Re:New Jersey Nets 2003-2004
Nyt se on sitten varmaa.(Mureasanin laatutakuun huomioonottaen varmuus on 0.1%:n luokkaa)
Nets reach deal to sell team to Brooklyn developer
Associated Press - 21st January, 2004 11:46 PM
TRENTON, N.J. (AP) Brooklyn developer Bruce Ratner has reached an agreement to buy the New Jersey Nets, a team official said Wednesday night.
Edwin Stier, president of Community Youth Organization, which owns the Nets, said the contract was finalized Wednesday afternoon. He said the board of YankeeNets, the holding company of the Nets and New York Yankees, must now approve the contract at a meeting Friday morning. The holding company is on the verge of being dissolved.
``I'm very pleased that the process worked and was very successful and I'm very glad it's over. It was a very intense process of negotiation,'' Stier said.
Ratner's bid was accepted over an offer from a group led by real estate developer Charles Kushner and Senator Jon S. Corzine of New Jersey. Ratner's bid was reportedly $300 million, a price Stier did not confirm Wednesday.
Ratner, the developer of Brooklyn's 16-acre MetroTech Center, plans to move the Nets to a new arena at the center of a $2.5 billion office, residential and shopping complex in Brooklyn.
Kushner and Corzine had sought to keep the team in New Jersey.
Bids were also made by New York Islanders owner Charles Wang and New York financier Stuart D. Feldman, but neither was in contention at the end of the process.
George Zoffinger, president of the New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority, which operates the Meadowlands complex where the Nets play, said he thought at one point on Wednesday the Nets were going to accept the bid made by Kushner's group.
``I don't know if New York City put up more money, or if Ratner and New York City put up more money, but basically it fell through,'' Zoffinger said.
Stier said he informed Kushner of the board's decision late Wednesday afternoon.
``He wasn't shocked,'' Stier said. ``He told me he appreciated the way the process was run. All the parties who participated expressed that to me.''
Ratner's proposed Brooklyn Arena and Brooklyn Atlantic Yards are a combined residential, retail and commercial project with 7.7 million square feet of space. The arena would seat 19,000 for basketball, and include 4,500 units of residential housing and 2.1 million square feet of commercial office space.
Under the plan, development of the arena would begin next year. The completion of the project would be in time for the 2006 NBA season.
The entire development would take 10 years, according to a statement previously released by Ratner. The Brooklyn arena would be located at the intersection of Flatbush and Atlantic avenues in the borough's downtown, near a major Long Island Rail Road terminal and a number of city subway lines, as well as commercial outlets.
Some Brooklyn residents have charged that the project would displace close to 1,000 people. Ratner spokesman Joe DePlasco said recently that the current plan would affect 140 residents.
DePlasco said last week that Ratner wants neighborhood residents to voluntarily leave their apartments in exchange for generous offers of real estate, cash or both.
If there are holdouts, Ratner would use the government power of eminent domain to condemn the homes. The railyards are owned by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, a state agency controlled by Gov. George Pataki, who supports the project.
Mayor Michael Bloomberg and many other city officials also back the plan, although the area's city councilwoman and state senator have come out against it.
Netsin viimeisin "vahvistus" Eddie Griffin todettiin syylliseksi marijuanan hallussapidosta. Tuomio kuullaan ensi kuun 13.