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Joe Tsai makes it official: John Abbamondi named CEO of Nets, Barclays Center

By Net Income

Eight months after David Levy left the CEO job at BSE Global, Joe Tsai’s holding company, the vacancy has been filled. John Abbamondi, who Sportico reported last week as Levy’s successor, officially got the job on Tuesday.

Specifically, Abbamondi has been named CEO of the company “with immediate effect.” BSE Global is the parent company of the Brooklyn Nets and Barclays Center as well as the Long Island Nets and NetsGC of the NBA 2K League. The press release announcing his appointment makes no mention of any role with the New York Liberty which is also part of BSE Global. Tsai appointed long-time Liberty executive Keia Clarke CEO of the WNBA team last week.

In an interview with AP Monday, Tsai suggested the CEOs of the Nets and Liberty will be “co-equals.” “We own the Nets and also have the Liberty and it doesn’t make sense for us to treat them as one subsidiary of the other. They should be co-equals,” he told Doug Feinberg.

In addition, Abbamondi was named the Nets Alternate Governor on the league’s Board of Governors, a role he shares with Oliver Weisberg, who had been interim CEO after Levy left in November. Weisberg is a trusted aide to Tsai and runs Blue Pool Capital, Tsai’s family investment vehicle out of Hong Kong. Weisberg has been commuting between Brooklyn and Hong Kong since Levy’s departure.

Before the announcement, it wasn’t certain whether Abbamondi would run Barclays Center, which Tsai bought as part of his $3.4 billion acquisition last year.

In addition to being in charge of advancing the company’s existing sports, media and entertainment businesses, Abbamondi is also in charge of “identifying and executing on new opportunities for growth,” not further described.

Abbamondi left Madison Square Garden in January after a four-year tenure where he was executive vice president of the Madison Square Garden Company. He had previously served as Senior Vice President of Team Marketing and Business Operations at the NBA, where he was responsible for assisting NBA teams to grow their profitability through strategic consulting on all aspects of team business operations.

Before that, he spent eight years in MLB, including three seasons as the assistant general manager of the St. Louis Cardinals. Abbamondi is a protege’ of Billy Beane, inventor of Moneyball and executive vice president of the Athletics.

“I am thrilled and honored to be joining BSE Global and working with our ownership. New York has been my home for much of my adult life, and I know first-hand the passion New Yorkers have for their sports teams,” Abbamondi said.

“It is the honor of a lifetime to have the opportunity to lead the Nets franchise, Barclays Center and BSE Global’s other properties into this exciting new chapter of their history.”

Abbamondi also committed himself to “excellence and diversity.” Last week,

Before beginning his career in sports, Abbamondi served nine years as a U.S. Navy flight officer and is a two-time recipient of the Navy Air Medal with 40 combat missions over Iraq. He earned a B.S. in political science from MIT and a M.B.A. from the Stanford.

Abbamondi and his fiancé Sarah currently reside in Manhattan. The Nets report they plan “to move to and root themselves in the Brooklyn community this fall.”

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