Nets minority Owner Jay-Z “is set to tip off a major marketing campaign today aimed at enticing fans to bench the Knicks and score season tickets" at Barclays Center in '12, according to Rich Calder of the N.Y. POST. This is the first time Jay-Z is “allowing his popular brand and universally recognized image to market Nets tickets.” Sources said that “he’ll personally christen the new basketball arena with a concert there next year.” Nets CEO Brett Yormark said, “Jay-Z will be the face of the team’s 'fourth-quarter campaign' to sell 4,400 ‘All-Access’ premium seats at the rapidly rising 18,000-seat arena.” Ads will be featured on “billboards, 150 taxi tops, 60 telephone kiosks and a whopping 250,000 coffee cups to be distributed to local stores.” A photo of Jay-Z and “an arena rendering will accompany the slogan: ‘Get all access to Jay-Z and other events at the Barclays Center’” (N.Y. POST, 9/26). A Nets spokesperson said that the team “has sold half of its 100 luxury suites -- including one to Jay-Z.” Meanwhile, in N.Y., Erin Durkin cites sources as saying that the Nets also will “make it official today that the team will be named the Brooklyn Nets.” Although the name was “long expected,” Mikhail Prokhorov “flirted with the idea of changing the team name when he bought the Nets last year” (N.Y. DAILY NEWS, 9/26).
