Vanderbeek, Booker Reportedly Want To Buy Nets, Move To Newark
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Vanderbeek Showing Interest In Acquiring
Nets And Moving Team To Newark |
Devils Owner Jeff Vanderbeek and Newark Mayor Cory Booker are "seeking to assemble a group of investors to buy the Nets" and move the team to Newark, according to sources cited by Ian Shearn of the Newark STAR-LEDGER. The sources said that in recent weeks Vanderbeek has met with Nets Owner Bruce Ratner, while Booker has "spoken to an official" at Ratner's development company, Forest City Ratner Cos. The outcome of each talk "was characterized as 'open-ended.'" Shearn notes the effort to bring the Nets to Newark, where they would play alongside the Devils in the Prudential Center, "comes amid growing speculation on whether Ratner can complete a $4[B] retail and residential development in Brooklyn, given the deepening crisis in the credit markets." The Nets have been expected to relocate to the new Barclays Center in Brooklyn as early as the 2010-2011 season. But Ratner spokesperson Howard Rubenstein said, "The team is absolutely not for sale. We're inches away from completing the deal in Brooklyn." Goldman Sachs spokesperson Michael DuVally, whose company is leading the financing for the Barclays Center, in an e-mail said the company is "confident we will close on the financing for the project by [Q3]." Nets President & CEO Brett Yormark also "brushed aside any financial concerns," noting that Ratner "just got a $680[M] construction loan to build a separate 900-unit luxury rental tower" in N.Y. Yormark: "When you have a great project and you have people that want to be involved in the project, you can get financing." Booker's office would not comment on the matter, while Vanderbeek only said, "The Nets have stated they are going to Brooklyn. We wish them all the luck in the world." Yormark: "I take it as a complete compliment that the Prudential Center would like us to call them our home. Unfortunately that's not going to happen" (Newark STAR-LEDGER, 5/1).
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