Programming, Promoting Barclays

The Nets are upgrading their business side just as they've upgraded their basketball side under Mikhail Prokhorov, adding people and upgrading titles. But the new guy with the toughest job, writes John Brennan of The Record, must be Sean Saadeh, vice president of programming for the Barclays Center.

It's up to Saadeh to fill the dates that the Nets don't.  Barclays Center like other arenas wants to fill between 200 and 225 nights a year. Even with a good team, the Nets will only account for about 50 dates annually: three preseason games, 41 regular season games and as many playoff games as they can win.

The issue is the other dates.  Brett Yormark has deals with  a number of promoters that should guarantee them 48 Feld Entertainment shows, 12 boxing events, 25 college basketball and hockey games, at least 20 concerts with Live Nation, and a couple of tennis events, writes Brennan. That's another hundred or so, meaning Saadeh will have to find 50 more while competing with the Garden, the IZOD and the Rock. That's a "daunting challenge", writes Brennan. Then again, he notes, the bigger challenge was getting this far.

• Mission Impossible? - John Brennan - Meadowland Matters