed me a paragraph that once again mentioned "bricks to billboards." It is hard to know if Jay-Z's past is a concern to him in business. Maybe he doesn't even care.
Posted by eric at 9:40 AM
November 30, 2010
N.J. Nets vs. N.Y. Knicks ~ Don't Ignore The Buzz
New York Knicks vs. New Jersey Nets: You're Lying If You Don't Believe There's A Different Buzz About This Now.
Brooklyn Trolley Blogger
The naysayers can down-play this all they want. "They" will point to the fact the 6-11 Nets still play in front of sparse crowds in Newark and to their abysmal record last season. The Nets also had their off-season hopes unrealized to a large extent while the Knicks overhauled their roster with 10 new players including Amare Stoudemire. I will cede the fact this is not the sexiest rivalry in the Metro area, the NBA, or in Sports. I know. The fact both franchises have struggled mightily in recent years pretty much means both teams and fan bases are starting from scratch in a sense. The Nets had to dismantle their Conference Championship teams and drifted into obscurity out in the No-Man's MeadowLands. The Knicks' fan base just wanted to get as far away from the Isiah Thomas Inferno as possible. Madison Square Garden even "had to" initiate a complete renovation because of the damage wrought by Demolition Zeke. And of course, the building of the Barclays Center in Brooklyn should not go under-spoken.
...What started when Bruce Ratner announced plans to bring the team to Brooklyn was just a flare in the middle of nowhere. No one ever could get a feel for the news with all the "what ifs". But, here we are. I drove by the Barclays site today. There's steal beams rising like mighty Red Woods. We build from this and keep moving forward.
NoLandGrab: [Yawn.] We're sorry — what did you say? [Yawn.] BTB must be mistaking our snoring for buzz.
Posted by eric at 10:48 PM
The Knicks Aren’t About to Let the Nets Claim Brooklyn for Themselves
New York Magazine
by Joe DeLessio
More Knicks vs. Nets foolishness.
Remember how, back during the height of LeBronmaina, the Nets erected a billboard near Madison Square Garden with the heading "The Blueprint for Success?" It appears the time has come for the Knicks to fight back with some targeted marketing of their own. Earlier this month, the Knicks erected a Brooklyn-specific billboard just blocks from Atlantic Yards, the future site of the Nets' new arena. (You can read about the billboard here; just don't spend too much time reflecting on this quote, from a concerned hoops fan from Bed-Stuy: "Putting a billboard up like that so close to the Barclays Center, it's like putting a mosque near Ground Zero. I'm up in arms about this.") Then over the weekend, MSG — which, like the Knicks, is owned by the Dolans — aired a commercial for tomorrow's Knicks-Nets game in which the narrator explains, "Hey Nets, you can walk like us, you can talk like us, but you ain't never gonna be like us." Your move, Prokhorov.
Posted by eric at 10:00 AM
November 29, 2010
Knicks or Nets? Yawn.
The Brooklyn Paper
Two bloggers, who blog about the Knicks and Nets, debate why Brooklynites should root for their respective teams, in a waste of Brooklyn Paper bandwidth.
Nets will become Brooklyn
by Jaime Oppenheim
Nets owner Mikhail Prokhorov and minor owner Jay-Z speak the borough’s language: swagger. They are unapologetically and unrelentingly authentic in everything they do. The duo’s “Blueprint for Greatness” marketing campaign had less to do with puffery and more to do with stating intentions. The Nets are going to reach the same heights Prokhorov and Jay-Z have reached in building their respective empires. It’s not arrogance, it’s confidence. It’s Brooklyn.
In the end, the battle for Brooklyn’s basketball fandom isn’t likely to be determined on the court. Neither the Nets nor the Knicks are poised for substantial success in the immediate future. Your basketball allegiance will come down to which organization you feel most connected to. When the Nets move into the Barclays Center in 2012, their foundation will settle deep into Brooklyn’s soil, all the way down to the open wound left when the Dodgers were uprooted and moved to Los Angeles over 50 years ago.
NoLandGrab: Authentic? Like dropping Shawn Carter for Jay-Z?
Nets are carpetbaggers
by Mike Kurylo
In order to convince Brooklynites to stay loyal to the New York Knicks, I could portray the New Jersey Nets as “carpetbaggers.” The Reconstruction-era term describes those that move to a new location to exploit the locals. I could mention that the Nets are unstable with regards to their location, having multiple homes during their short existence (Long Island Arena, Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum, Rutgers Athletic Center, and Izod Center). I could imply that Brooklyn will be their new home until their next new home, and like the Dodgers before them they could head for another city. I could mention the Nets miserable history, and as bad as the Knicks have been recently the Nets have been worse. Just last year, the Nets lost a franchise high 70 games.
Posted by eric at 8:52 AM
November 28, 2010
New Jersey Nets: 3 Men Get Thorn Out
Bleacher Report
by Leslie Monteiro
Former Nets President Rod Thorn must really miss working with marketing "genius" Brett Yormark.
When Rod Thorn left the Nets this summer, something was not right. He would not have left the franchise in turmoil. He's not a quitter.
Thorn was eager to work for Mikhail Prokhorov, the Nets' new owner. He knew he could win with the billionaire's money. Unfortunately, that marriage was shorter than Tony Parker and Eva Longoria's.
When Thorn took the Sixers job this summer, people had questions about his decision. The answer came when he told New York Post's Peter Vecsey that he hated working for Nets CEO Brett Yormark.
Yormark fired back, saying the Nets have work to do after Rod's 12-70 season last year. Those were fighting words by both men, and it became clear that Thorn's departure was ugly.
...Yormark's assertion on Thorn is amusing. Only he knows why he thinks he is the expert. He was hired to market the team, but he failed miserably. Now he thinks he can operate a franchise?
If one guy has to go, it's Yormark. He embarrassed the organization by yelling at a fan last year. He ripped fans for not going to games. He did everything possible to alienate people in New Jersey by marketing to New Yorkers.
What does Prokhorov see in him? Yormark has done a fine job of BSing his way for years. He is part of the problem. Unless he goes, this franchise will go nowhere.
Posted by eric at 9:35 PM
November 23, 2010
New Jersey Nets Looking Bad in 2010-2011
FSN Sports
Something's lost in translation here, but the bottom line is that the Nets are still bad.
NBA wagering on-line woes could not get any worse to the New Jersey Nets following they went 12-70 survive season in 1 from the worst seasons from the history of your NBA. The Nets have opened at the on the web sportsbook as a +9500 longshot to acquire the NBA title, but there is lengthy term optimism towards the long term.
New Owner — Bruce Ratner was not just one particular of the worst owners inside the NBA, he’s 1 in the worst owners in all of sports. Ratner is finally out as he simply lacked the bucks to create a legitimate go of it plus the Nets are now owned by Russian businessman Mikhail Prokhorov. The brand new ownership has the money to bankroll a contender and ground has been broken on a brand new arena in Brooklyn. Prokorov has talked about a 5 year window for the Nets winning a title and that might be a small ambitious.
Posted by eric at 11:30 AM
November 22, 2010
Six Months Into "The Prokhorov Era", He and Nets Rebuilding...Patiently
NetsDaily
"Net Income" continues his love affair with Mikhail Prokhorov.
It's been six months (and nine losses in 13 games) since Mikhail Prokhorov bought the Nets from Bruce Ratner after what seemed to be an interminable wait.
Prokhorov has invested or committed about a half billion in the Nets, when the amounts he paid for pieces of the team and arena ($200 million), agreed to pay off in corporate debt ($175 million), accepted in future losses ($60 million) and invested in arena infrastructure ($77 million) are tallied up. Then, there's the $4 million he's committed to break the lease at the IZOD Center and the millions he's invested in basketball operations.
Most of that money, say team insiders, has long been transferred or spent.
Is he getting his moneys' worth? In terms of product on the court, no, not yet. In terms of positive publicity for his worldwide businesses, oh yes. It's inconceivable that "60 Minutes", the New York Times Sunday Magazine or Bloomberg TV would have spent so much time on him if he was still just the gold and aluminum baron of Siberia. As he has said, it's the best business card in the world.
So how goes "The Prokhorov Era" for Nets fans? Tighten the straps on your hard hat. Lots of work left to do.
...And while "The Rock" is a dramatic improvement over the Izod, the Nets rank 28th in raw attendance and 24th in percentage of seats filled...in spite of big discount deals with ticket re-sellers. Jay-Z has only been to one game. To make matters worse, the Knicks just had their most successful West Coast swing ever while the Nets had a frustrating, mediocre run in the Pacific and Mountain time zones. So much for the "Blueprint for Greatness".
Posted by eric at 8:55 AM
November 16, 2010
Knicks to Brooklyn: We are your team
The Brooklyn Paper
by Joe Melillo and Stephen Brown
Remarkably, the Brooklyn Paper devoted two reporters to this non-story.
 |
The New York Knicks have decided that it’s not enough to battle the Nets on the court — the team is now taking the fight to the streets of Brooklyn in hopes of recruiting fans of the soon-to-be-Brooklyn Nets.
A huge billboard at Flatbush and Seventh avenues urges drivers on their way towards the Barclays Center site to defect to the Manhattan-based basketball team.
The local intelligentsia is up in arms.
“Putting a billboard up like that so close to the Barclays Center, it’s like putting a mosque near Ground Zero,” said basketball fanatic Chris Tucker of Bedford-Stuyvesant. “I’m up in arms about this.”
...“We’re insulted because the Knicks are coming in here while we’re trying to get a basketball team,” said Flatbush resident Chiloupe Washington.
Seriously?
Additional (believe it or not) coverage...
Gothamist, Knicks Invade Atlantic Yards with New Billboard
Photo: Joseph Melillo/The Brooklyn Paper
Posted by eric at 8:34 AM
November 15, 2010
"Our history is the borough right now": the Nets' selling point is their new home's "authentic" history
Atlantic Yards Report
A Wall Street Journal article today, headlined Selling Tickets the New Jersey Way, contrasts the two teams playing in Newark's Prudential Center:
Their starkest difference relates to their home state; the Devils have embraced New Jersey, while the Nets are increasingly shifting their focus to a future in Brooklyn that is slated to begin in the 2012-2013 season at a new arena in Atlantic Yards.
"Unfortunately, New Jersey never gave the team enough support on a consistent basis," said Fred Mangione, the Nets senior vice president of ticket sales and marketing, though he added, "We market and sell in New Jersey like we're never leaving."
Still, the team's Midtown headquarters is an ode to the outerborough. The team may be pitching wealthy potential suite-holders from Manhattan in Manhattan, but the marketing pitch is all Brooklyn.
Of course, the Nets' attachment to Brooklyn is all manufactured. As I explained last June, the Barclays Center markets "brownstone" and "loft" suites, and a canvas bag distributed at the groundbreaking places the giant arena next to the Brooklyn Bridge.
"New residents are using this idea of authenticity to soften their entrance into Brooklyn," observed academic and former Brooklynite Jonathan Silverman at the Dreamland Pavilion conference in October 2009.
...Of course, to establish that history they had to demolish buildings with their own history, such as the Spalding sporting goods factory recycled into handsome lofts or the Ward Bakery, moribund but certainly with significant potential for rehabilitation, as with a Newark cousin.
Posted by eric at 12:53 PM
Selling Tickets the New Jersey Way
The Wall Street Journal
by Sophia Hollander
An article about the ticket-selling challenges faced by the New Jersey Devils and the New Jersey Nets is most noteworthy for this factoid: the Nets may actually have managed to unsell some Barclays Center suites in the past four months!
"It's all about Brooklyn and it's all about the building," said [Fred] Mangione [Nets senior vice president of ticket sales and marketing], who said the team has commitments for 30 suites, though they have not begun selling regular tickets to the new building. "Yes, the team is there, but it's just as important for us to pitch the concerts and the boxing and everything else."
Regular readers of NoLandGrab or Atlantic Yards Report will recall this AYR item from July 12:
Either Nets Sports & Entertainment CEO Brett Yormark was spinning very, very hard back in 2008 or Nets suite sales have really slowed down--or both.
Since May 2008, 26 months ago, they've only sold nine suites, by my count, given that 26 were sold to insiders and the total sold is now 35.
(It's also possible that some who initially committed have backed out.)
Opening promises
On 5/5/08, Crain's New York Business reported:
Already, 20% of the 130 luxury boxes have been sold to “friends and family,” says Nets Sports Entertainment CEO Brett Yormark.
That's 26 suites.
In an 11/17/08 interview with the never-skeptical Alexis Glick of Fox Business News, Yormark stated, "We’ll be in Brooklyn for the 11-12 NBA season. We’ll probably be in Brooklyn actively in the summer of 2011. So give us a little time to gain some traction. We’ve presold our suites to the tune of about 30 percent."
That would mean 39 suites, if the total at that time was still 130. Or that would mean 30 suites, if the number had dipped to 100 (as was announced ten months later, in September 2009).
Posted by eric at 12:40 PM
November 10, 2010
Nets to Become "Brooklyn Ballers"? Fuggedaboutit! Says Team
NetsDaily
Sam Amico of FOX Sports quotes a Nets "insider" as saying the team won't be known as the Nets once they move to Brooklyn, and that "Brooklyn Ballers" is one name being "floated". Amico adds that the team will have to be called "Brooklyn". The Knicks "don't want another 'New York,' and word is, they made a stink about it." Amico adds that he prefers "Brooklyn Dodgers".
Before the Nets-Cavaliers game reached halftime, a team spokesman called the report totally false.
NoLandGrab: Our guess is that, given yesterday's court ruling, the team will be called the New Jersey Nets.
Posted by eric at 8:54 AM
November 7, 2010
Nets tickets on deep discount via Groupon
Atlantic Yards Report
It's no surprise that tickets to Nets games can be had for a song; after all, as the Record reported upon the season opener, those looking online could find a "$200 list-price ticket for $50, a $40 ticket for $10, or a $20 ticket for an amazing 47 cents."
Yesterday, Nets tickets went on sale via the Groupon group buying service, offering $100 list price tickets for $35 and $200 tickets for $75. Spectators can choose from five different weekday/Sunday games against the Atlanta Hawks, the Portland Trail Blazers, the Oklahoma City Thunder, and the Washington Wizards.
The deal "tipped" (reached the minimum) yesterday with 50 bought; now the total is 759. Every little bit must help, from the Nets' perspective, but that's still fewer than 152 tickets per game.
Is the failure to sell more tickets a sign that Newark and environs is unready to support the Nets? That the team isn't compelling? That "sports entertainment" has a rather high cost? I suspect the latter more than anything.
NoLandGrab: The most interesting thing about the Nets continues to be the owner.
Posted by steve at 1:17 PM
November 6, 2010
Tracy Collins breaks it down: the Knicks' "You Us We Now" Brooklyn outreach
Atlantic Yards Report
Click on the graphics to enlarge, and click here and here for Tracy Collins's photos, taken at Atlantic Avenue near Cumberland Street, at the border of Fort Greene and Prospect Heights, and Seventh and Flatbush Avenues in Park Slope.
The former is actually in the Atlantic Yards footprint, on a building that's supposed to be torn down--but we'll see.
The Knicks are reaching out to YOU (the Republic of Brooklyn) with US (the original ball team of the Empire State), claiming WE (are unstoppable together), and that NOW (is the time to represent), and that BROOKLYN STAND UP.
They're clearly trying to (re)assert their foothold in an area that will be primed with Nets propaganda for years to come.
Additional coverage...
Prospect Heights Patch, Knicks Erect Banner in Atlantic Yards
Nets Daily, Knicks Increasing Brooklyn Presence
Posted by steve at 12:48 PM
October 31, 2010
Some revisionist history on the Nets' effort to land LeBron James; they were out of the running even though they said the opposite
Atlantic Yards Report
With the benefit of some hindsight, let's reconstruct the New Jersey Nets' ill-fated pursuit of superstar free agent LeBron James.
We've long known that, on 7/1/10, Nets' brass and owner Mikhail Prokhorov flew to Cleveland to meet with James.
Now we know, according to the New York Post's Fred Kerber, in an article headlined How Nets went LeBust come ‘Decision’ time, they didn't get very far:
“We never got any correspondence from LeBron’s camp after the first meeting,” [Nets official Bobby] Marks said. “When it was a three-, four-day stretch that we didn’t hear, we knew we were out.”
By the morning of July 6, the Nets heard the bad news through backchannels. One hour before James’ July 8 “The Decision” show, [agent Leon] Rose called [Nets GM Rod] Thorn and said the Nets were eliminated.
Looking back
But what were Kerber and others in the press reporting at the time?
Kerber reported July 7, in an article headlined Nets in LeBron holding pattern:
The Nets feel they remain in the LeBron running -- "We're still at the table," Thorn said.
That's just the way the game is played.
Posted by steve at 7:08 PM
October 28, 2010
As Times Magazine buffs Prokhorov, Nets tickets in Newark go for pennies
Atlantic Yards Report
I'll have more in a bit on the more-hagiographic-than-not New York Times Magazine cover story on Nets majority owner Mikhail Prokhorov, but consider that even the oligarch's presence in Newark last night (where the Nets won their opener) didn't drive attendance.
From John Brennan in The Record's Meadowlands Matters blog, a piece headlined Tickets for sporting events at rock-bottom prices:
But for tonight's Nets-Detroit Pistons NBA regular-season opener — the first for the Nets in their temporary Prudential Center home in Newark — fans who know where to look online can find a $200 list-price ticket for $50, a $40 ticket for $10, or a $20 ticket for an amazing 47 cents.
In a follow-up, Brennan pointed out that Newark Mayor Cory Booker has tried to liken his city to Oklahoma City, which snagged a permanent team after hosting the New Orleans Hornets after Hurricane Katrina.
But the turnout, even with cheap tickets, was low:
The crowd was listed at 15,178, but at the Izod Center the Nets traditionally listed their crowd (which accounts for tickets distributed) about 2,500 higher than actual turnstile attendance (pretty typical in the NBA). So this crowd was not close to the 17,000 that Booker talked about beforehand.
Posted by eric at 11:22 PM
October 27, 2010
Nets’ Top Attraction May Be Prokhorov
The New York Times
by Ken Belson
More hard-hitting coverage of Mikhail Prokhorov from The New York Times.
The Knicks have had a lot of reason to cheer Timofey Mozgov, their new Russian center who had an impressive preseason and figures to play a prominent role on the team this season.
But Mozgov is not the only tall Russian involved in basketball around New York. Fans will likely see a lot of Mikhail D. Prokhorov, the new owner of the Nets, who has promised to turn last season’s 12-win team into a championship-winning club.
Prokhorov lives in Moscow, but plans to attend about a quarter of the Nets’ home games at the Prudential Center in Newark this season. That includes the first three games, against the Pistons on Wednesday, the Kings on Friday and LeBron James and the Miami Heat on Sunday.
Prokhorov will not sit courtside like Mark Cuban in Dallas. Instead, he will keep to his owner’s box, where he can survey his team, which cost him $200 million and includes a 45 percent stake in the Barclays Center, the Nets’ new home in Brooklyn.
Posted by eric at 12:19 PM
October 26, 2010
The Empire Strikes Back!
NetsDaily
Last July, you may recall, the Nets angered Jimmy Dolan by papering over the side of a building opposite the Garden with their 1,200 square foot "Blueprint for Greatness" poster. Now, reports the Brooklyn Trolley Dodger blog, Dolan has struck back!
On the side of a wall inside the footprint of the Atlantic Yards, the Knicks have put up a much smaller wall poster, featuring Amare Stoudemire in front of the Manhattan ...not Brooklyn... Bridge. It reads, "Brooklyn Represent - You, Us, We, Now".
Related coverage...
Slam Online, Knicks/Nets Billboard Rivalry Continues to Rage
The stakes (and weirdness) continue to get raised between the marketing departments of New Jersey and New York’s pitiful basketball teams.
Rap Radar, NY Knicks Net Billboard In Brooklyn
Now, the Knickerbockers have fired back and plastered a poster with Amar’e Stoudemire near Atlantic Yards, the future locale of the Brooklyn Nets. Checkmate, Hov!
Photo: Brooklyn Trolley Dodger
Posted by eric at 11:26 AM
October 19, 2010
Rivals Not the Only Ones Delighted to See the Nets
The New York Times
by Richard Pérez-Peña
The Times must have blocked access to Atlantic Yards Report and NoLandGrab in its newsroom, because it keeps writing fluff about the Nets without a word about Bruce Ratner's green cards-for-cash fundraising scam.
Take a sports team with the worst record and worst attendance in its league. Move it to a new town with a rough reputation. Make it clear in advance that the franchise will stay just a couple of years before relocating again.
It would be easy to forecast a chilly reception in the team’s temporary home. But as the Nets begin a scheduled two-year stint at the Prudential Center here before decamping for the Atlantic Yards development in Brooklyn, there are hints of a surprising warm embrace.
However...
Some people here agree with Julian Rosales, a college student, who said of the Nets, “They’re just using us for a while.”
Posted by eric at 9:57 AM
October 11, 2010
Prokhorov Flies Nets to Moscow for Pep Talk on Global Ambitions
Bloomberg
by Yuriy Humber
Speaking of fluff, Bloomberg reports on the Nets' "global ambitions" while, like The New York Times, ignoring Bruce Ratner's global green cards-for-cash scam.
Nets point guard Devin Harris said he wants to learn more about the owner and how he earned his fortune early on in life, Harris said.
“It’s not just that he’s Russian,” Harris said in an interview. “He’s proven to be the best in pretty much anything that he’s touched and he has a feel for the game. Those things are recipes for success.”
...Prokhorov’s approach to business and marketing drive could help the Nets players as much off-court and in their game, said Nets guard Harris.
“We’re all trying to put together our own private entities as well as put together a global icon,” Harris said. “And I’m just curious about how his mind works.”
NoLandGrab: The article incorrectly hews to the original claim of a 20-year, $400-million naming-rights deal between Barclays and Ratner, which for almost a year now has been exposed as being worth just half that amount.
Posted by eric at 11:20 AM
Dear Melo: A postcard from Purgatory
If you agree to leave Denver for the Prudential Center, don't say we didn't warn you
ESPN New York
by Chris Sheridan
Time for an open letter to Carmelo Anthony, whose acquisition will remain the No. 1 quest for the New Jersey Nets between now and the trading deadline in mid-February.
Dear Melo:
Greetings from Purgatory, where the Nets played their final home game of the preseason Saturday afternoon and pulled off the impossible, making three 3-pointers in the final 12.5 seconds to come back from a seven-point deficit and defeat Philadelphia 90-89.
I call it Purgatory because that's the most fitting name for the Prudential Center, the downtown Newark arena the Nets will call home for the next two seasons until they make their move to the borough where you were born, Brooklyn.
...If you decide what Jay-Z whispered in your ear over the summer (unofficially, of course, because otherwise it would be tampering) is enough to convince you to be the centerpiece of that move to Brooklyn in 2012, you at least need to have a scouting report on what you'll experience in Newark in the interim.
First, the Pru Center is a nicer place than the Meadowlands, but it is not without its faults.
For example, on the short walk from the court to the Nets' locker room there are seven -- yes, seven -- large metal rodent traps tucked in the corners but in clear view if you look closely enough.
Second, it is cold inside.
...Third, it's loud, but in a crass way. If you want to hear an announcer shout, "Who wants a T-shirt?" in a voice so amplified they can probably hear it all the way down in Piscataway (the Nets' purgatory when the Meadowlands was being built), this is the place for you. Yep, no one does artificial noise like the Nets, who used to pipe recorded crowd noise over the loudspeakers in their old home to make up for the lack of people in the seats making actual noise.
You'll see odd things here in Newark, too, like the moment Saturday between the third and fourth quarters in which the significant other of former Nets majority owner Bruce Ratner ran along the baseline to give an extended greeting and hug to referee Violet Palmer. You'll also see a large, black curtain draping off a whole section of the upper deck, hiding a huge swath of seats that will likely go unsold every night, except when the Heat or Lakers are in town.
Posted by eric at 11:03 AM
October 10, 2010
For the Nets, First Brooklyn and Then the World
The New York Times
By Ken Belson and Jonathan Abrams
The Times continues its tradition of under-reporting actual Brooklyn news. This lengthy article focuses on a sponsorship deal with Stolichnaya and marketing the Nets outside of the U.S., but try to notice what is missing in this coverage:
The Nets hope to complete more deals when they visit Moscow on Sunday on their way to China, where they will play two preseason games. In Moscow, the Nets will hold a clinic for 3,000 youngsters, attend a ribbon-cutting at an Adidas store that will feature Nets gear and schmooze with businesspeople at a reception.
The Nets are stopping in Moscow on their way to China. So why can't the Times cover the trip to China by its business partner Bruce Ratner and ESDC Executive Director Peter Davidson? This trip will attempt to use the Federal EB-5 program to lure Chinese investment in Atlantic Yards in exchange for green cards. Although the program is for the purpose of job creation, the ESDC has already admitted that this mission to China will produce no additional jobs for the Atlantic Yards project.
Posted by steve at 9:32 PM
October 7, 2010
(Still) New Jersey Nets: Last In Eastern Conference, Tops In Managerial Sketchiness, Undermining
Can't Stop The Bleeding
I’ve written a lot, here and elsewhere, about Brett Yormark, the poisonous but apparently untouchable anti-genius behind the Nets’ noxious rebranding during the Ratner era. Cynical, self-amused and prickly by turn, Yormark is first and foremost pretty bad at his job — the Nets are unlovable and largely unloved, and look likely to once again rank among the NBA’s worst teams after winning just 12 games last year. The last point, you might argue, isn’t so much Yormark’s fault as it was that of Rod Thorn, the team’s GM during the era in which the Nets furiously stripped assets and salary, attempted to leverage the useless sub-Radmanovic forward Yi Jianlin into a greater presence in the Chinese marketplace, and managed to hemorrhage money all the while. Thorn can’t be blamed for the Yi deal — he never evinced any real excitement about swapping Richard Jefferson for Bobby Simmons’ crummy contract and Yi’s defective Yi — but the buck has to stop somewhere in the vicinity of his office, you’d think.
It might just be a case of a veteran NBA writer sticking up for a universally respected NBA personality, but something Peter Vecsey wrote earlier this week would suggest that Yormark might actually deserve some blame for this as well. In what might be the least surprising bit of news to emerge during the offseason, Vecsey writes that Yormark (above, far right) took it upon himself to antagonize, alienate and undermine Thorn in a public gaslighting campaign of a full-spectrum dickiness that’s downright Dolan-ian.
...And where was the owner while his two highest-paid non-players were locked in team-destroying combat? Probably in China, where the reliably pelf-chasing Ratner has been trying to take advantage of a little-publicized bit of immigration law in an attempt to, as the Atlantic Yards Report’s Norman Oder writes, find “498 Chinese millionaires, to supply $249 million in low-cost financing for the [Atlantic Yards arena] project.” And why, the since-departed Yi notwithstanding, would these millionaires put up all that money? “In exchange for creating ten direct or indirect jobs or retaining ten direct ones–a formulation that offers enormous wiggle room–the investors would get permanent residency for themselves and their families, a chance to live anywhere in America, and an opportunity to get kids educated in the American system.”
Posted by eric at 10:24 AM
October 3, 2010
Peter Vecsey: Former Nets GM Thorn blames tension with Yormark for departure
Atlantic Yards Report
So, why did Nets General Manager Rod Thorn "retire" and then immediately un-retire to work for the Philadelphia 76ers? The New York Post's Peter Vecsey, in a column headlined Rod had rocky relationship with Nets CEO, blames it on Nets CEO Brett Yormark.
Vecsey writes:
From what I had told, Yormark had gotten down on Thorn down the stretch, feeling he'd gotten lazy and done a poor job. Though unable to talk Bruce Ratner into firing him (the master plan was to rehire friend John Calipari and re-position him on the sidelines with complete power regarding personnel), Brett had no problem undermining Rod.
There was persistent friction between the two executives.
"Yormark was Ratner's go-to guy for everything," said someone in the know. "They'd speak 30 times a day. Whenever Thorn wanted to do something of substance he'd reach out to Ratner who'd immediately run it by Yormark."
According to past and present team employees, regardless whether or not Yormark endorsed Thorn's idea, a proposed trade, signing, whatever, was soon in the newspapers and/or on the air.
"Brett is the Nets' chief leak," maintains one and all.
Posted by steve at 9:07 AM
September 24, 2010
70 Million Dollar Musician Terry Burrus To Play National Anthem in New Jersey March 11, 2011 New Jersey Nets vs Los Angeles Clippers at Prudential Center
Hot Event
Billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov, rapper, Shawn "Jay-Z" Carter and real estate developer Bruce Ratner and their New Jersey Nets will have International Concert Pianist, Composer, Terry Burrus to play the National Anthem in Newark, New Jersey for the Nets vs Los Angeles Clippers NBA basketball game at Prudential Center Friday March 11, 2011 at 7:00PM.
NoLandGrab: $70 million? Maybe he wants to buy a few green cards.
Posted by eric at 12:15 PM
September 18, 2010
Times reports on school visit by Nets coach and two dancers: "Nets Already In Brooklyn"
Atlantic Yards Report
In trying to encourage better nutrition, school cafeterias these days are trying to steer students' tastes away from cold cuts. However, some baloney found its way to students of Brooklyn's Middle School 51 by way of the New Jersey Nets. The New York Times dutifully passed said baloney onto its readers.
The New York Times Metro section doesn't see fit to report on, say, the curious appointment of Arana Hankin as Atlantic Yards Project Manager, but the newspaper so often has room to promote gratuitous Nets fluff.
Remember that long Metro section article last January about promoting the Nets in Brooklyn or that Sports section puff piece last November about Devin Harris?
Well, yesterday the Sports section offered a standalone photo showing new Nets coach Avery Johnson at a middle school in Brooklyn, accompanied by two Nets dancers in very short skirts (great role model, right?). No players apparently showed up
Posted by steve at 5:43 PM
August 16, 2010
Naming the Nets
WNYC's Brian Lehrer Show
Will the Nets keep their promise and put "Brooklyn" in their name when they move to their new arena? Matthew Schuerman, WNYC Radio reporter, gives us an update.
Posted by eric at 11:18 AM
August 14, 2010
New Jersey Nets to Change Their Name in Brooklyn
Asylum
This item about the renaming of the New Jersey Nets includes some suggestions:
The Brooklyn Brooklynites: Jersey, this one goes out to you. You're our halfwit brothers, and just because you moved, it doesn't mean we haven't forgotten you're from Jersey. Seriously, you're going to need to work the word "Brooklyn" into your name as many times as possible to convince us.
The Brooklyn Martys: Come on, you know that Marty Markowitz would cream his jeans (and probably put up $2 mil of his own money) to get the team named after his Penguin-looking ass.
The Brooklyn Bulldozers: This team is so caught up in corporate greed, we wouldn't be surprised if their home-game shirts read "Brooklyn Barclays Target Pier One Saks Häagen Dazses."
The Brooklyn Freddys: Not "Freddy" as in "Freddy Krueger," although that would make for some kick-ass logos. Rather, we're talking about Freddy's, named one of the best bars in America, and a victim of the Atlantic Yards eminent domain decision.
The Brooklyn Rats: We'll tell Bruce it's named after him, but we all know it's really named for Brooklyn's most lovable critter.
Posted by steve at 2:08 PM
August 13, 2010
What if the team's "name change" is just a feint to announce "Brooklyn Nets" in a big ceremony?
Atlantic Yards Report
From the department of "who cares?":
WNYC's Matthew Schuerman picks up the news (as stoked by principal owner Mikhail Prokhorov) that Nets to Change Name, and May Not Use 'Brooklyn'.
And while that news drew anxiety from Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz and told-you-so-scorn from Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn, a listen to Nets CEO Brett Yormark leaves me with another impression: they're simply waiting to make a splash with a gala announcement about the "Brooklyn Nets."
It could all just be a way to generate some more buzz.
NoLandGrab: Anything that emanates from the mouth of Yormark is suspect at best, so speculating about it is an exercise in time-wasting.
Posted by eric at 9:54 AM
August 12, 2010
Markowitz Upset That Russian Oligarch May Not Be Into That "Brooklynish Thing"
Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn
On the same day his buddies Bruce Ratner and Mikhail Prokhorov are laying waste to one of Brooklyn's great community bars—Freddy's Bar and Backroom—BEEP Markowitz is upset about reports of yet another Atlantic Yards bait-and-switch. Turns out the Cleveland and Russia based tycoons may not call the team they want to move to the Barclays Center Arena the Brooklyn Nets or the Brooklyn Anythings.
And that upsets Markowitz, because...you know...he cares so much about Brooklyn and the important things, or at least that "Brooklynish thing."
Hate to say we told you so Markowitz.
Posted by eric at 10:28 PM
August 8, 2010
Prokhorov says team name change is in the can, but will the change affect "Brooklyn" or "Nets"? (My bet is the latter)
Atlantic Yards Report
Here is speculation as to the decision-making process used to rename the Nets.
Somehow one highlight in the Forbes Russia cover story (“Mikhail Prokhorov and American Basketball: Who Will Be the Winner?”) on the new principal owner of the New Jersey Nets was not translated by njnets.com.
Prokhorov plans to change the name of the team. As translated by a Russian-speaking reader of NetsDaily:
Q: What will be the team's name after the move to Brooklyn?
A: I can not tell you right now, but the documents are already submitted to the NBA office. The name change will happen in 2012 season.
Now that could just be a roundabout way of saying "Brooklyn Nets," which would, of course, be a name change. But there's a good bet it's not.
NoLandGrab: As as tribute to Spike Lee (who attended the groundbreaking ceremony for the Nets arena) and the corrupt process used to approve Atlantic Yards, maybe the Nets could be renamed the "Crooklyn Nets."
Posted by steve at 11:58 AM
August 7, 2010
Nyet to Nets in Brooklyn?
Nets Daily
A NetsDaily translation of the full Forbes Russia interview with Mikhail Prokhorov reveals the team plans a name change once it moves to Brooklyn, and that in fact documents seeking approval for the change have been submitted to the NBA. He didn't disclose the name.
In the NetsDaily translation of the interview, provided by a Russian-speaking fan, Prokhorov is asked "What will be the team's name after the move to Brooklyn?" His response: "I can not tell you right now, but the documents are already submitted to the NBA office. The name change will happen in 2012 season."
NoLandGrab: A stated goal of the Atlantic Yards was to remove blight, but it appears that the project will create blight with an arena and acres of parking lots. Perhaps the Nets will be renamed the "Brooklyn Blighters."
Posted by steve at 2:13 PM
August 2, 2010
Whitewash! "Blueprint for Greatness" Goes Down
NetsDaily
The Nets only leased the side of the building at 34th and 8th for a month and over the last couple of days, workmen have all but covered the iconic images of Mikhail Prokhorov and Jay-Z with whitewash.
NoLandGrab: If that was the "blueprint for greatness," we'd hate to see the blueprint for failure.
Photo: NetsDaily
Posted by eric at 9:51 AM
July 28, 2010
Prokhorov: Nets Will Be Worth $1 Billion by 2015
NetsDaily
Looks like Mikhail Prokhorov is playing fantasy basketball.
The cover of August's Forbes Russia shows a tall man in a suit holding a basketball, and asks, "Mikhail Prokhorov and American basketball: Who Will Be the Winner?"
In the article, "I told America I come in peace," Prokhorov goes over much the same ground he has in press conferences and interviews with U.S. media, but talks more about the team's financial prospects.
The Nets' owner says the team will continue to lose money in Newark but the team's move to Brooklyn, plus his ambitions to create a dynasty, will make the Nets both profitable and valuable, suggesting the team will be worth $1 billion and earn an annual profit of $20 million.
NoLandGrab: To put that figure in perspective, Forbes estimates the value of the Los Angeles Lakers, who won 45 more games than the Nets this past season (and the NBA title), at $607 million. Prokhorov is "guaranteeing" a Nets championship by 2015, as well.
Posted by eric at 10:26 AM
July 16, 2010
Prokhorov Preaches Patience: Nets Owner Moves to Plan B After Failing To Land Big Free Agents
Brooklyn Daily Eagle
by John Torenli
Mikhail Prokhorov, the Russian billionaire who took the tri-state area by storm just over two months ago when he was officially named owner of the New Jersey (soon-to-be-Brooklyn) Nets, had a new message for diehard fans this week.
“Be patient. Support our team. We will win for sure,” Prokhorov insisted Tuesday during his state-of-the-franchise address at the Four Seasons in New York.
After failing to land one of the prized free agents on the team’s July wish list — LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh — Prokhorov didn’t panic and sign a player his management group was less than enamored with in the hopes of pacifying a loyal but frustrated fan base.
Instead, he simply went to one of several back-up plans the organization had in place, just in case the “Big Three” turned down his monster pitch.
“Really I’m very happy with how things have played out,” Prokhorov said calmly. “Just after my meeting on the first of July, I had a different anticipation. I have predicted a lot of what has gone on. We have Plan A, we have Plan B and we have Plan C and even Plan D.
NoLandGrab: OK, it's one thing for a reporter to mindlessly boost a team, but it's a completely different thing to lose one's grip on reality. Does John Torenli really believe that somewhere the Nets had a plan to acquire four guys nobody's ever heard of, and hire as their president the executive who built the Sixers into the sixth-worst team in the NBA, one that missed the playoffs last season by 14 games? That sounds more like Plan W.
Posted by eric at 10:27 AM
July 15, 2010
Mikhail Prokhorov Says One Thing, Nets Do the Opposite
Former Sixers G.M. latest curious move in Prokhorov's first summer as owner
NBC New York
by Josh Alper
There's no doubt that the addition of Mikhail Prokhorov to the roll call of team owners makes the American sports landscape a more interesting one. We're starting to have some second thoughts about how much he means any of the things he says, however.
Case in point is an interview that Prokhorov gave to Nets Daily on Monday while he was flitting through the sky on his Gulfstream. The first question had to do with the departure of team president and general manager Rod Thorn and the search for a replacement who would help the Nets fulfill Prokhorov's promise of a championship within five years. The owner professed to be in no rush to hire a new man because, as a new owner, "I need to touch and smell everything myself and this takes some time."
Fast forward to Wednesday when the Nets announced that former Sixers G.M. Billy King would be joining the team and assuming Thorn's duties. Maybe rush translates differently in Russian?
His job title is general manager so Prokhorov may still be taking his time to find a president but that would appear to be, in one form or another, a semantic distinction that won't make much difference if King proves to be the same guy who ran the Sixers into the ground after Larry Brown left the team. The team ran through numerous coaches, spent barrels of money on mediocre players and generally resembled the Isiah Thomas Knicks without the same media spotlight.
NoLandGrab: Plan D?
Related coverage...
Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn, Atlantic Yards Smells Bad
Josh Alper at NBC-New York scratches his head about Mikhail Prokhorov.
So do we.
Does this guy take anything seriously? If he treats free agency and his franchise this way, imagine what kind of humorous stylings he'll come up with when Atlantic Yards doesn't provide any affordable housing.
Posted by eric at 9:36 AM
Thorn had good run with Nets
Bergen Record
by Al Iannazzone
Rod Thorn, the only guy with any class in the whole Nets organization, is getting out.
With money tight under former principal owner Bruce Ratner, Thorn had to break up a championship contender and trade Kenyon Martin in 2004, cut salary nearly every season to avoid luxury tax penalties and move draft picks for cash.
The Nets finally have unlimited resources with Russian billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov signing the checks. Yet, Thorn is resigning.
...Thorn is not retiring. Teams have called him, but Thorn isn’t sure what he will do next.
He dispels reports he’s leaving because of money – Prokhorov offered a two-year, $8 million deal, down from the $5.5 million Thorn made last season — or doesn’t like new ownership.
"It’s time for me to go," Thorn said.
Posted by eric at 9:26 AM
July 13, 2010
The Nets draw blanks, but that's OK for Prokhorov and Ratner
Atlantic Yards Report
The Record's Al Iannazzone sums up, in an article headlined Nets look to solve puzzle, the team's positioning:
The Nets wanted Mike Krzyzewski or Jeff Van Gundy to be their coach. Tom Thibodeau was their third choice. The Nets hired Avery Johnson.
They hoped their 25-percent chance of winning the draft lottery would get them the top pick in the draft and John Wall. They took Derrick Favors third.
The Nets wanted team president Rod Thorn to continue to guide the basketball department. Thorn is resigning at the end of the week, with former Sixers’ president Billy King a candidate to replace him.
In free agency, they hoped – and wanted to believe – Mikhail Prokhorov’s money and global vision and Jay-Z’s appeal would result in LeBron James and other superstars coming to the Nets.
They wound up with Travis Outlaw, Johan Petro, Jordan Farmar and Anthony Morrow...
Well, for team fans, that's not so hot, but Prokhorov has already reaped enormous good publicity from his purchase and media tour.
And former majority owner Bruce Ratner and his partners at Forest City Enterprises are no longer saddled with the team's losses.
So some bad luck likely doesn't hurt them as much.
NoLandGrab: As for Brooklyn residents unlucky enough to live anywhere near Ratner's Atlantic Yards site, their bad luck will cause them pain for many years to come.
Posted by eric at 11:41 AM
July 11, 2010
Even without Lebron, Nets have a foundation in Brooklyn
The Brooklyn Paper
By Stephen Brown
In an apparently new meaning of the word "forward," this article tries to say that the inability of the Nets to sign Lebron James represents progress.
The first concrete sign of the Barclays Center is now in place — builders have begun to lay the foundation of the arena at Flatbush and Atlantic avenues.
The construction milestone came on the eve of the New Jersey Nets’ failure to land Lebron James — but is still seen as a major step forward for the Brooklyn-bound team.
Related coverage...
Atlantic Yards Report, The Brooklyn Paper plays catch-up and cheerleader
The Brooklyn Paper plays catch-up and cheerleader, in a July 10 article headlined Even without Lebron, Nets have a foundation in Brooklyn:
The first concrete sign of the Barclays Center is now in place — builders have begun to lay the foundation of the arena at Flatbush and Atlantic avenues.
The construction milestone came on the eve of the New Jersey Nets’ failure to land Lebron James — but is still seen as a major step forward for the Brooklyn-bound team.
(Emphasis added)
Is still seen? By the issuer of the press release, at least. Most other commentators are pointing out that the Nets lost big this past week.
...
That announcement came June 29--well before the NBA free-agent merry-go-round--and so did the court hearing also cited in the article:
Lawyers for the opposition reargued their claim last week that a longer construction timetable for the project was withheld from a judge to get a favorable ruling.
The Brooklyn Paper didn't bother to send a reporter to the hearing, but linked to my coverage.
It wasn't simply that the Development Agreement was withheld in the court case; it was that the deadlines in the document, had they been seriously considered by the Empire State Development Corporation board, would have triggered another look at the projected ten-year buildout.
Posted by steve at 8:25 AM
July 10, 2010
The Daily News turns on a dime, spurning LeBron James after months of pulling for him, aching for him
Atlantic Yards Report
The Daily News, which launched a GetLeBron.com website as part of a months-long push to attract the superstar, today turned on a dime, editorializing James and the giant mistake: LeBron decides he can't make it here:
Who needed him, anyway?
Last night, with pomp even the queen couldn't muster, the man who's known as the King made the biggest mistake of his young life. Instead of having the courage to man up and build a real legacy in the big city, he's signing on with a ready-made dream team in Miami.
He can have his Crockett and Tubbs. We'll keep our Serpico and Sipowicz.
He can have his chain steakhouses and pizza places, and the Burger King headquarters. We'll take Peter Luger and Grimaldi's and enough others to give you a hundred delicious heart attacks.
He can have his glitzy beaches and palm trees and clubs filled with people who, if they can fake it there, they can fake it anywhere. We'll take Coney Island - freaks, cigarette butts and all. We'll take Central and Prospect and Crotona and Van Cortlandt parks....
NoLandGrab: The Daily News criticizes Miami as a place of "chain steakhouses and pizza places, and the Burger King headquarters" even as it has endorsed destroying a real Brooklyn neighborhood for the bland, corporate dreams of developer Bruce Ratner.
Posted by steve at 8:26 AM
July 9, 2010
Notes from LeBron mania: Nets losses, reversible jerseys, bitterness in Cleveland, Zimbalist the media critic, and Yormarketing desperation in Florida
Atlantic Yards Report
Blueprint for greatness? We think not. As one NetsDaily commenter posted last night, "'Proky' is just Russian for 'Ratner.'"
Now that superstar LeBron James has signed with the Miami Heat, and the Nets' coach and owner remain positive, not everyone's convinced.
From the Times:
The Nets are so far the biggest losers in free agency, having failed to sign any of the players on the market, despite the best efforts of their charismatic new owner, the Russian billionaire Mikhail D. Prokhorov.
Well, you might say the teams that lost stars fell behind much more, but the Nets suffered in comparison to other teams that cleared cap space.
From Star-Ledger columnist Steve Politi, mindful of the short stay in Newark:
And, while it will be largely overlooked, his nine words — “I’m going to take my talents to South Beach” – have effectively ended New Jersey’s frustrating and fruitless dalliance with professional basketball.
...Nets owner Mikhail Prokhorov issued a statement not five minutes after the decision to “reiterate our commitment to winning a championship within five years.” But that billboard outside Madison Square Garden, the one declaring that Prokhorov and Jay-Z had the “blueprint for success” is 30 stories worth of hubris today, and the new owner looks as feeble as the old one.
Al Iannazzone on the Nets Insider connected a few dots:
This free agency continued the trend from the regular season.
The Nets had the best chance to win the Lottery and potential franchise-changer John Wall, and fell to third. At one point, they believed they were in the mix for James. Another loss.
Related coverage...
NetsDaily, Prokhorov: "Goals Remain Intact"
Nets owner Mikhail Prokhorov released a statement shortly after LeBron James announced his decision to join the Miami Heat.
"We have a vision of a championship team and need to invest wisely and for the long term," Prokhorov said. "Fortunately, we have more than one plan to reach success, and, as I have found in all areas of my business, that is key to achieving it. To Nets fans past, present and future, the goal of making the playoffs this season remains intact and we reiterate our commitment to winning a championship within five years."
NoLandGrab: Nets fans better hope that "Plan B" doesn't stand for "Plan Bruce."
AP via USA Today, Nets lose another one — LeBron heading to Miami
The New Jersey Nets had one of the worst seasons in NBA history and nothing changed on the free agent marketplace in the offseason.
The Nets' hopes for an amazing resurrection just months after winning 12 games collapsed on Thursday when two-time MVP LeBron James became the latest superstar to say nyet to new Russian owner Mikhail Prokhorov and his high-profile negotiating team that included hip-hop mogul Jay-Z.
NLG: LeBron apparently didn't feel the Nets' pitch was quite as "spectacular" as the Nets thought it was.
NetsAreScorching, THE DAY AFTER: WE’RE GOING TO BE OKAY NETS FANS
Perhaps, many of us were caught up in the way the Nets have been selling themselves the past week. The swagger, the taunting billboards, the “leaks” of information from negotiations… maybe it all created a false sense of accomplishment. They always tell a fighter not to lead with the chin, and Team Prokhorov has certainly put it all out there, inviting a backlash. But personally, after the past six years of Bruce Ratner’s focus on real estate, rather than basketball, I welcome an owner who’s willing to take calculated risks and not be ashamed if they don’t hit the bullseye when it comes to assembling a roster.
Brooklyn Daily Eagle, New Best Western Arena Hotel Opens at Crossroads of Bed-Stuy, Crown Hts, Prospect Heights
Brooklyn now has a brand new Best Western hotel that’s open and ready for business.
Originally to be named Best Western Downtown Brooklyn, it was renamed Best Western Arena Hotel because of its proximity to the Barclays Center at Forest City Ratner’s Atlantic Yards development.
...“Brooklyn is quickly becoming a top destination for tourists, business and leisure travelers, and with the new Barclays Center for the New Jersey Nets scheduled to open in 2011, our hotel will be a great addition to the city,” said Mukesh Patel, principal of Mukteshwar LLC, owner of the new Best Western. “We are only six blocks from the new arena and the only hotel at the first stop along the Long Island Rail Road, making it a convenient stay whether they’re in the area for work or play.”
NLG: That would be 2012, if they're lucky. Maybe they can advertise the hotel to Heat fans in Miami, who might want to come watch their team eat the Nets for lunch.
Posted by eric at 11:47 AM
July 8, 2010
LeBron mania to be resolved tonight, as nation will learn superstar's destination in prime-time special; Nets' chances drop
Atlantic Yards Report
Basketball superstar LeBron James's final choice of a city and team--er, sports entertainment corporation--will be revealed tonight in an hour-long special on ESPN, capping the mega-hype and drama that started months ago and ramped up a week ago when teams could approach him directly.
Given how the chess pieces have fallen in the past week--Dwayne Wade joined by Chris Bosh in Miami; Amar'e Stoudemire signing with the Knicks; Carlo Boozer signing with Chicago--the free agent-less Nets have lost ground, despite what the New York Post inaccurately hyped July 3 as Nets insider: Meeting with LeBron 'spectacular'.
(The self-serving, unidentified "insider" was referring not to the meeting but the team's pitch: And the Nets were the first team to try to impress James with a presentation one team insider dubbed “spectacular” after getting reviews from those involved.)
...Going too far?
[The Star-Ledger's Dave] D'Alessandro thinks things have gone way too far:
So now he’s ready to announce his decision. The free agent market in any sport is always a shameless function of ego, and one week of this was enough. Now the grand prize, a young man who refers to himself as The King, has concluded his vainglorious quest to keep our attention as he decides that he is either going to take one billionaire’s money or another billionaire’s money.
Buzz Bissinger, who with James wrote a book about the star and his high school teammates, told the Times:
“I’m disappointed because I think he’s handled this terribly,” said Buzz Bissinger, who helped write James’s 2009 biography, “Shooting Stars.” “I hate the idea that he is the king and that all these grown men have had to go grovel in front of him. It’s a side of him I didn’t see before.
...Some sobriety
In a Next American City essay July 2 headlined Cities to Lebron: “We Need You”, Ferentz Lafargue looked skeptically at the campaign for James, suggesting that the numbers bandied about regarding the local economic impact were not to be trusted.
New York Times columnist Clyde Haberman wrote June 29 about the impact of transit cuts on the poor, and looped in the buzz of the moment:
For example, on Thursday the fabulously wealthy LeBron James, a Cleveland basketball player, becomes a free agent. Some prominent New Yorkers desperately want him to play here, and they are throwing all sorts of freebies his way as inducements. After all, why should a zillionaire pay his own way? That’s what the less illustrious and the less affluent must do.
The courtship of Mr. James is supposed to fill us with civic pride. The good news is that we will have more time to read about it while we stand on the subway platform waiting longer than ever for an overcrowded train to arrive.
NoLandGrab: LeBron James? Yawn.
Related coverage...
NetsDaily, $32 Million and No One to Take It
The salary cap figures are out and the Nets now have $32 million--$31.929 million to be specific--in cap space with 10 players under contract (two partially guaranteed). If this was July 1, that would be a good thing, but it's about to turn into July 8. Not so good.
After striking out on Carlos Boozer, it now appears that David Lee won't be available either. Unless LeBron James chooses the Knicks, he'll likely be dealt in a sign-and-trade to the Warriors as early as Friday. The hope that James will choose the Nets is now very unlikely, with the the betting be he'll either stay in Cleveland or head to MIami to join the other Golden Ones.
So what do the Nets do now?
NLG: Make another run at the NBA record for futility?
slayer2022 via YouTube, Mikhail Prokhorov recruits Lebron James
Posted by eric at 10:42 AM
July 6, 2010
Ratner: Vandeweghe deserved better
ESPN The Magazine
by Ric Bucher
Bruce Ratner is shedding a few crocodile tears over the team's dismissal of Kiki Vandeweghe.
Bruce Ratner remains a minority partner in the New Jersey Nets, so he's not at liberty to question the decisions made by the team's new majority owner, Russian billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov. But if there's one consequence of the new regime's attempt to distance itself from last season's nearly historic -- as in historically bad --12-70 record that bothers him, it's how assistant general manager Kiki Vandeweghe was sent packing.
Enough so that Ratner's conscience apparently compelled him to speak out about it. Especially now that team president Rod Thorn is stepping aside as well and the team is in search of new leadership altogether.
"He didn't go out the way he should have," Ratner said now of Vandeweghe. "The team is in a really good position and he was instrumental in putting it there."
Ratner's conscience? We wonder if Bruce also feels that Daniel Goldstein "didn't go out the way he should have."
That said, Ratner doesn't see the Nets bringing Vandeweghe back. His gratitude for Vandeweghe's work and guilt over how he was dismissed stops short of going to bat for him.
"It's Mikhail's team now and he wants to put his stamp on it," Ratner says. "I can understand that."
NoLandGrab: You're a stand-up guy, Bruce. Maybe if you hadn't been desperate for Proky's cash to keep your crooked Atlantic Yards deal afloat, Kiki would still have a job. But that's not how it went down. So shut up already.
Posted by eric at 7:24 AM
July 5, 2010
ESPN's Ultimate Standings show Nets, in pre-Prokhorov season, declining to 118 (among 122 franchises), with Ratner still the second-worst owner
Atlantic Yards Report
Congratulations, Bruce Ratner! You're still the second-worst owner in pro sports, even though you don't even own most of your team anymore. And the only guy worse than you is "The Most Evil Man in Sports."
With no way to factor in a brighter future in Newark (and Brooklyn) and a deep-pocketed new owner, the New Jersey Nets actually declined from 111 to 118 in ESPN the Magazine's Ultimate Standings 2010, a ranking of how much the 122 franchises in four pro sports give back to the fans.
(The unimpressive New York Knicks nudged up to 119 from 121.)
The Nets ownership, led by Bruce Ratner, held steady at 121, the second-worst in all of sports, thanks to Donald Sterling of the Los Angeles Clippers, who paid $2.73 million last November to settle a housing discrimination lawsuit.
The best scores for the Nets were in the categories of Title Track (championships won or expected in the lifetime of current fans) and affordability. Look for the latter to decline, though perhaps not until the expected Brooklyn move, and the former to increase, at least if major free agents are signed.
Title Track: 99
Ownership: 121
Coaching: 121
Players: 114
Fan Relations: 113
Affordability: 82
Stadium Experience: 119
Bang for the Buck: 116The explanation, from ESPN's Insider (subscription only), comes with some digs at marketing man Brett Yormark:
Mikhail Prokhorov is a genius when it comes to buying low. And that's what he got with the Nets. "It was the single worst fan experience in ANY professional sport," says Net Income of Netsdaily.com. We feel you guys, we really do, because New Jersey hasn't been embarrassed this badly since Jersey Shore debuted. We're not even talking about the Vince Carter trade and the NBA-record 18-game losing streak to start the season. There were the reversible jersey promotions (one side: a New Jersey Nets player, flip it inside-out: Kobe Bryant!). And CEO Brett Yormark scolding a fan who donned a paper bag. Amazingly none of this even begins to address the IZOD Center, which housed this entire spectacle. Net Income, please do the honors: "It hadn't been updated in 30 years. It had virtually no amenities and was always crowded, perhaps even an unsafe concourse. Traffic and parking configurations were changed, sometimes game to game, to accommodate a massive and still-empty shopping mall, the construction of a new Giants/Jets stadium and then the destruction of the old one." Luckily for Nets supporters, the Ratner era ends with a temporary pit stop in Newark and an overhaul of the organization, Russian-billionaire style. "Nets fans on the whole are excited by the prospect of Prokhorov, if only because we know our owner is now committed to basketball rather than real estate," says NJ4Life of Netsdaily.com. Hey, that's not a bad place to start.
Posted by eric at 10:47 AM
July 1, 2010
The loss of Yi and the Nets' China ambitions
Atlantic Yards Report
Yi, we hardly knew ye.
Now that the Nets have traded Chinese forward Yi Jianlian to the Washington Wizards to clear salary cap space (and bid for two free agents, not one), what happens to the team's global ambitions?
(And when will they update the Nets' Chinese web site, which still features Yi, as in the screenshot at right?)
Well, notwithstanding the role of globetrotting Russian billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov as owner, there has to be a setback in the world's most populous country.
I didn't see that concern in coverage of the Yi deal in the AP, News, Post, or the official press release.
Some savvy
The Star-Ledger's Dave D'Alessandro wisely pointed out:
Ether way, Yi and his $4.05M salary are history -- so much for that foray into the Asian continent, unless they believe a billion Chinese fans are going to follow the owner, which doesn't seem likely.
Posted by eric at 10:11 AM
June 27, 2010
Jay-Z expected to be among first to visit LeBron
Yahoo Sports
By Adrian Wojnarowski
This article mentions the exit of Rod Thorn, General Manager of the Nets.
Nets general manager Rod Thorn and coach Avery Johnson will also make the trip, but Thorn has decided to leave his job and retire in July. He hasn’t been happy with the pay cut the new owner has offered, and he also feels that at 69 years old his appetite for the job’s grind has diminished.
NLG: A pay cut for Thorn? Is Mr. Billionaire Oligarch cheaping out, a la the Bruce? Isn't it supposed to be all "Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous" with the Nets now?
Posted by steve at 7:55 AM
June 17, 2010
Nets Basketball: First Newark, then Brooklyn ... and then the world
New Jersey Newsroom
by Evan Weiner
The NBA's worst basketball team has grandiose dreams of being the world's worst basketball team, aiming to transcend "borders and cultures and countries."
So how do you push your way onto the world stage and become a global sports brand name like Manchester United, Michael Jordan and Tiger Woods? That is the question that Irina Pavlova will be attempting to answer in the upcoming months as she leads the campaign to make the New Jersey, soon-to-be Brooklyn Nets a player on the world stage.
Posted by eric at 10:08 AM
June 15, 2010
Prudential Center tour might get Mikhail Prokhorov thinking Nets belong in Newark -- long-term
The Star-Ledger
by Steve Politi
Mikhail Prokhorov got his first look yesterday at the Prudential Center in Newark, the Nets' interim home for at least the next two years.
Maybe there is a very good reason his new partners, the ones who needed his billions to make their boondoggle Brooklyn project a reality, decided to wait so long to take the oligarch to the Rock.
Maybe they didn’t want him to see it.
Prokhorov isn’t the second richest man in Russia for making poor business decisions. You had to wonder, as he walked through the pristine building and shot 3-pointers with the city’s charismatic mayor, if the thought at least popped into his sizable noggin.
I’m paying how many rubles to build a new arena in Brooklyn when this place is already here?!
Posted by eric at 9:53 AM
June 14, 2010
Gov. Chris Christie says he's ready to get involved in N.J. sports issues
The Star-Ledger
by Steve Politi
You pushed the Nets to give up their territorial rights as part of the move out of the Meadowlands. Is there any hope for NBA in the future here when the Nets leave?
The Prudential Center is a world-class basketball arena, and it could attract interest from teams not doing very well in this area. And I do think this area, if it had good teams, could support three teams. We support three teams in hockey. I don’t think there’s any reason we couldn’t support three in basketball. So if the Nets do leave — and I’m still waiting for that building to be built in Brooklyn, I’ll believe it when I see it — I think it’s something we should look at aggressively.
Why the skepticism about Brooklyn?
Just the economy. I know they have lots of legal issues to get over — I know they’ve gotten over a number of them. This thing was supposed to be built already. I haven’t seen any steel go in the ground yet. I wish them all the luck, but we’re ready to host the Nets for the next two years. At least.
Posted by eric at 12:39 PM
June 7, 2010
Jay-Z not wooing LeBron James to Nets
Yahoo! Sports
by Mark J. Miller
Jay-Z is a minority owner of the New Jersey Nets, a team on the undercard for the battle for LeBron James(notes) this summer. The Nets are considered a long shot to land James in this summer filled with big-name, big-dollar NBA free agents, but Jay-Z tells Rolling Stone that he won't get involved in trying to woo his friend to his team, according to the New York Daily News.
"That's his decision," he told the magazine. "We're friends - we've still gotta hang out! I don't want to convince somebody to do something, then have to see him and say, 'Uh, yeah, we're 4-30 ...sorry.'"
Such confidence in his team! Of course, the real reason Jay won't get involved in the recruiting effort may be that the big boss told him "nyet."
Jay-Z is leaving all recruiting to the new owner, Russian billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov, who first met with the hip-hop exec at the Manhattan Four Seasons. "I'd been staying there for 10 years, and I always thought I was at the top level," Jay-Z told the magazine. "But when I met Prokhorov, they took me up to this extra, extra room that I had never even heard of before. Now there's something else to shoot for. There's always an extra level you don't know about."
NoLandGrab: You got that right, Hov, especially when you've only been brought in for "street cred."
Posted by eric at 9:55 AM
May 24, 2010
How Big Will Jay-Z Play in Free Agency?
Nets Daily
Everywhere Mikhail Prokhorov went his first day in New York, there was Jay-Z: having lunch with the new owner at the rapper's 40-40 Club, by his side at the Draft Lottery, having breakfast with Mayor Bloomberg. The unspoken but heavily implied message: the rapper and the Russian will combine to recruit LeBron James (even if Jay-Z will be on a European tour starting July 2.)
Jay-Z told Prokhorov of his desire to play a "more active role" with the team, but Prokhorov seemed to suggest Jay-Z is likely to be more cheerleader than recruiter, telling reporters: "I think it’s more than enough that he is very passionate with the team. I think it’s management job to look for free agents, and with agents, it’s a professional job. But of course Jay-Z’s passion is additional advertisement for the team."
NoLandGrab: It's not the movies, so the Russian guy doesn't need a sidekick named Mr. Z.
Posted by eric at 9:46 AM
May 22, 2010
Prokhorov: The Book of Laughter and Forgetting (and why the team might become the Brooklyn Bridges)
Atlantic Yards Report
Norman Oder provides a critical look at Mikhail Prokhorov that is missing from so much media coverage of the oligarch's appearance in the New York area .
New Nets majority owner Mikhail Prokhorov arrived with a good story--a Russian multi-billionaire with wit, insouciance, and the cash to realize his significant ambitions.
He proceeded this week to get the sports press to lap up more, showing far more public presence--if not exactly candor--than the saturnine, close-mouthed multi-millionaire who owns the Knicks. (Roundup 1, roundup 2.)
So no one asked very hard questions and, if it got a wee bit in that direction, they didn't follow up. The story line is the Russian mogul who'll revive a basketball team. Forget the NBA's opaque vetting process and the inability of the press to suss out the Zimbabwe controversy. Forget the huge footnote that should be added to Prokhorov's claim of being a "self-made" man.
Forget bogus blight and eminent domain, forget the giveaway of naming rights, forget a massive interim surface parking lot next to a historic district. Forget, forget, forget. It's a sports story, globalized.
And laugh at the witty guy ESPN columnist Bill Simmons dubs "Mutant Russian Mark Cuban." (Simmons predicts a name change; scroll down to why I disagree on his pick and expect the Nets to become the Brooklyn Bridges. Prokhorov must decide by October 1.)
And a rookie journalist who luckily snagged a one-on-one interview gets praised for (and celebrates) his exclusive, not scrutinized for his caricature of the Atlantic Yards controversy. Hard to blame him, right? Steve Kroft of 60 Minutes started it.
(Two voices of dissent: Dave D'Alessandro in the Star-Ledger, asserting that Prokhorov "knows less about the NBA than Bruce Ratner did when he showed up" and criticizing "some thicket of inane blather," and Dave Zirin in HuffPost, though he's conclusory about the Zimbabwe issue.)
Posted by steve at 5:11 PM
NJ Nets: Deconstructing Mikhail Prokhorov
The Star-Ledger
By Dave D'Alessandro
This article dares to ask, aside from having deep pockets, what qualities does Nets owner Mikhail Prokhorov possess to enable him to successfully run an NBA franchise?
We keep reading these stories about his bold vision and his savvy business sense and his urbane countenence – which is all fine, because the media always leads this ludicrous pep rally mentality.
But we think everyone might be missing something that might be relevant about Mikhail Prokhorov:
This guy knows less about the NBA than Bruce Ratner did when he showed up, and you know how that turned out.
To put it politely, with the possible exception of Sean Williams, the Russian gentleman is as ignorant as anyone we’ve ever encountered that had some connection – big or small – to the NBA.
...
Honestly, we liked him just fine. He used the same lame jokes throughout every stop on his media tour that day, but he’s charming – intuitive in some ways. He communicates very well – we loved his use of our colloquialisms (“I am looking forward to hanging out with him,” he said of Jay-Z). He has an air of casual arrogance, but he’s not condescending. And, yes, he's unintentionally amusing, with a voice and manner that sounds like it’s out of central casting: When he says, “You must have multiple strategy,” he sounds like he’s saying, “Drop gun and put money in lacquer box.”
No, the only thing that bothers us is that he’s just very NBA dumb. And if you don’t think that’s a problem, you have an exaggerated sense of whether money can fix this team anytime soon.
Posted by steve at 4:38 PM
CROOKLYN: NBA's Nets Sold to Russian Billionaire
The Huffington Post
By Dave Zirin
Contrasting much of the fawning attention given by some of the press to Nets owner Mikhail Prokhorov, this article reminds us that the NBA, due to money woes, has turned a blind eye to the oligarch's dealings.
Prokhorov, it was revealed in April, has extensive business arrangements with Robert Mugabe's regime in Zimbabwe. These dealings have been very lucrative yet could, if they continue, be in violation of US sanctions, now that Prokhorov has become league owner. Whatever one may think of the hypocrisy of the United States enforcing sanctions on Mugabe while linking arms with numerous noxious regimes, it is a stubborn fact that the nearly 90-year-old strongman has spent a career brutally repressing social movements -- when he hasn't looted the country with his IMF-backed structural adjustment programs.
When news of the Prokhorov-Mugabe partnerships became public, Representative Bill Pascrell Jr. said, "This is disgusting. Obviously, the Board of Governors of the NBA didn't do their job properly when they vetted this deal." Prokhorov was also arrested in 2007, although not charged, for arranging prostitutes for guests at a French Alpine Villa. The pressure on France by the Russian government to release Prokhorov was said to be very intense.
Yet NBA commissioner Stern vociferously denied that there was anything even slightly shady in Prokhorov's past, saying, "We are pleased that the NBA's Board of Governors approved Mikhail Prokhorov's purchase of majority ownership of the Nets, welcoming into the NBA ownership ranks the league's first majority investor from outside of North America." He has also told everyone to just "call him Mike."
Posted by steve at 9:30 AM
The Mikhail Prokhorov Media Experience, In Brooklyn
The Huffington Post
By Vinnie Rotondaro
In an apparent effort to get some more mileage from his interview with Nets owner Mikhail Prokhorov, Rotondaro recounts what it was like to do the interview. Part of this article provides background that tries to reduce the Atlantic Yards controversy to a conflict between "royally pissed" opponents of the project and supporters "giddy at the prospect of employment."
What I knew for sure was that in Brooklyn he had helped stir serious controversy. I saw it for myself covering the groundbreaking of the Atlantic Yards Project a few months earlier for the Ink. Locals gathering outside Freddy's Bar, which was forced to move as a result of project, were royally pissed. They wore oversized poster masks of the "main culprits" of Atlantic Yards. Prokhorov was one of them. Conversely, some folks from Crown Heights had Brownsville seemed practically giddy at the prospect of employment. The two factions engaged in some light verbal sparring. "Who's true Brooklyn?" Et cetera, et cetera.
NoLandGrab: We're keeping an eye out for yet another piece from Rotondaro about what it feels like to read about what bloggers say about his interviewing skills.
Posted by steve at 9:08 AM
May 18, 2010
New Owner; Same Old Nets
Nets Are Scorching, WHAT WINNING THE DRAFT LOTTERY MEANS
 |
The graph above was done by Sleepy Freud of the Warriors blog Golden State of Mind, and it displays visually the Nets chances at the different picks. As you can see, there are only four colors represented on the Nets’ chart, meaning that the worst the Nets can do is the 4th overall pick. The Nets really need the number one pick though. It isn’t because of John Wall though, sure he is a fantastic player, but in all honesty I’d be happy with any of the players rumored to be in the top 4. The reason the Nets need to win the draft lottery is that they need to keep this “momentum train” rolling.
...If the Nets win the draft lottery, the good mojo continues and this new feeling that Nets’ fan have (I think it is called hope) keeps going. If the Nets lose, it is just the other shoe dropping, something Nets’ fans are used to.
...I think winning the lottery is what will help Nets’ fans finally close the book on the Bruce Ratner era for good and confidently start the Mikhail Prokhorov off on the right foot, optimistically.
NoLandGrab: Consider the "momentum train" derailed, and the other shoe dropped — the Nets drew the third straw in the NBA draft lottery.
Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn, Prokhorov Promises Championship, Not Affordable Housing
In this video you can just feel the excitement and the dedictation to Brooklyn and affordable housing. Well, not really...but it is worth watching the new owner of the Nets and 40% of the Barclays Center Arena (and eventually possibly the whole arena and 20% of the rest of Atlantic Yards) humorlessly (and expressionlessly) explain how he'll pick up the pieces from the wreckage Ratner left behind.
NLG: Prokhorov's English is waaaaay better than our Russian, but Nets Daily really calls this guy "the most interesting man in the world?" They need to get out more.
Nets Are Scorching, LADIES & GENTLEMEN, GET UP & CHEER: MIKHAIL PROKHOROV HAS ARRIVED
Seriously, try to picture Bruce Ratner making this video. You can’t. He’d just say something about “maximizing our profit margin” and then continue to drown whatever small child he was holding at the time.
Posted by eric at 11:29 PM
SBJ: New owner Prokhorov quickly becomes face of Nets
SportsBusiness Journal via SportingNews.com
by John Lombardo
Welcome to the Mikhail Prokhorov era.
The New Jersey Nets are wasting no time trying to recast themselves. The hapless franchise that lost $64 million is undergoing a transformation under the new ownership as the Russian Prokhorov finally takes control of the team.
One thing that doesn't appear to be changing is Brett Yormark's role as the Nets' prevaricator-in-chief.
"Our fans are really excited about our fresh start, from new ownership, to the draft lottery, to a new coach, to free agency and to a new home," said Brett Yormark, president of Nets Sports and Entertainment. "We're off to the best start in new season-ticket sales in team history, in large part because our fans see how committed ownership is to winning and because we have such a compelling story to tell."
OK, wait for it...
Yormark did not disclose the new ticket sales numbers.
Posted by eric at 11:43 AM
May 17, 2010
Yormark claims Prokhorov purchase helps spur record sales of season tickets
Atlantic Yards Report
Nets CEO Brett Yormark tells Sports Business Journal, "We’re off to the best start in new season-ticket sales in team history in large part because our fans see how committed ownership is to winning and because we have such a compelling story to tell."
Well, maybe, but until and unless he releases statistics we can't be sure.
After all, Yormark's credibility is a tad thin, given that last July he claimed "we're having one of the best off-seasons that we've had in years."
NoLandGrab: Why, we'd almost be inclined to believe Yormark — if we hadn't spent the past five-plus years documenting his seemingly pathological lying hype.
Posted by eric at 11:32 PM
It came from the Hovasphere...
NY Post, Jay-Z's 99 problems: Sour economy gives mogul's investments a bad spin
Even the world's most successful hip-hop star isn't immune to the Great Recession.
While his music and apparel businesses appear to be humming along, ringing up mega-profits, Brooklyn's Jay-Z -- not just a businessman but a business, man -- has suffered a few financial bumps of late.
...Jay-Z Inc.’s losers
NJ Nets:
Paid $4.5M in December 2004 for a minority stake in the team. Sale price of $300M means he owns 1.5%. Forbes valued the team at $269M this season, down 9% from the previous season. Operating deficit of 13.9M. In 2004, Team owner Bruce Ratner said he wanted to have team in Brooklyn for the 2006-07 season but 2012 looks more promising.
Wall St. Cheat Sheet, 6 Companies Salivating to Get Lebron James on the New York Knicks
A guy you never heard of is claiming credit for hooking up Jay-Z with Bruce Ratner.
Let’s face it: the New York Knicks have sucked for a while now. In the City that prides itself on attracting the best and brightest, this can’t last.
When I worked at sports boutique investment bank Inner Circle Sports LLP, it was my idea to bring Jay-Z in as a part-owner when our client Forest City Ratner Companies wanted to buy the New Jersey Nets and take them to Brooklyn. Now, I have some less expensive advice for a few New York City companies which could use the same type of synergetic aid.
Posted by eric at 9:56 AM
May 11, 2010
NBA approves sale of Nets to Russian Prokhorov
AP
by Brian Mahoney
The first step in what the New Jersey Nets hope is a quick turnaround is in place. New owner Mikhail Prokhorov is eager to get started on the rest.
"For those who are already fans of the Nets and the NBA, I intend to give you plenty to cheer about," the Russian billionaire said in a statement.
The Nets are now officially the Nyets.
Prokhorov's purchase of the team was approved Tuesday by NBA's owners, who welcomed the first non-North American into their club.
Russia's richest man agreed to buy 80 percent of the Nets and 45 percent of an arena project in Brooklyn from developer Bruce Ratner late last year. Final approval of the sale was delayed until the state of New York had taken over all the land seized under eminent domain at the site of the team's Barclays Center in Brooklyn. The Nets expect that transaction to close Wednesday, and the long-delayed 18,000-seat arena is to open in 2012.
NoLandGrab: And thus ends the "Bruce Ratner era," which firmly trounced "the Dark Ages," the "Great Depression" and "the '70s" for worst era ever.
NY Observer, NBA Approves Nets Sale From Ratner to Prokhorov
This ends a more than six-year stretch for Mr. Ratner, the Brooklyn-based developer whose Nets sunk to nearly the worst record in NBA history this season as he struggled to begin the project that attracted him to the Nets in the first place: Atlantic Yards, the planned $4.9 billion Brooklyn mixed-use development that holds a new Nets arena as a centerpiece.
Construction has finally begun on the arena, and last week, the holdout who had led so much of the fervent opposition to the project for years, Daniel Goldstein, moved out after the state claimed his land and he settled with Mr. Ratner for $3 million.
It's indeed a new era for Brooklyn, as the chapter of fighting and opposition has come to a close, clearing the way for a less dynamic narrative of construction.
NLG: Pending, of course, three lawsuits, including Peter Williams's air-rights challenge.
The Wall Street Journal, Russian Billionaire Takes Control of the New Jersey Nets
“We are pleased,” said NBA commissioner David Stern in a written statement. “We anticipate that his passion for the game and business acumen will be of considerable value not only to the Nets franchise but to the entire NBA.”
...According to people familiar with the matter, NBA officials were satisfied that Prokhorov would play by the NBA rules and would be a suitable owner for the NBA franchise that has struggled financially.
NLG: i.e., he fit the league's ABB blueprint: anybody but Bruce.
The Internets [NYDailyNews.com], Prokhorov approved by NBA's board of governors
The league sent out an e-mail just after 5:30 p.m., putting an end to what had been anticipated since Prokhorov struck a deal to buy a majority share of the team from Bruce Ratner last September. Some final business needs to be taken care of tomorrow and then the Russian billionaire will official take control of the league's worst team and begin his mission of turning it into one of the best.
TrueHoop [ESPN.com], Mikhail Prokhorov, just in time
On the day that Mark Cuban is battling the notion that his Mavericks are barely solvent, Mikhail Prokhorov arrives on the scene to compete for the title of owner NBA fans most dream of becoming.
The Sports Section [NYMag.com], The Prokhorov Has Landed
It's impossible to overstate how much Prokhorov is going to change our area sporting landscape; we really might have our new Steinbrenner. The journey begins today. Don't say you weren't warned.
UPI.com, Prokhorov approved as N.J. Nets owner
"We are pleased that the NBA's board of governors approved Mikhail Prokhorov's purchase of majority ownership of the Nets, welcoming into the NBA ownership ranks the league's first majority investor from outside of North America," said NBA commissioner David Stern.
The Star-Ledger, NBA Board of Governors approves sale of Nets to Mikhail Prokhorov
The Board of Governors vote, which was done via e-mail, was unanimous among the 29 NBA team representatives.
One adamant nay vote, however, came again Tuesday from Congressman Bill Pascrell, the Essex County representative who in recent weeks has changed that the NBA overlooked Prokhorov’s business ties with Zimbabwe – a country under U.S. sanction – and Russian organized crime.
Calling the sale “short-sighted,” Pascrell reiterated that the league’s vetting process was a “smokescreen.”
“Mr. Stern has refused to confirm or deny to me whether the league’s vetting operation looked at Mr. Prokhorov’s businesses in Zimbabwe and his investment bank’s ties to a massive public corruption scheme,” Pascrell said in a statement. “This is simply unacceptable to me and the millions of basketball fans across the country who hold the NBA to a higher standard.
“I believe there are plenty of fans who consider the NBA’s sacrificing of principles in the name of scoring a quick profit as a flagrant foul.”
Bloomberg Businessweek, Prokhorov’s $200 Million Nets Buy Gains NBA Approval
Prokhorov will be the first owner of an NBA team from outside North America and the second foreign owner of a U.S. franchise. Nintendo of America Inc. is the majority owner of Major League Baseball’s Seattle Mariners.
“Today’s vote will give the NBA a greater global reach and bring a multitude of new fans to the game of basketball,” Prokhorov said in an e-mailed statement.
Brooklyn Daily Eagle, Prokhorov Approved to Own the Nets
True to form, the Eagle runs the press release.
Bruce Ratner, Chairman and CEO, Forest City Ratner Companies, the developer of the Barclays Center, said, “Mikhail and his team will bring tremendous innovation and excitement to the NBA. He has a love for basketball and a commitment to excellence. I also thank the Nets organization, for which I have worked very closely with over the last six years. I have never met a more hard working and committed group of professionals, who are dedicated to the team, and, more importantly, to the fans.”
NLG: "For which I have worked very closely with?" Bruce's grasp of the language is only rivaled by his grasp of pro basketball.
NY1, NBA Approves Nets Sale To Russian Billionaire
Prokhorov has made it clear he intends on moving the team to Brooklyn.
The sale had been held up over legal delays on Atlantic Yards.
The Wall Street Journal, Meet Prokhorov's Fixer-In-Chief
Posted by eric at 9:04 PM
May 10, 2010
Clock ticking on Nets' renewal
Bergen Record
by Al Iannazzone
With Prokhorov worth roughly $17 billion, the Nets won’t cut corners or use players as marketing tools, as they have in recent years. It doubtful any Nets will deliver pizzas, as Courtney Lee did for a promotion during this dismal 12-70 season. The focus will return to basketball and winning.
"They’re going to be one of the best organizations in the league," an NBA executive said.
Prokohorov, who made his fortune in precious metals, will own 80 percent of the Nets and 45 percent of the Brooklyn arena project. Rep. Bill Pascrell Jr., D-Paterson, tried blocking the sale, claiming Prokhorov’s business dealings with Zimbabwe violated U.S. sanctions. The NBA called Pascrell "misinformed."
The holdup has been clearing the Brooklyn site, which was accomplished Friday, all but paving the way for Prokhorov to try to do for the Nets what he did in Russia last decade.
NoLandGrab: "Misinformed?" The NBA's so-called "vetting" process appears to consist of making sure that the owner of the Nets is anyone other than Bruce Ratner. Prokhorov, who "made his fortune in precious metals," also does business in Zimbabwe, which appears intent on selling uranium to our good friends Iran. From The Guardian:
"Be also assured, comrade president Ahmadinejad, of Zimbabwe's continuous support of Iran's just cause on the nuclear issue," Zimbabwe's president, Robert Mugabe, pledged last week. The prospect that Iran had secured exclusive uranium rights in Zimbabwe for its nuclear programme emerged following Mugabe's comments.
And what person doing business in Zimbabwe has more expertise in mining than the soon-to-be Nets owner? Vet that, David Stern.
Posted by eric at 10:02 AM
April 23, 2010
NBA: Expect Prokhorov to take Nets reins in May
NY Post
by Fred Kerber
Could it really be that Forest City Ratner (and the NBA) wanted the Atlantic Yards footprint cleared of all human life by May 17th so Mikhail Prokhorov could be present for the NBA draft lottery?
Soon ... not as soon as some suspect ... but soon.
Like less than three weeks soon.
That's when Russian billionaire Mikhail is expected to take over ownership of the Nets, an NBA spokesman said yesterday.
With the vacant possession issue resolved and all pertinent tenants and businesses due out of the Brooklyn Atlantic Yards site by May, the league expects Prokhorov to be approved "by the middle of the month [of May],'' the league said.
Prokhorov needs the approval of the Board of Governors, a foregone conclusion. The board does not need to gather to vote and could do so by teleconference. Approval might lead to Prokhorov sitting on the dais at the May 18 lottery.
NoLandGrab: Remember when the Knicks won the 1985 draft lottery, which allowed them to select Patrick Ewing first overall? Many draft watchers believed the lottery was fixed. Who wants to wager that the Nets' 25% chance of winning this year's draft lottery is more like 100%?
Posted by eric at 10:24 AM
April 15, 2010
Could New Jersey end up with another NBA team after the Nets leave?
Evan Weiner Sports Comments
An era in New Jersey sports history ended earlier this week when the New Jersey Nets National Basketball Association franchise played the team's final game in the East Rutherford building that once was named after New Jersey Governor Brendan Byrne. For the next two seasons the Nets will call Newark home and then it is onto Brooklyn — maybe.
...The new building was the lure for [former Nets' owner Roy] Boe just like the new building in Brooklyn was the target of Nets owner Bruce Ratner's affections although Ratner probably looked at the Nets' moving to Brooklyn as strictly part of a real estate deal.
We can be sure that Ratner looked at this strictly as a real estate deal.
The Nets' 35-year New Jersey run will end in 2012, if an arena grows in Brooklyn. But that does not necessarily mean that New Jersey cannot get another NBA team even though one-time New Jersey resident and NBA Commissioner David Stern about five years ago trashed New Jersey politicians saying "you blew it" when Nets owners could not get an arena built in Newark.
Posted by eric at 11:26 PM
Byrne to Run: The (New Jersey!) Nets Exit the Meadowlands
The Awl
by David Roth
A long-time (New Jersey) Nets fan laments all the errors of the Bruce Ratner and Brett Yormark era.
All those cartoonish "Tales of Jersey" villains—Jersey City's Frank Hague and his 30 years of graft-intensive mayoralty; clowns like Hague's successor, "The Little Guy" John V. Kenny; venal flyweights like Joseph Vas and a dozen others like him—turned out to be nothing compared to Nets' owner Bruce Ratner and his marketing guru, Brett Yormark. Those slick motherfuckers came across the river to Jersey, bought the Nets from the gaggle of hapless millionaires that had mismanaged the team for decades, and showed a state that knows from ruins how ruination is done. On Monday, in a swamp-bound, half-empty arena dwarfed by the nearby hulk of a failed "destination mall" called Xanadu, an embarrassingly outsized chapter in my life closed with a half-assed Nets loss to the mediocre Charlotte Bobcats. I was too worn out, both by the experience of the game and Ratner's tenure as Nets owner, to even feel bad about it.
...Ratner bought the Nets in 2004, in order to make a new Nets arena on Flatbush Avenue—originally one of those crashed-UFO Frank Gehry designs, then a widely derided pseudo-fieldhouse, and now a compromise between the two: the centerpiece of his plan to redevelop Atlantic Yards. If it ever gets built, the arena will be a very lucrative revenue source, but for the past six years Ratner has been stuck actually paying rent to the New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority for the privilege of playing in the erstwhile Byrne Arena. With his debt reaching levels untenable even for real estate developers, Ratner will soon sell the Nets to Russian oligarch Mikhail Prokhorov, unless Prokhorov's dealings with Robert Mugabe's Zimbabwe derail the sale. So, yes: a class act all around. And yet still, somehow, something both sully-able and sullied by Yormark's assaultive marketing.
Posted by eric at 11:55 AM
April 13, 2010
War of Words Heats Up Over Prokhorov's Zimbabwegate
Runnin' Scared
by Neil deMause
It's Day Three of the Great Zimbabwe Flap, and the rhetoric over a New Jersey Congressman's challenge to Russian bazillionaire Mikhail Prokhorov's purchase of the Nets is heating up. Prokhorov fired back at Rep. Bill Pascrell Jr. (D-My-Constituents-Don't-Want-to-Drive-Through-Two-Tunnels-to-Watch-the-Nets-Lose) yesterday, calling the charges that he'd violated economic sanctions against Zimbabwean dictator Robert Mugabe "erroneous," and saying that "we have no dealings whatsoever with companies or individuals on the sanctions list."
The NBA — which has already put on hold Prokhorov's approval as the new Nets majority owner (and minority owner of the planned Barclays Center arena) until the state figures out how to unchain Freddy's patrons and clear the arena site — chimed in that Prokhorov was fine in their book, issuing a statement reading in part: "U.S. companies are not prohibited from doing business in Zimbabwe; rather, they are prohibited from conducting business with specifically identified individuals or entities in that country. The NBA is aware of no information that Mr. Prokhorov is engaged in business dealings with any of these individuals or entities."
To at least one sanctions expert, though, Prokhorov's Zimbabwe dealings are far from trivial. Usha Haley, an Economic Policy Institute research associate who told the Post that Prokhorov was engaged in "sanctions-busting," tells Runnin' Scared that she doesn't buy the metals magnate's defense: "They have been working with Zimbabwe's officials that have been banned by the U.S. government — there's no doubt about that."
Read on for much more with Haley about Prokhorov and Mugabe and how companies and rogue nations skirt sanctions. deMause concludes:
If Prokhorov were somehow sidelined, however, it would likely lead to the demise of the entire Atlantic Yards deal, since his cash is key to Bruce Ratner's razor-thin margins. The betting lines still have to have this as a longshot, but stranger things have killed development deals in this town.
Posted by eric at 2:29 PM
Bruce Ratner reflects on past with Nets, looks to future under Prokhorov
The Internets [NYDailyNews.com]
by Julian Garcia
Bruce Ratner talking basketball sounds almost as phony as Bruce Ratner talking international sanctions.
"I’m gonna miss this place," Ratner said of the Meadowlands arena. "It’s been six years of ownership and we were fortunate to be in the playoffs three times and three times we didn’t make it. Obviously it was a difficult year. The team stuck with it though and the last third of the season they played hard and the last 12 games they won five. So I think we’ll do well next year."
..."I think we thought we’d win 25 or 30 games and we did worse than that," Ratner said. "But the purpose was to try to get ourselves better and I think we’re in a great spot. We’ll have a great draft choice opportunity and there’s also free agency. So I think we’ll be great. We’ve got three or four very good players."
As for the transfer of power, Ratner said "everything is in great shape" despite accusations by New Jersey Democratic Congressman Bill Pascrell that Prokhorov is violating U.S. sanctions against Zimbabwe by doing business with that country.
"It was inaccurate," Ratner said of Pascrell's accusation. "Not accurate."
Related coverage...
Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn, Noted Basketball Genius Bruce Ratner Gives an Exit Interview on the Nets; Denies Zimbabwe Problem
International human rights law expert and basketball genius Bruce Ratner attended the Nets' final (losing) game at the Meadowlands IZOD Center last night.
...It was inaccurate," Ratner said of Pascrell's accusation. "Not accurate."
Interesting. Both inaccurate and not accurate. What is certainly accurate is that Bruce Ratner will go down in history as one of the worst sports team owners ever.
Posted by eric at 1:28 PM
Nets Are Looking Ahead to a Fresh Start in a New Home
The New York Times
By Jonathan Abrams
This take on the Nets' last game ever at the Izod Center explains the lack of nostalgia.
The Nets join several New York-area sports teams — the Yankees and Mets and Giants and Jets — to find a new home. But the Nets’ departure is different. They announced intentions to move to Brooklyn several years ago, ostracizing much of the fan base.
Since then, the organization slashed payroll and traded recognizable faces. They lost millions of dollars each year while performing for what can kindly be described as a tidy crowd.
In an addendum to this article, the issue of Mikhail Prokhorov's alleged dealings with Robert Mugabe was addressed. Guess what -- the NBA says there's no problem. Hopefully, the Treasury Department will heed Congressman Bill Pascrell's call for a real review of Prokhorov's Zimbabwe dealings.
An N.B.A. spokesman said the Russian oligarch Mikhail D. Prokhorov was still on pace to acquire majority ownership of the Nets, despite a congressman’s denouncing Prokhorov’s dealings in Zimbabwe. “U.S. companies are not prohibited from conducting business with specifically identified individuals or entities in that country,” the spokesman Mike Bass said in a statement. “The N.B.A. is aware of no information that Mr. Prokhorov is engaged in business dealings with any of these individuals or entities.” The response followed a New York Post article that stated that Representative Bill Pascrell, a New Jersey Democrat, asked for Prokhorov to be investigated for violating economic sanctions with business in Zimbabwe. Prokhorov’s Onexim Group called it “erroneous media reports.”
Posted by steve at 9:44 AM
Former Nets coach Larry Brown leads Charlotte Bobcats to 105-95 victory over former team in final Meadowlands game
The Star-Ledger
By Dave D'Alessandro
The Nets completed a 12-69 season and have played their last game ever at the Izod Center and will be moving to Newark next season. The occasion was barely noted.
And when it was over, there was a strange pall over the entire proceedings. Principal owner Bruce Ratner, who hadn’t shown up more than a handful of times this season – and as eager as anyone to move the team to Newark next fall – was one of the few who stood and applauded the team when the buzzer went off.
Posted by steve at 9:33 AM
April 12, 2010
Nothin’ but nyet! Jersey lawmaker says Ratner’s savior is illegally in bed with Mugabe!
The Brooklyn Paper
by Stephen Brown
Bruce Ratner’s sale of his financially troubled Brooklyn-bound New Jersey Nets hit a major obstacle on Sunday as a New Jersey congressman brought a full court press of allegations involving the would-be new owner’s shady business dealings in Zimbabwe.
Rep. Bill Pascrell (D–New Jersey) is demanding that the federal Treasury Department investigate Mikhail Prokhorov’s investments in the notorious rogue nation — which may constitute a violation of U.S. sanctions against Robert Mugabe’s regime.
“This is of great concern,” Pascrell told Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner in a letter dated April 11. “Mr. Prokhorov has extensive business dealings in the United States, including his most-recent efforts to purchase the New Jersey Nets. … Zimbabwe is ruled under a brutal, autocratic and repressive regime.”
...The United States’ strict sanctions — renewed by President Obama last year — forbid people with interests in the U.S. from also conducting most types of business in Zimbabwe.
A spokesman for Forest City Ratner had no comment. A spokesman for Prokhorov did not return a phone call and e-mail.
Related coverage...
Daily Transom [NYObserver.com], Yet Another Twist to Atlantic Yards
Just when it looks like the Atlantic Yards deal couldn't possibly be derailed--when even the Nets' new owner brandishing his Kalashnikov to 60 Minutes isn't enough to dissuade the N.B.A. from taking him--there comes this, from the Post.
Apparently, Mikhail Prokhorov might have ties to Zimbabwe's dictator Robert Mugabe, and a New Jersey congressman wants to know all about it.
Bruce Ratner's nightmare continues.
Can't Stop The Bleeding, Zimbabwe Illegit: New Nets Owner Has Business Experience In Place Even More Corrupt Than Jersey
Of course, Prokhorov isn’t an American citizen. And double-of-course this sadly probably isn’t going to do anything to impact the creepy oligarch’s ownership of the Nets or the development of Bruce Ratner’s redevelopment of South Brooklyn — architecture critics have already dubbed the ambitious underhaul “Little Tampa,” at least in my mind. It’ll take a lot more than dealing with the monster who absolutely shredded the country he helped create to disqualify a very rich man from buying a franchise in the NBA. The difficult part is coming up with what that could possibly be, short of not having enough money.
The Source [WSJ Blog], Of Billionaires, Basketball and Banned Investments
Could a New Zealand financier’s investments in an African dictatorship derail a lanky Russian billionaire’s dream of owning a U.S. basketball team?
...In response to questions from The Source, Renaissance Capital replied with the following statement:
Renaissance Capital is fully aware of the sanctions imposed by the United States on certain Zimbabwean persons and companies and takes its compliance obligations extremely seriously. Contrary to erroneous reports in the press, we have at all times strictly complied with all laws and have no relationship with sanctioned individuals or companies.
SW Radio Africa News, Mugabe, the Russian billionaire and basketball
Exiled investment banker, Gilbert Muponda, is familiar with Renaissance Capital’s involvement in Zimbabwe and told Newsreel; ‘They specialize in emerging markets that have a high return, but high risks, and they are experts at quantifying and spreading risk.’ He told us although the company did what any investment bank would do (i.e. seek opportunities) this was in violation of US targeted sanctions and the lawmakers in that country had a good case to charge them.
Found In Brooklyn, Dasvidania to Atlantic Yards Investor Mikhail Prokhorov?
Will an investigation lead to Prokhorov leaving the Atlantic Yards project? We can only hope! The whole project has reeked of corruption from day one yet somehow is a project funded by the taxpayers who will end up with nothing but a sports complex instead of a neighborhood.
ESPN New York with AP, NBA OK with Prokhorov's deals in Africa
The NBA is standing by its (very rich) man.
Prospective New Jersey Nets owner Mikhail Prokhorov came to his own defense Tuesday and was backed by the NBA after a congressman accused the Russian billionaire's company of violating sanctions and U.S. law by doing business with the government of Zimbabwe.
"Onexim Group takes very seriously the issue of law and sanctions as applied to Zimbabwe," Prokhorov said in a statement released through his company during the Nets' final game at the Meadowlands. "Contrary to erroneous media reports, the company and all of its holdings have always been in strict compliance with all United States and European rules regarding Zimbabwe and have had no dealings whatsoever with companies or individuals on the sanctions list."
"Onexim Group and Mikhail Prokhorov have been open and transparent about all their business dealings throughout the extensive NBA review process, and they intend to maintain this position going forward," the statement said.
International human rights law expert and NBA spokesman Mike Bass attempted to set the record straight.
"Congressman Pascrell is misinformed," NBA spokesman Mike Bass said. "U.S. companies are not prohibited from doing business in Zimbabwe; rather, they are prohibited from conducting business with specifically identified individuals or entities in that country. The NBA is aware of no information that Mr. Prokhorov is engaged in business dealings with any of these individuals or entities.
"Mr. Prokhorov's application is still on track to be voted on by the NBA Board of Governors once a firm date is set for the State of New York to take full possession of the arena site," Bass said.
Posted by eric at 11:45 PM
Analysis shows Nets lost $64M in latest fiscal year
SportsBusiness Journal
by John Lombardo
The expected closing of the New Jersey Nets sale to Mikhail Prokhorov comes after the team lost $64 million in the fiscal year that ended Jan. 31, 2010, based on a SportsBusiness Journal analysis of quarterly earnings filings by the team’s parent company.
article [subscription or trial registration required]
NoLandGrab: If Bruce Ratner manages Atlantic Yards as well as he's managed the Nets, watch out.
Posted by eric at 9:57 AM
N.J. lawmaker seeks investigation into Mikhail Prokhorov's business ties, Nets ownership deal could be threatened
The Star-Ledger
by Dave D'Alessandro
Congressman Bill Pascrell Jr. (D-Passaic) has fired the first political torpedo aimed at Mikhail’s Prokhorov’s purchase of the Nets, and it is directed at the Russian’s business relationship with the corrupt and repressive government of Zimbabwe.
Pascrell, admittedly opposed to the Nets’ move to Brooklyn in two years, has asked the Treasury Department to investigate the ties between Prokhorov’s corporation, Onexim, with the African nation, which has been under U.S. sanctions for seven years for human-rights violations.
It is a violation of federal law for American citizens and companies or their subsidiaries to do business with Zimbabwean dictator Robert Mugabe.
Related coverage...
NY Post, Pol whistles Nets owner
Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner should investigate Mikhail Prokhorov's association with Zimbabwe's oppressive regime before the Russian billionaire is allowed to purchase the Nets and move them to Brooklyn, a New Jersey congressman said yesterday.
"I would respectfully request that you investigate all of Mr. Prokhorov's business dealings in Zimbabwe, specifically the February 2010 economic summit, and whether they violate the United States' sanctions regime against the country," Rep. Bill Pascrell (D-NJ) wrote in a letter to Geithner.
"The government of Zimbabwe suppresses freedom of speech and assembly, and reportedly restricts access to food in opposition areas," he said.
The Hill, Congressman wants probe into Russian potential buyer of NBA team
"This is disgusting," Pascrell said, according to the Post. "Obviously, the Board of Governors of the NBA didn't do their job properly when they vetted this deal."
NoLandGrab: Actually, the NBA did do their job properly, which was to approve Prokhorov no matter what. What they didn't do properly was the job.
National Legal and Policy Center, Prokhorov NBA Bid Gets Scrutiny; ACORN-Funder Ratner Needs Russian Billionaire to Build Brooklyn Arena
Ratner’s plans rely not only on Prokhorov’s investment but also on millions of dollars in tax breaks and a $400-million naming deal for the arena, to be known as Barclays Center. Barclays is Britain’s second largest bank. It seems like a variety of interests win if Ratner’s project is built. But they do not include ordinary Brooklynites, or the already-overextended American taxpayer.
Curbed, Actress Buys at 141 Fifth; Zimbabwe Delaying Atlantic Yards?
New Jersey Congressman Bill Pascrell is demanding a government inquiry into hopeful Nets buyer Mikhail Prokhorov's business dealings in Zimbabwe, which Pascrell says might have violated federal rules. Between that and the postponement of the NBA's vote on the sale of the Nets, Prokhorov's probably wishing he had that meditation chamber built already.
The Brooklyn Ink, POSSIBLE TIES TO ZIMBABWEAN DICTATOR MIGHT DELAY NETS MOVE TO BROOKLYN
Though the NBA insists he’s completely vetted, Russian billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov is facing increased scrutiny by a Congressman who questions his company’s business dealings with Zimbabwe.
NetsAreScorching, NETS ON THE NET: 4/12/10 EDITION
The NBA thus far has not commented on the newest accusation that an investment bank owned by Mikhail Prokhorov’s firm Onexim, did business with the U.S.-sanctioned Zimbabwe.
Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn, NBA, Nets, Prokhorov & Ratner Mum on Zimbabwe Sanctions Busting Story. Geithner Asked to Investigate
It should be noted that in 2001 all of New York's Congressional delegation voted for the sanctions. And two elected officials who have now moved on to higher places were amongst the bill's four co-sponsors—Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Vice President Joe Biden.
Wonder what they would think if it becomes clear that there has been a whitewash to allow Prokhorov to flout US laws.
Posted by eric at 9:34 AM
April 11, 2010
It came from Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn...
Political Leaders Need to Explain How Apparent Prokhorov Sanctions Busting Was Missed or Ignored
It appears that the US Treasury Department's sanctions do not allow the kind of business connections prospective Nets owner and prospective 45% owner of the Barclays Center Arena has with Robert Mugabe. Mugabe is considered by many to be one of the world's worst tyrants and the US has sanctioned him for this. It appears that Bruce Ratner's partner in the whole Atlantic Yards boondoggle has violated these laws.
Whether or not Mr. Prokhorov's extensive holdings in Zimbabwe—in light of his involvement with an American business enterprise—violate US law, remains to be seen. But clearly his involvement with the Nets, Ratner, New York City and State is unsavory.
Because of this, Ratner's project must come to a complete halt until the results of a federal inquiry into potential sanction violations by Mr. Prokhorov are known.
And the NBA must come forth and explain if they simply missed this information in its Prokhorov vetting process (and why?) or saw it and ignored it. Whether the latter or the former, David Stern has a lot of explaining to do.
NBA Shoots Big Airball on Prokhorov's Background Check
On April 8th, in The Star Ledger, NBA President Joel Litvin said:
"[Barclays Center Arena] Site possession is the only thing impacting the timing of the [NBA's] vote [on Prokhorov's ownership of the Nets]. The documentation of the Nets’ purchase and the background investigation of Mr. Prokhorov have been complete for some time."
Well, Mr. Litvin's basketball cartel may have completed its investigation of Prokhorov, but it clearly forgot to look at certain things or ignored some big red flags out of desperaton to land the billionaire's big bucks.
Lots of Egg On David Stern's Face With Prokhorov's Extensive Holdings in Zimbabwe
It's not a good week to be NBA commissioner David Stern, whose background check on Mikhail Prokhorov appears to have been as porous as the Nets 2010 defense.
Posted by eric at 10:54 PM
Sanction-busting Investigation Could Threaten Nets Deal, Atlantic Yards
Runnin' Scared
Rep. Bill Pascrell Jr. (D-NJ) tells the Post that he's requesting a Treasury Department investigation to see if Mikhail Prokhorov, the russian investor who's trying to buy stakes in both the Nets and the planned Nets Arena in Brooklyn, has violated Bush-era sanctions against doing business with associates of Robert Mugabe and his government in Zimbabwe. Prokhorov's Onexim Group, which has offices in the United States, holds a 50% stake in Renaissance Capital, which has extensive holdings in Zimbabwe.
This is not good news for Bruce Ratner, who is depending on Prokhorov's investment to get his Atlantic Yards project built.
Related coverage...
Gothamist, New Nyets Owner May Have Done Business With Mugabe
Mikhail Prokhorov's plan to buy the New Jersey Nets may be put on hold as officials look into his possible Zimbabwean holdings. Rep. Bill Pascrell Jr. of the Ways and Mean Committee will look into whether Prokhorov's companies in Zimbabwe violate rules that forbid American citizens, companies, and subsidiaries from doing business with President Robert Mugabe, known for his frequent human rights violations.
...Prokhorov's Renaissance Capital investment bank has interests in various Zimbabwean companies and banks, and was the financial sponsor of an economic forum in Zimbabwe, which is a violation of the sanctions.
...These violations could cause a block on the Nets deal, which could mean trouble for the Atlantic Yards project, which has already been delayed by eminent-domain lawsuits.
The Huffington Post, The NBA's Dirty Partner
With an estimated worth of $13 billion, Prokhorov is currently the richest man in Russia. But there are nice ways to get a billion dollars and there are not nice ways to get a billion dollars. One classic not so nice way is you deal with people nobody else will deal with. Like, for instance, Zimbabwe's president Robert Mugabe.
...One could argue that if Prokhorov wants to profit by doing business with Mugabe, well, that's his business. Unless he wants to do business here in the United States. where it happens to be illegal. The United States slapped sanctions on Zimbabwe in 2003. In 2008, sanctions were further strengthened by that old softie on human rights, President George W. Bush.
So, Mugabe must be pretty bad. But how bad?
Last year, Mugabe was rated the worst dictator in the world by Parade magazine (not exactly a left leaning bleeding heart publication.) His government denies voters their rights, brutalizes the opposition, censors the press, abuses women, inducts children into the army, and criminalizes homosexuality. His regime has a record of torturing students, journalists, even Americans. His country is recognized as one of the global leaders in the trafficking of human lives for forced labor and sexual exploitation. His nation is a place where human rights activists disappear forever.
Shorter answer: Mugabe is very bad.
...Ironically, one of the reasons the U.S. government finally cracked down on Mugabe was because of his regime's habit of "government backed land grabs." It seems the Russian oligarch might actually find this kind of behavior attractive, since the Atlantic Yards project he's investing in here is the worst government backed land grab to hit New York since they buried Robert Moses.
NBC Sports, Prokhorov guilty of skirting sanctions?
American businesses and their associates are prohibited from dealing with the repressive, widely condemned regime of Zimbabwe's president Robert Mugabe. Pascrell notes that the proposed Atlantic Yards project in Brooklyn is "financed partly by the taxpayer," and this inquiry (if it happens) could seriously complicate what had been a smooth vetting process.
NBA FanHouse, Despite New Concerns, NBA Maintains Comfort With Prokhorov's Finances
The NBA hasn't directly responded to Pascrell's charge its investigation of Prokhorov -- compulsory with every change in team ownership -- was "disgusting." In a statement given to The Post Saturday and reiterated to FanHouse Sunday, a league spokesman defended the background check, calling it "very extensive and stringent" and reiterating that nothing disclosed caused the NBA pause in its recommendation of approval to the other 29 team owners. Prokhorov needs 23 of 29 votes to be approved by the league.
When asked Sunday by FanHouse whether Pascrell had asked the league to re-open its investigation of Prokhorov or deny Prokhorov's ownership bid outright, NBA officials declined to comment. The NBA also declined to answer questions on who ran the background check, whether the background check for Prokhorov was undertaken with any more depth than those used for previous ownership bids, or whether the league planned to re-open its investigation.
Fox Sports, Nets ownership deal may be in trouble
Battle of Brooklyn via Kickstarter, It ain't over till it's over
We are continuing to make progress on our cut.
Meanwhile...... things are not looking good for the project.
Posted by eric at 10:29 PM
April 9, 2010
NBA: No Nets sale until land is in hand
Field of Schemes
The NBA Board of Governors announced yesterday that it will likely postpone next week's scheduled vote on Mikhail Prokhorov as new majority owner of the New Jersey Nets until the state of New York has acquired all the land for the team's planned Brooklyn arena. "The Board will vote on Mr. Prokhorov's purchase of the Nets once a firm date is set for the State of New York to take full possession of the arena site, which the team expects to occur in the near future," said league official Joel Litvin.
For those scoring at home, there's still one lawsuit pending against state seizure by eminent domain of several properties, charging that the Atlantic Yards development plan has changed so much since 2006 that the state's original eminent domain justification is no longer valid. Oral arguments take place Monday morning; check Atlantic Yards Report for up-to-the-minute reports.
Posted by eric at 10:31 AM
April 8, 2010
Nets ownership transfer to Mikhail Prokhorov delayed again
The Star-Ledger
by Dave D'Alessandro
The NBA won’t approve Mikhail Prokhorov’s purchase of the Nets after all -- at least not next week, anyway.
The vote by the Board of Governors, originally scheduled for Friday, April 16th, will be postponed until the site-possession issue is resolved, because tenants have yet to vacate the area within the footprint of the Atlantic Yards project that includes the $800 million Barclays Center.
And there is still no clear timetable with which to clear that barrier, however, according to NBA President Joel Litvin.
“The Board will vote on Mr. Prokhorov's purchase of the Nets once a firm date is set for the State of New York to take full possession of the arena site, which the team expects to occur in the near future,” Litvin said.
“Site possession is the only thing impacting the timing of the vote. The documentation of the Nets' purchase and the background investigation of Mr. Prokhorov have been complete for some time."
Once the Nets and Prokhorov achieve what is known as “vacant possession,” the league is expected to hold their ratifying vote via teleconference or e-mail.
Additional coverage...
The Brooklyn Blog [NYPost.com], Atlantic Yards holdouts holding up Nets sale to Russian billionaire
The NBA Board of Governors yesterday announced it was indefinitely postponing its scheduled April 16 vote on developer Bruce Ratner’s sale of majority interest in the struggling franchise to Russia’s second-richest man because a few holdouts have yet to buckle to the state’s use of eminent domain to take their homes and businesses to build the $800 million Brooklyn arena.
AP via NESN.com, Vote on Sale of Nets to Mikhail Prokhorov Will Probably Be Delayed
Russian tycoon Mikhail Prokhorov is probably going to have to wait a little longer before becoming the new owner of the New Jersey Nets.
...Prokhorov agreed last December to buy 80 percent of the Nets and 45 percent of the new arena from Bruce Ratner's Forest City Ratner Cos.
The Nets have endured a dreadful season, posting an 11-67 mark with four games left in the regular season, clinching at least a tie for the worst record in the league this season.
Brooklyn Daily Eagle, Nyet to Nets
Despite a report that soon-to-be Nets owner Vladimir Prokhorov was willing to pay him between $12-15 million per year, Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski refused to express any interest in taking the job.
"Vladimir" Prokhorov?
Krzyzewski said in a statement prior to leading the Blue Devils past Butler in Monday’s NCAA Championship classic that “you would be flattered if someone would offer you a job, but I would not be interested.”
Attention Brooklyn Daily Eagle! See the stories above so you don't repeat the error below (which we've helpfully underlined):
Prokhorov, the Russian billionaire who is expected to officially take over Nets ownership from Downtown developer Bruce Ratner next week, is determined to bring a big-name coach to the franchise prior to its expected arrival in Brooklyn by 2012.
Posted by eric at 10:46 PM
April 7, 2010
Nets see sunny skies ahead with new owner
Bergen Record
by Al Iannazzone
Playing for an owner who spends unthinkable millions to make his team good and players happy was Devin Harris’ old life. It seems he will return to it.
The Nets’ point guard was spoiled playing for Mark Cuban in Dallas. Future Nets owner Mikhail Prokhorov’s net worth is roughly $13.4 billion — or $11 billion more than Cuban, according to Forbes. By all accounts Prokhorov wants to spend on the Nets.
He plans to offer Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski $12 million to $15 million per year to be their coach and general manager. That got the attention of Harris and other Nets, regardless of whether Prokhorov gets his man.
"I don’t think anybody knows really what to expect," Harris said after Tuesday’s practice. "Really, anything is possible with this guy."
NoLandGrab: One thing they can expect — given Prokhorov's control of the internet — is no more Twittering by Terrence Williams or CDR or anyone else.
Posted by eric at 10:16 AM
April 2, 2010
Russian billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov making smart moves as he starts rebuilding New Jersey Nets
NYDailyNews.com
by Mitch Lawrence
Mikhail Prokhorov has yet to be approved by the NBA Board of Governors, but that hasn't stopped him from becoming the Best. NBA. Owner. Ever. Or maybe it's just that he isn't Bruce C. Ratner.
Smart guy, that Mikhail Prokhorov.
..."They should be excited about the new owner," said Phoenix's Steve Nash, after the Suns' win in the Meadowlands on Wednesday night. "He's got incredibly deep pockets, and, in many ways, a positive attitude as far as spending. I think he will build a winner. If you have money and you're a good businessman and you're willing to spend, you can be successful. It seems that teams will struggle when they're not willing to spend."
Don't remind the Nets of that kind of owner. They had one in Bruce Ratner, king of the penny-pinchers. But now they get Prokhorov, richer than rich, and a smart guy to boot.
Posted by eric at 12:11 PM
Mail's In (Nets April Edition)
The Star-Ledger
by Dave D'Alessandro
The Star-Ledger's Nets beat reporter answers reader mail.
Hey Dave: Very suspicious about this Prokhorov guy, aren’t you, my man? You just warming up to be the killjoy next year?
TullyNeither, Tully. But even you have to admit this cloying affection he’s received has a Jonestown vibe to it. Obviously, it’s nice to have an owner with a bank account and a competitive nature, and I love the idea of an owner coming from another culture, because that’s what a global league should be about. But it’s not so nice to have an owner who readily admits he could cash out in five years because he’s operating this venture as a business and nothing more – which in the end will look like a metaphorical middle finger directed at his fan base. I’m not naïve enough to think that owners operate their teams as a public trust anymore, but anyone who uses the term “strategic investment” when it comes to sports deserves some strategic skepticism. Let’s just wait to see what he does with management before we pull out the pom-poms: If he brings in his gaggle of junior managers to learn the ropes under Thorn (who, by the way, should be given the courtesy of picking his own staff, if not his successor) this could easily turn into a debacle. It will be Mikky’s first big decision, and it will speak volumes about whether he cares more about “strategic investments” than he does the NBA virtues as tradition, management discipline, team chemistry, fan loyalty, etc.
How quickly Nets fans forget. The current owner is about to divest himself after six years of owning the team — the ultimate "strategic investment" that greased the skids for an epic Brooklyn land grab.
Click thru for more Q & A on the Nets, Mikhail Prokhorov, Bruce Ratner and more.
Related coverage...
Atlantic Yards Report, From Dave D'Alessandro's mailbag: on Prokhorov and the Brooklyn move
Posted by eric at 11:09 AM
April 1, 2010
Russian's wealth will be overall Nets gain
Irish Times
by George Kimball
The Irish Times assesses the New Jersey Nets' past, present and future (not an April Fools joke).
The scenario posed by a dodgy Russian zillionaire acquiring a moribund franchise and attempting to buy his way to a championship is, of course, a more familiar tale across the ocean than in the US. And while Prokhorov’s name has been familiar to basketball fans in both Brooklyn and New Jersey since September (when he provisionally acquired an 80 per cent stake in the Nets contingent on his relocating the franchise from the latter to the former), it is safe to say until the 60 Minutes episode aired, most Americans probably thought Prokhorov was the guy who wrote Peter and the Wolf.
...Just how thorough this [NBA] “investigation” will be remains to be learned, but since some of the people doing the investigating have fairly checkered pasts of their own, the best guess is: Not Very. Put it this way: neither [NBA Commissioner David] Stern nor any of Prokhorov’s prospective brethren owners seemed disturbed in the least by the revelations of Sunday’s 60 Minutes episode.
Posted by eric at 10:52 AM
March 31, 2010
Stupor Size Thee: Nets’ Yormark Tries To Buy Bag Man’s Silence With A Big Mac
Can't Stop The Bleeding
While Monday’s 90-84 defeat of San Antonio assured the Nets they’d no longer challenge for the worst NBA mark of all time, dignity in the Meadowlands is sadly, short-lived. Following an embarrassing, widely-publicized confrontation with a paper bag-wearing fan, Nets exec Brett Yormark attempted to curry favor with a conciliatory luncheon/webcast earlier today, catered by a local McDonald’s. From the AP’s Tom Canavan:
“Today was another good example of us being able to tell our fans, hey, when you want a voice, you’ll get one with us,” Yormark said in a telephone interview with The Associated Press. “That’s who we are, the type of franchise we are and we want to be. I think resorting to a brown bag doesn’t do anyone any good and they realize that, and they were very nice and had good things to say about the franchise.”
The lunch at the team’s headquarters in East Rutherford was streamed over the Nets’ Web site although the broadcast shut down because so many people logged on, Yormark said.
“I think, in many respects, a lot of good things have come out of this,” Yormark said. “We were able to reinforce our message to season ticket holders. We don’t have any more brown bags in the building, not that we had a lot to begin with before that incident, our players seemed to rally around it and we are playing our best basketball of the season.
“I don’t know if it was a negative,” Yormark added. “It was an unfortunate incident. I try to make the most of any situation and I think I did.”
NoLandGrab: We'd be more inclined to don the bag while lunching with Yormark than while sitting courtside.
Related coverage...
Bleacher Report, Real Fans Wear Bags: A Revolution Against Inept NBA Management
“Thank you for coming to the game, paying my salary, and watching this historically horrendous 7 win, 63 loss team I’ve helped assemble.”
That’s what Brett Yormark, the New Jersey Nets Chief Executive, should have said to two fans sitting courtside during the Nets’ loss to Miami on Monday night.
Hell, he should have tattooed [it] to his face, or at least included it [in] the marketing for “Free Tax Return Night”—the worst promotion giveaway in sports history.
Posted by eric at 10:12 AM
March 30, 2010
Nets avoid worst record in NBA history with 90-84 victory over San Antonio Spurs
The Star-Ledger
by Dave D'Alessandro
Break up the Nets!
Quick, somebody call hell – find out if it’s frozen over.
The Nets won their 10th game of the season tonight, and never mind that the victims — the mighty San Antonio Spurs — were missing two of their best players.
The more pertinent development was that the Nets showed more resolve in the last five minutes than they had shown in the last five months, outscoring Tim Duncan’s team 18-7 down the stretch to post a stunning 90-84 triumph before 13,053 grateful witnesses at Izod Center.
The ancillary benefit: The 1972-73 Sixers – owners of that 9-73 record – still stand alone in NBA infamy.
NoLandGrab: 10th win not withstanding, Bruce Ratner is still the worst owner in NBA history.
Posted by eric at 10:17 AM
March 29, 2010
Nets Executive Has New Take on Brown Bagger
Off the Dribble [NYTimes NBA Blog]
by Ken Belson
Any excuse for The Times to give ink to the woeful Nets and their self-promoting promoter-in-chief.
In the long, strange trip known as the Nets’ 2009-2010 season, Tuesday may turn out to be a red-letter day on the weirdness calendar.
Brett Yormark, the team’s chief executive, will host a Brown Bag Lunch Summit where he hopes to have “a constructive discussion about the future of the Nets” with Chris Lisi.
...Lisi made news when he wore a brown bag over his head during a Nets game against the Miami Heat last Monday. Yormark, whose team has just nine wins this season, lost his cool and started shouting at Lisi, who was sitting courtside — as a guest of the Nets.
...Now, Yormark hopes to turn Lisi’s frustration into a positive by chatting at the team’s headquarters about where the team is headed. The discussion, which will include radio broadcasters Chris Carrino and Tim Capstraw, will be streamed live on the Nets’ Web site.
Some fans, though, think Yormark is pushing the whole brown bag thing too far. Why, they say, should he look to Lisi for advice about the Nets when there are hundreds of season ticket holders who would happily share their thoughts?
NoLandGrab: Why? Because Yormark is catering to the "casual fan" and the news media — not loyal (and long-suffering) season ticket holders
Additional coverage...
AP via The Star-Ledger, Nets CEO Brett Yormark to have lunch with brown bag-wearing fan
Yormark defended his actions the next day, saying he was standing up for his team, which is 9-64 and needs one win in its last nine games to avoid matching the NBA record for fewest wins.
Posted by eric at 9:35 PM
March 28, 2010
Nets clinch no worse than tie for worst-ever NBA team
The New York Times, Another Win Puts Nets Step Further From History
Before a surprisingly festive crowd of 13,469, Brook Lopez scored 37 points and Yi Jianlian added 31 — both career highs — to lead the Nets to a 118-110 victory, their ninth of the season. Ten games remain for them to separate themselves from the futility record and the 9-73 Philadelphia 76ers of 1972-73.
...Call them laughable, but seldom has a team watched by so few — the Nets are last in N.B.A. attendance — been so memorable. As they have tied a yellow ribbon around their inglorious Meadowlands residency, the Nets have been terrifyingly bad. But their timing could not be better.
Bottoming out in near-historic proportion has apparently made them a more attractive reclamation project for Mikhail Prokhorov, the Russian oligarch who is poised to own 80 percent of the team, a 6-foot-8-inch would-be savior soon to ride his stretch limo to the rescue.
...Has Prokhorov already begun to rub off on the Nets? After he materialized as an angel of mercy for the beleaguered owner and real-estate developer, Bruce Ratner, the Nets reached a deal to escape the Izod Center and its surrounding labyrinth of half-baked construction. Their planned palace in downtown Brooklyn — the Barclays Center — finally had its much-delayed groundbreaking.
NoLandGrab: Prokhorov, however, was noticeably absent from that groundbreaking ceremony.
NY Post, Nets win again; avoid breaking worst-ever record
Good thing Russian billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov didn't wait until now to try to buy the Nets.
Imagine what the price tag would be. The cost skyrockets when you're hot. Consecutive-wins hot like the Nets, who not only made it two in a row for the first time this season but also won their ninth game overall last night to insure they will not be the sole owners of the NBA's worst-ever record.
NLG: The Nets returned to form Saturday night in Chicago, losing to the Bulls 106-83.
Posted by eric at 7:32 PM
When the Nets left New Jersey the first time
NewJerseyNewsroom.com
By Eric Model
This article looks at the history of the New Jersey Nets team. Although the author makes the mistake that the site of the Nets arena is the same as one proposed for the Brooklyn Dodgers, he is quite right in wondering why public money is going towards a private, professional basketball arena.
And what fate awaits the Nets? Once they do or don't break the NBA record for fewest wins in a season in a couple of weeks, they'll be leaving the Meadowlands to join the Devils in Newark's Prudential Center – at least for a little while.
And will the New Jersey Nets ultimately become the Brooklyn Nets? Though it's starting to look like that scenario is getting closer to reality, only time will tell. There's still a case to be made either way.
Yes, they've broken ground for a new "Barclays Center" (no one calls it an arena anymore) at the site that a new stadium for the Brooklyn Dodgers was proposed over 60 years ago. At the same time, these are tough times and perhaps there are more pressing needs for scarce dollars than to invest in another professional sports palace.
We'll see.
Posted by steve at 8:30 AM
March 25, 2010
Nets Win a Game, Try to Win PR Battle
Bag flap turns into promotional opportunity
NBC New York
by Josh Alper
Those circumstances are what make it hard to fall totally in love with Yormark. Learning that the bag-wearer was at the game using a free ticket provided by the team makes it easier to understand the CEO's torment -- he's not the first to react that way as Elaine Benes will tell you -- but it is still hard to justify the way he responded on a couple of levels.
Since the Nets give away as many tickets as anyone (NoLandGrab sat in $120 seats last season that our host had acquired for a $3.75 handling charge), Yormark should hardly be surprised. Nor should he be upset, since a fan could easily be disgruntled regardless of the price paid. Has he never heard of "opportunity cost?"
First is the fact that he did it so publicly and drew so much attention to something that would have totally escaped notice if not for Yormark's outburst. There aren't enough people actually at Nets games these days to make something that happens at one of those games turn out to be more than an urban legend unless it gets blown wildly out of proportion. A marketing brain like Yormark's surely knows that, which makes his response a bit surprising.
That's not the worst part, though. The worst part was Yormark's statement following the incident which was full of puffery about respect for the team and respect for the fans. It's hard to swallow that in the face of the way Yormark and his cronies have gutted the team and used it as a vessel for Bruce Ratner's real estate dreams while the basketball operations fell apart.
Posted by eric at 10:24 PM
March 24, 2010
Nets offering fans 'bag exchange' against Kings
The Star-Ledger
by Dave D'Alessandro
Oh, God, didn't we beg Yormark not to stoop to this?
As you probably had guessed, Nets CEO Brett Yormark came up with a workable solution to the baghead issue:
The Nets had a “Bag Exchange” Wednesday night, when all fans were invited to turn in their bags for a nylon bag with the Nets logo on it, and a note from Yormark himself. The note read, “Thanks for letting us see your face, we hope we see it more often at Nets games – Regards, Brett Yormark.”
The team did not promote the exchange beforehand; they merely instructed personnel to identify bag-wearers and offer to make the swap. The nylon bag will also include trading cards.
But won't fans suffocate with nylon bags over their heads?
As for the original perpetrator, a gentleman from Morristown who was seated with his brother in the second row, Yormark said he invited him over for a bag lunch next week.
“We might stream it live on our website, so all the fans can enjoy a nice constructive conversation about the team, because he was expressing his disgust the other night,” Yormark said. “Again, the tickets he received were free, and I thought it was inappropriate, so he expressed himself and I expressed myself.”
NoLandGrab: "The tickets he received were free?" Of course they were — because nobody gives away more free tickets than... Brett Yormark.
Related coverage...
AP via MSNBC.com, Nets executive comes back with plan for paper bags
Nets spokesman Barry Baum said two people accepted the exchange offer by halftime.
NLG: Which means that tomorrow, the box score will indicate that 5,928 people accepted the exchange offer.
Posted by eric at 9:25 PM
Unhappy ending? Woeful Nets on verge of being NBA's worst
USA Today
by J. Michael Falgoust
USA Today catches up on the saga that is the New Jersey Nets.
With the games dwindling as the New Jersey Nets steer toward NBA-record futility, the tension mounts for players, fans and management alike.
In the locker room, there doesn't appear to be denial or anger. Only acceptance of what could be the inevitable.
"It's very realistic we might go down as the worst team in history," 10th-year guard Keyon Dooling says.
...The groundbreaking ceremony for the complex at Atlantic Yards in Brooklyn was March 11. Newark — a "much-needed ... sampling environment," Yormark says — is reachable by mass transit, unlike Izod Center. Ten subway lines and the Long Island Rail Road will be at the base of Barclays, 13 miles east of Izod.
NoLandGrab: A "much-needed ... sampling environment?" Does anyone know what Yormark's talking about? Does he know?"
Posted by eric at 12:14 PM
Sad-sack Nets fan is bag deal
NY Post
by David Satriano and Fred Kerber
...And still more Paper Bag fan vs. Yormark.
[Chris] Lisi, 20, of Middletown, N.J., was the courtside fan who wore a brown paper bag over his head Monday night, prompting an angry exchange with Nets CEO Brett Yormark. Lisi and his brother, Rob, were sitting two rows from the court with some friends when Yormark approached them.
"At first I didn't know who he was, and he said he was the Nets president," said Lisi, a former Nets season-ticket holder who works for a delivery service that counts among its customers Josh Boone. "I thought, 'Wait, Rod Thorn is the president. He's lying.'"
NoLandGrab: The lying should have tipped Lisi off that it really was Yormark.
Posted by eric at 11:36 AM
March 23, 2010
New Jersey Nets executive Brett Yormark regrets confrontation with bag-wearing fan
NY Daily News
by Julian Garcia
All the "F**k Ratner" sign talk today almost made us forget about Nets CEO Brett Yormark's crazy antics during the team's loss last night to the Miami Heat, a story that's getting more ink than any Nets-related story since, well, since maybe ever.
[Photo: Antonelli/Daily News]
Brett Yormark, the Nets executive who got into a shouting match with a bag-wearing fan at Monday night's game at the Meadowlands, issued a statement earlier Tuesday regarding the incident. And he wasn't exactly apologetic.
Saying Nets fans have been "great" throughout this "tough season," Yormark defended his decision to confront a fan in the second row who was wearing a bag over his head between the third and fourth quarters of Monday night's 99-89 loss to the Heat. The Nets fell to 7-63 and are on pace to break the all-time record for fewest wins in a season.
According to the fan - Chris Lisi of Middletown, N.J. - Yormark asked him why he was wearing the bag, and when he responded with a sarcastic, "Because the Nets are so good," Yormark snapped at him.
NoLandGrab: It would seem that the self-serving Yormark, based on his non-apology apology, "regrets" the confrontation because it was caught by photographers. We stand by our call for his resignation.
Related coverage...
The Star-Ledger, Nets CEO Brett Yormark issues statement on argument with fan
[Photo: Tim Farrell/The Star-Ledger]
The Nets this afternoon released a statement from the team's CEO, Brett Yormark, who got into an argument with a fan Monday night, during the Nets' 99-89 loss to the Miami Heat at Izod Center. The fan was seated courtside, in the second row of seats, opposite the Nets' bench and near where Yormark sits during games.
“Our fans have been great and they’ve stuck with us through a tough season,'' Yormark says in the statement. "I did not agree with the way this person expressed his opinion of our team last night and I let him know. It’s been a frustrating season for all of us, but I will continue to stand up for our players, our fans, and our organization. We have an exciting future ahead and we appreciate all of our fans’ support.”
Ball Don't Lie [Yahoo! Sports], Don't even try to wear a bag on your head to a Nets game
Speaking truth to power has its consequences, such as ferocious finger-pointing and getting yelled at.
Of course, Yormark had the last laugh — the bag-headed Lisi actually bought tickets to a Nets game. You win again, corporate infrastructure.
NorthJersey.com, NETS BLOG: Team CEO vs. bag-wearing fan
Earlier this season, there were a few fans wearing paper bags over their heads when the Nets lost their record 18th consecutive game to start this campaign.
Our guess is some more fans will be wearing bags tonight after the publicity this received. And Yormark probably will respond with some type of giveaway for the remaining home games to show he still appreciates the fans.
...“We play for each other out on the court,” Courtney Lee said. “No one pays attention to the fans – they’re going to cheer or they’re not."
NLG: If the Nets' lack of effort hadn't clued you in, there you have it — the Nets don't care about you.
NBC New York, Humiliated by Brown Bag, Facts, Nets CEO Yells at Fan
Just when you thought the Nets' season couldn't get any worse, it did.
Fort Wayne Journal Gazette, Fan 1, CEO 0
In Indiana, they regard basketball as more than just a land-grab Trojan horse.
It's one thing to be lousy. It's another to be lousy and have skin so thin you can see through it.
That's pretty much the story these days for the 7-63 New Jersey Nets and their CEO, Brett Yormark, aka Mr. Sensitive.
...If he'd have been smart, he'd have bought the guy a beer and offered him tickets to the next home game. Of course, if he were smart, his team wouldn't be 7-63.
Game On! [USA Today],