http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/05/sp...l?ref=nyregion
While Brooklyn Fusses, Newark Pushes for the Nets
By WILLIAM C. RHODEN
March 4, 2009
Mayor Cory Booker described himself as a “hopeless dreamer” Wednesday morning.
Booker had just finished presiding over a ceremony honoring Terrence Kelsor, a security guard from Newark who last week rescued a man who fell on the tracks as a PATH train was coming into the Christopher Street station in Manhattan. Booker praised Kelsor’s courage and used him as an example of the impact citizens can have on one another.
Booker extended the concept to the impact a professional team could have on a city. In fact, he said that when he spoke of being a dreamer, he was referring to bringing the Nets to Newark, the odds of which seem slim to none.
Everyone associated with the Nets’ owner, Bruce C. Ratner, insists there is no way the Nets are staying in New Jersey. Ratner’s vision has always been that the team would be the crown jewel of a sprawling real estate complex in Brooklyn. “The fact is, we’re going to Brooklyn,” Brett Yormark, the Nets’ chief executive, said Wednesday.
Booker is undaunted. He spoke confidently about luring the Nets. He was passionate in describing the economic and psychic impact they would have on the city, which already has a great arena in the Prudential Center, where the Nets will play two preseason games in October.
“We don’t have to use state money to build anything,” Booker said. “The Nets coming to Newark would supercharge the city. I’m working on it every day.”
He added, “We think it’s the right thing for the state, it’s the right thing for the team and it actually makes sense.”
Still, Ratner is determined to give Brooklyn a pro basketball team — whether the borough wants one or not. So a franchise that has been searching for an identity, for a true home, is once again at a crossroads.
Newark desperately wants the Nets; Brooklyn has been lukewarm. The Nets want lukewarm.
From the moment Ratner announced plans to move the team to Brooklyn, the project has encountered wave after wave of protest. Using money, influence and political muscle, Ratner has waded through resistance the way a fighter wades through punches in hopes of landing a knockout blow.
There have been victories along the way, but no peace.
In early February, a major lender agreed to extend its loan and not demand full payment, which was due that month. Late last month, a state appellate court ruled against opponents who had challenged the $4 billion project on environmental grounds.
Another major decision remaining is a lawsuit challenging the state’s use of eminent domain to seize private property on behalf of the project. A defeat could be devastating for the project, which is already reeling from the poor economy.
The Nets, meanwhile, who struggled to draw fans when they were going to the N.B.A. finals, are again relying on opposing teams’ stars to draw. Newark could help stop the bleeding.
“The team is hemorrhaging money,” Booker said. “I can show Bruce tomorrow how bringing the team to Newark will stop the hemorrhaging the team is doing right now.”
In the event Ratner eventually wants to sell, Booker is looking at ownership groups willing to bring the N.B.A. to Newark. “I am talking to some people who are interested,” he said. “I know that we can show them that this can be a moneymaking team.”
He wouldn’t be more specific. “There’s a lot of talk,” he said.
Last May, Ratner said the Nets were not on the market. But that was before a global economic tsunami hit. Still, with sponsors on board, there would seem to be no sentiment to sell.
The Nets have eight founding partners and it is believed they will be announcing a ninth next week. “Corporate America believes in the project, the Barclays Center specifically,” Yormark said, referring to the proposed Brooklyn arena. “They know we’re going to get there, and they want to be a part of it.”
But Newark is a good fit for the Nets. It is a city with a rough-and-tumble past and a promising future. Most important, it would give the Nets an identity, something they have lacked for decades.
“There is a compelling social-justice argument to make, that this team coming here will have a multiplier effect of social good in our city,” Booker said.
“Newark is really a basketball city; this is something that should be here. For the team to leave New Jersey is ridiculous.”
Meanwhile,
Ratner, whose company, Forest City Ratner, was the development partner for the Midtown headquarters for The New York Times company, continues to nip and tuck and shrink his grand development project. In deference to a ravaged economy, he said he would build the basketball arena first and hold off on proposed office buildings and most of the housing until the economy improves. According to reports, he is trying to cut the estimated $1 billion cost of the arena in half in the hope of attracting financing and attracting more city and state subsidies.
Newark would be so easy. Unfortunately, that’s never been the Nets’ way.
The struggle always continues.