Home -> Law Blog Directory -> Media & Entertainment Law Blogs -> Sports Biz

OR PHONE (866) 635-1838 for Bankruptcy Help, (866) 635-6190 for Divorce,
(866) 635-2689 for Personal Injury or (866) 635-9402 for Criminal Defense

Find a Local Lawyer

Bankruptcy (866) 635-1838
Divorce (866) 635-6190
Personal Injury (866) 635-2689
Criminal Defense (866) 635-9402

Media & Entertainment Law

: Sports Biz

Are the Nets For Sale?

ADVERTISEMENTS

The New York Post is reporting that Bruce Ratner, the commercial real estate developer and majority owner of the Nets has put the team up for sale. While the Nets deny this, as would be standard operating procedure, Nets officials confirm that the team is seeking investors, usual code speak for a sale. The Nets have been systematically lowering their payroll in the last couple of years in an effort to stem mounting losses while they await the seemingly chimerical moving date to Brooklyn. Having now offloaded Vince Carter, the Nets should have the lowest payroll in the league.

Several investors have taken a look at the team, including, of great interest, the Russian billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov, who has been to the States recently to meet with David Stern and Ratner to discuss his purchase of a NBA team. Prokhov is familiar with the basketball business as the money behind CSKA Moscow, one of the Euroleague's powers. He would be the first non North American owner of a team in any of the four old line major leagues (MLS has a subsidiary of an Austrian company - Red Bull New York). The other two leading candidates appear to be Terry Semel, the former CEO of Yahoo and Vince Viola, currently the second largest equity owner behind Ratner.

Ratner is a commercial real estate developer who bought the Nets to be the anchor of his Atlantic Yards multi-use, multi billion Brooklyn redevelopment project. With delay after delay, and the financing issues brought on by the Great Recession, I'm sure Ratner is desperate to staunch the Nets' cash flow drain. A condition of any sale will be that the move to Brooklyn proceed assuming the Barclay's Center is actually built within a reasonable time, not necessarily a given. After what Ratner has done to alienate the New Jersey fan base, a move to Brooklyn and new ownership, even Russian ownership, can't come fast enough.

Full post as published by Sports Biz on July 27, 2009 (boomark / email).