Nets Keep Losing Money
by Net Income on Apr 1, 2010 12:41 PM EDT
in Brooklyn
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PrintIn spite of cuts in payroll, both on and off the court, pay freezes and Friday furloughs, the Nets continue to lose tens of millions of dollars annually.
Forest City Enterprises, Bruce Ratner's parent company, reported this week that it picked up 68% --or $28.7 million-- of the team's net losses during the fiscal year ending January 31. That works out to an overall loss of $42.2 million. The 2009 figure was $55.5 million. Forest City had picked up 54% of the team's net losses that year --$30 million.
Much of the team's losses the last few years, attributed mainly to declining attendance, have been covered by equity contributions from investors, principally FCE, as well as loans from investment banks, a sports financing company and the NBA. Mikhail Prokhorov has agreed to accept 80% of the team's debt --about $175 million-- and eat up to $60 million in losses while the team is in New Jersey.
- Forest City Enterprises - Annual Report - Forest City Enterprises
- In Forest City conference call, Atlantic Yards cited as example of FY 2009 milestones - Norman Oder - Atlantic Yards Report
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Oh Poor Ratner!!
Give us a break. Ratner may be losing money in the short-term but if the real estate con job goes through like everyone on this site says it will, his great-grandchildren will be billionaires. Nobody cares that Ratner is losing money – he bought the team with one goal in mind: steal it from the fans of New Jersey to benefit himself and himself only. He is a con man, plain and simple and used any means necessary to get what he wants. You know what should be reported on this site instead of Ratner’s "struggles? How the fans in New Jersey got SCREWED as well as all those that have lost or will lose their homes and/or businesses because they dared to get in Ratner’s way. The man is a complete pig and it’s despicable.
Hmm
where did we say Ratner is losing money? The team is losing money. Ratner owns only 7% of the team.
It's Brooklyn, or it's not!!
I can’t express how happy I am that the Nets are moving to Brooklyn!!! Ratner is my hero, Prokhorov is my idol!!! BROOKLYN. NETS.
Waste Money
I don’t understand how the Nets would paid L Frank 5 million plus a year.
Thorn 5 million plus a year. Najara 4 million plus in FA market when contribute hustle..that is 15 million of wasted money.
I can see how this add to close to 30 million a year. Yi brings in I guess Asian ticket sales so I will spare him.
I mean what GM and Head Coach especially Frank who has no previous coaching experience would get 5 plus. End up firing him then paid Kik a million plus and del harris some more money to become Coach. Total waste money.
On top of that they won’t paid 7 million to Izod to leave which they could move to the Rock and generate much more money then that 7million lease.
I have no idea who is the genuis behind this.
Uh, check your facts
Frank was never paid $5 million. He was paid $4 million in the last year of his deal, this year, which is in the bottom half of NBA coaches.
How did you manage to make any sense of that post to reply? His whole post looks like a dictionary threw up on the screen.
by JohnFromLongIsland on Apr 1, 2010 8:56 PM EDT via mobile up reply actions
IssacNJN calm it down! The only people screwed Nets fans are the lack of Nets fans. If you look at attendance nightly, NJ is down 30 – 40 percent of most teams and it has been this way even with Kidd and Carter. Izod is a horrible building. NJ is a poor fan base. Brooklyn makes so much sense and keeps your Nets within viewing and listening, so it seems like a win-win to me. Brooklyn should give this team 18 k to 20 k a night (whatever the arena will hold) instead of 11 or 12 k. Nets are lowest in attendance this year and have always been in the bottom. When your arena is 30% empty, that’s a lot of money to leave on the table. Time to move.
by oman8 on Apr 1, 2010 1:06 PM EDT reply actions 1 recs
Half of attendees will be Knicks fans who can't afford the Garden
or some dude that wanted to impress his date with seats to an NBA game and watch the opposing team. What a joke! Where are the Nets fans in Brooklyn, anyway?
Doesn’t matter. This thing will fall apart soon enough, even if Proky gets the land swap. As cynical as I am about politics, there’s no way anyone in their right mind that would be stupid enough to allow this project to be built to completion.
No one believes that Barclays will be built in time for 2012-‘13. Better get used to watching the Nets for the foreseeable future, ’cuz that’s where they belong and that’ s the only place they be able to play, and don’t say I didn’t warn you.
"No one believes Barclasys will be built in time"
I know a few people who are betting tens of millions of dollars that it will. I might also note that because of the construction decline in the Metro area, Giants/Jets Stadium was finished four months AHEAD of schedule. Plenty of construction workers were available. No problem in getting materials…and at cheap prices.
Your Correct
@Issac you are correct it has been always about the lack of fans support along with being in that sewer known as Izod Center.
Ratner and his partners bought this team knowing and understanding that they were about to loose a lot of money until the big move to Brooklyn.
Now that some things are becoming a reality for the better of the team. Everybody wants to point fingers.
just keep on rooting for the team to do well in Newark awjhile its on its way to Brooklyn.
The New jersey people blew it with its lack of suppport over the years.
It over New Jersey and good-bye.
So Net Income – how exactly do you “know” these people that are betting tens of millions of dollars. After all, you have NO affiliation with the team, its owners or upper management right?
Oh dear, an accusation
I read…including the very document that I linked to.
and I have never said that that I have NO affiliations with the team, its owners or upper management. I have no affiliation with the team, but I do know people both in ownership and upper management. It’s called reporting.
The truth..
is starting to come out a little. Finally.
dude this isn't a giant conspiracy against you
-Over? Did you say "over"? Nothing is over until we decide it is! Was it over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor? Hell no!
Thank you Morph
People like you give me hope that still are real New Jersey Nets fans out there and maybe, just maybe the Brooklyn arena can still fall through as unlikely as that seems based on the fact there is now a multi-billionaire behind the project. I was at the Meadowlands last night – there was clearly 16,000+ there despite the fact we absolutely suck beyond belief and the fans have been told the team is moving. I understand why some see the need for a new building (although I don’t) – but the simple fact of the matter is the new building is waiting for the Nets…in Newark. That is where the team clearly belongs for the long-term.
They do huh?
you mean people like me since I did last night and 7 other times this year, including twice at MSG? I never said I don’t buy tickets – I said I will not buy them from the team, because I will not put any money in their pockets. I buy tickets that have already been purchased elsewhere because I still have a urning desire to see my team play at THE MEADOWLANDS or to support them on the road when possible.
That might have been a sarcastic quote
I’ve watched almost every game. But i’m unemployed, and the last thing i’m going to do is rip through my savings so I can watch Yi dribble balls off his leg and blow easy dunks. That being said I have gone to games but I’ve been fortunate to know somebody in the front office who hooks me up. And I might stubhub the last game at Izod. Sentimentality with that place runs heavy with me, been going there since I was 8 years old.
Nice Job Samhops
Glad to see somebody on here actually cares about the history of this team – which for the past three decades has been at the Brendan Byrne Meadowlands Arena. The Continental-Izod crap is not necessary – it is the Meadowlands Arena and I have loved every minute of my experience there. I for one can’t stand the Newark arena and if they build another one in Brooklyn, they lose one of their biggest fans. April 12 will be a very sad night but I plan to celebrate the hundreds of amazing memories I have of watching the Nets play in our old barn.
Absolutely Universal
While I don’t care for the Newark arena personally, I see its merits overall and I would most certainly continue to be a diehard Nets fan if they remain ANYWHERE in New Jersey. I have had an opportunity to root for a NYC basketball team my whole life – it’s called the Knicks. I never did and I don’t plan to start now.
Enough of his high dudgeon.
the heroic pose, the righteous accusations (without foundation), the changing party line.
If Morph is your role model on this topic...
Why not just believe Tal’s rants?
clearly 16 +?
Attendance: 14,734
-Over? Did you say "over"? Nothing is over until we decide it is! Was it over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor? Hell no!
The best way to gain back money for the Nets
I have probably said this in the fan posts, but I will say it here as well. Stop marketing the Nets as a NY team and market them as a NJ team instead. Do you think the Devils are marketing themselves as a NY team? The answer to that is no, and they are marketing themselves as a NJ team instead, which was part of the reason they went up in attendance. Even the Islanders market themselves more to the rest of LI rather than to NYC. The arena will be a net money loser, and that article in the NY Times back in January when talking about the new stadium for the Browns proved that when public subsidies are given to things like this, it actually ends up hurting the taxpayers even more. Another example is the new Yankee Stadium, which actually broke the bank and exceeded the cost, but that’s sometimes common for the Yankees, and we are paying for this, not Steinbrenner, who is one of the richest sports owner in the world. Being in Brooklyn will just make them a shadow to the Knicks as most fans will never convert to the Nets even if they do move there. There was a reason the Nets returned to NJ in 1978 and that was because they couldn’t compete with the Knicks in being a NY team, so they went to NJ because it was pretty much untouched by both the Knicks and 76ers, so it was the perfect oppurtunity for them. I say keep them in Newark and market themselves to their real fans instead.
The Devils
The new building helped with their attendance because of the mass transit options, not because of any marketing ploys…
-Over? Did you say "over"? Nothing is over until we decide it is! Was it over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor? Hell no!
You misread my statements as usual
I said that the Devils marketing themselves as a NJ team was part of the reason they got higher attendance, not the sole reason. I do know that the Prudential Center is only two blocks away from Newark-Penn Station, which is a major transit hub for the state of NJ, because I have been there myself. Please read my comments word for word and don’t try to use semantics or even skim with it. Although I do support the Nets moving to Newark, I will not support them marketing as a NY team when they are really a NJ team.
NJ is over for hoops...
Unless you root for Rutgers.
it was not a reason
there marketing did not get any better…it was the building and mass transit
The Nets have always, even to this day, market themselves to NJ better. The Nets are the most community active team in NJ
-Over? Did you say "over"? Nothing is over until we decide it is! Was it over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor? Hell no!
On answering you
Just because I don’t give an immediate response does not mean that I don’t have an answer for it. I do have a life outside this website. As for Cousins, I wouldn’t know what you are talking about.
by Tal Barzilai on Apr 2, 2010 11:36 AM EDT up reply actions
Its about time the MEDIA would add the roughly $235 million in Debt that Proky will be paying, to the known figure of $200 million.
60 Minutes used the vague figure of several hundred million. The real figure should be about $435 million, for which Proky has the bonus of 45% control of Barclay.
BTW, has is there any construction or construction preparation going on at Barclays during this eviction waiting period?
Take some decaff
Was it really necessary to make that comment at 3 AM? Did you have sleeping problems again jerry25? Apparantley, Goldstein doesn’t seem to have them. I doubt that it will start anytime soon, which is sort of what happened at the WTC site back in 2004 when the Freedom Stone (annoying name) was dropped in and it went into years of new arguments. I wouldn’t be surprised if the same would happen her. For the record, I did not make that up on the WTC site, because I have also been following that from the begining.
by Tal Barzilai on Apr 2, 2010 11:39 AM EDT up reply actions
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