Now can we get the Nets to Brooklyn? http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/24/sports/basketball/24nets.html?hpw=&pagewanted=print Russian Billionaire Signs Deal to Become Nets Owner By CHARLES V. BAGLI A Russian billionaire, an amateur basketball player the size of an N.B.A. power forward, signed a tentative $200 million deal Wednesday that would make him the principal owner of the New Jersey Nets and an investor in the team’s new home, an arena planned for Brooklyn. Mikhail D. Prokhorov, the richest man in Russia and president of Onexim Group, would become the first foreign owner of an N.B.A. team who is not Canadian. Prokhorov, who once owned a stake in the CSKA Moscow basketball team, wrote on his blog Tuesday that he intended to improve Russian basketball by using N.B.A. training methods and sending Russian coaches to the United States for internships. “We are delighted to join in this exciting project and to participate in the landmark development of global sports in this entertainment arena in the heart of New York City,” Prokhorov said in a statement. “I have a long-standing passion for basketball and pursuing interests that forward the development of the sport in Russia.” Prokohorov, 44, has bragged that he will be “the only N.B.A. owner who can dunk,” according to one executive who has spoken with him. The deal comes as the developer Bruce C. Ratner, who owns the Nets, is rushing to complete the financing for an $800 million arena at the intersection of Atlantic and Flatbush Avenues in Brooklyn and start construction by the end of the year. Ratner, chief executive of Forest City Ratner, has been eager to bring in a major new investor because the team loses tens of millions of dollars a year and the arena project has been hobbled by costly legal challenges and three years of delays. Prokhorov’s lawyers signed a term sheet covering the deal Wednesday morning in New York. “Mikhail and Onexim will be great partners for this project,” Ratner said in a statement. “I am thrilled that smart global investors appreciate the exciting economic potential of Brooklyn.” Under the terms of the deal, Prokhorov would invest $200 million in the Nets in exchange for an 80 percent stake in the team and 45 percent of the arena, according to a statement released by Forest City Ratner. He would also take on some of the team’s debts, executives said, reducing Ratner’s 23 percent stake as well as that of other investors. Prokhorov also has the right to purchase up to 20 percent of the surrounding 22-acre residential and commercial development. The Russian edition of Forbes magazine has listed Prokhorov as Russia’s richest man, worth $9.5 billion. That is after losing about $7 billion in the global economic crisis in the past year. Prokhorov’s fortune stems from lucrative privatization deals that sprung from the fall of communism. He headed Onexim Bank when it acquired the industrial conglomerate Norilsk Nickel in 1993, turning the inefficient giant into a profitable business. Prokhorov sold off his shares of Norilsk in 2007 for $7.5 billion. The new tycoons who have emerged in Russia and Eastern Europe have been more widely known for their keen interest in English soccer teams. Roman Abramovich bought the London soccer club Chelsea in 2003. And the Uzbek-Russian billionaire Alisher Usmanov, who made his fortune in metals and mining, owns a significant stake (a little less than 25 percent) in another London soccer club, Arsenal. For the N.B.A., it is another step in the globalization of the game, long championed by Commissioner David Stern. “Interest in basketball and the N.B.A. is growing rapidly on a global basis and we are especially encouraged by Mr. Prokhorov’s commitment to the Nets and the opportunity it presents to continue the growth of basketball in Russia,” Stern said in a statement. The deal must be approved by the N.B.A.’s board of governors.
Prokohorov, 44, has bragged that he will be “the only N.B.A. owner who can dunk,” according to one executive who has spoken with him. Prokohorov, 44, has bragged that he will be “the only N.B.A. owner who can dunk,” according to one executive who has spoken with him. lol Not exactly true since one of the best dunkers in NBA history is part owner of the Bobcats. Damn, now we have 2 owners from former communist countries in the NBA. Who would have thought 10 years ago.
If you're referring to the Chinese owner of the Cavs, China is still a Communist country. But still, I get what you're saying. Just goes to show how much the world has changed over the last 2 decades.
I wonder if he intends to run this as a profitable business or if we will see some huge pay rolls in the future.
Score! Groundbreaking before end of the year = Brooklyn Nets. This old ESPN Magazine article on WNBA players getting rich in the offseason playing in Russia makes it seem like Russian owners are more like Cuban than Ratner (who was seemingly mainly interested in the real estate side of Nets ownership). Now if only he'll pay out a few extra rubles to reinstate the Gehry stadium designs.
Too bad, I wanted Ratner to sink on himself, and maybe the City of New York would not continue to have f-cked itself by giving them a sweetheart deal on the arena. But hey, taxpayer aid for Russian oligarchs - why not? I expect to see the Teabagger patrol out any second......
9.5 billion, that's after him losing 1/2 his wealth in the past couple years. On a side note, he's known for living it up and traveling with hoes, basketball players will love him I'm sure he's going to spend big, he'll have a bunch of overpaid players on his team.
All true, but I do like looking at shiny things. I'm still disappointed the Jets' Manhattan stadium fell through five or six years ago.
A few weeks ago, when I went to the new Yankee Stadium and paid (with svc charge and tip) $12.00 for a stale bun soggy water dog, and then another 10 for a beer, I pretty much had enough brand new, muncipally-assisted stadium experience that I could handle to last me for awhile.
Did you tip for the soggy bun? You do know those eating contests aren't featuring culinary serving suggestions, right?
I can't speak for the area that the Brooklyn stadium would replace; I know next to nothing about it. But that West Side Stadium wasn't like Madison Square Garden knocking down the original Penn Station. The West Side stadium location was a (literal) pit, one of the last undeveloped places / eyesores in Manhattan. If they can get the Gehry designs back (unlikely; it was probably a PR ploy all along), then I'd much rather walk by the new Brooklyn stadium, even if I can't afford a hot dog and ticket to sit courtside.
Yep, they were already building towards this possibility with the cap room. Daily News: This will definitely renew that speculation, along with the Jay-Z connection. Nothing like a free-spending playboy oligarch to pay out for talent. Beasts: Harris Lee James PF-TBD (Should have held onto Anderson.) Lopez
