Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park Report

Oh, well.

The 6/29/30 announcement by Gov. Andrew Cuomo that the MTV Video Music Awards would return to the Barclays Center Aug. 30, with limited or no audience (and later clarified to no audience), has been overtaken by a decision not to hold an indoor event at all, but rather several outdoor performances around the city.

That's a blow to arena managers' efforts to resume some revenue-producing events. That said, according to former arena executive Irina Pavlova, the arena operator would've incurred a loss.The VMAs are a “reputational” special event to put a venue on the map. It’s not a money-maker even in the good times. As a special event, it’ll have its own sponsors which don’t benefit the arena. Also huge load-in/out times, big egos etc = high costs that the venue absorbs— Irina Pavlova (@TheRealPavlova) August 8, 2020
Page Six reported yesterday:
A source told Page Six earlier this week that some staffers expressed they did not feel safe going ahead with the show. But…

‘MADE FOR MUSIC, BUILT FOR HOCKEY’, VenuesNow reported 8/6/20, suggesting that the new UBS Arena at Belmont Park, thanks to the much larger footprint than urban arenas, will save money and time for multi-truck concert productions.
The arena, scheduled to open in 2021, "sits on 400 acres," according to article, which isn't accurate. But the larger footprint does allow more loading docks and backstage areas
“What’s unique about New York is you have an elevator and turntable at Barclays Center that artists have to deal with for tour production,” Tim Leiweke, chairman and co-founder of arena developer Oak View Group, told the publication. “When you have a 24-truck tour like Drake, you’ve got to load in one truck at a time, go down, hit the turntable, spin it around and unload it. In the case of the Garden, you’ve got a ramp that takes you up five levels and you (unload) one truck at a time.”

That adds time, and cost, given union expenses. So much for the 2013 statement by th…

It's, um, interesting that Long Island University can issue a press release about a new initiative with Jay-Z's Roc Nation, but can't answer press questions about the fate of the apparently-stalled plan to renovate the Paramount Theater, right.

Here's coverage in the Associated Press, Roc Nation Partners With Brooklyn’s LIU to Launch New School and the New York Daily News, Jay-Z, Roc Nation open new school of entertainment management at Long Island University, based on the press release below.

There's no little irony that Brett Yormark, Roc Nation's President of Business Operations & Strategy, would say in yesterday's press release, "After many years of working with LIU, I know how important music and sports are to both Dr. [Kimberly] Cline and the LIU Board of Trustees, so I was thrilled to be able to partner with them."

After all, there's still a stale announcement on LIU's Paramount site, Revival of Legendary Theatre Underway, quot…

The financially stretched Barclays Center, not surprisingly, is in deep(er) financial trouble after shuttering for the coronavirus crisis, with its $29.1 million in revenues dwarfed by $31.2 million expenses over the first half of this calendar year, according to financial documents released yesterday.

And it's worse than a $2.1 million loss suggests.

The arena is supposed to amass a significant cushion of net income, leaving ample cash to pay off some $36.2 million in annual required PILOTs (payments in lieu of taxes). Those PILOTs include $24.8 million in net debt service to pay for arena construction, plus a significant chunk that go back into arena operations and maintenance (see below).

As described below, though the arena operating company was in the black for the first half of FY 2020, the annual net income will be too little to cover PILOTs.

That said, a default is not coming. Billionaire Joe Tsai, who owns the Brooklyn Nets and the arena operating company, "has sign…

In August 2019, it was widely reported that billionaire Joe Tsai would complete his purchase of the Brooklyn Nets from billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov for $2.35 billion, a recordprice for a U.S. sports franchise. (The previous NBA record was $2.2 billion.)

The two-stage transaction, which started in April 2018 with the sale of a 49% stake, closed in September 2019.

However, documents shared with investors in the Barclays Center construction bonds suggest a less impressive bottom line: the deal involved Prokhorov immediately giving up $345 million, which later translated into a Tsai rebate of about $300 million.

In other words, the deal, arguably, was not a record, given that haircut. And that rebate cut Prokhorov's profit, estimated in media reports between $1 billion and $2 billion.

A complicated deal bails out Barclays

That valuation adjustment derives from the awkward relationship between the Nets and their arena, which—though supplying a crucial, value-boosting home in the nation…

Two years after the Barclays Center parent company created a new executive position, the first person to fill it is gone.

A 8/7/18 press release, BSE GLOBAL CREATES TWO NEW EXECUTIVE POSITIONS, annoucied the hiring of Dr. Maurice Stinnett as Vice President of Diversity & Inclusion, as well as Steve Powers as Vice President of Security. It stated:
As Vice President of Diversity & Inclusion, Dr. Stinnett will create innovative programming tailored for inclusion and cultural competence by providing leadership and support across BSE brands. Dr. Stinnett was previously at Cleveland State University, where he served as the Vice President of Diversity, Inclusion and Community Engagement. Prior to Cleveland State, Dr. Stinnett served as the Dean of Students at Central State University and was the Chairman for the World Leadership Program, a White House Initiative under the Obama administration designed to bridge cultures and encourage inclusive dialogue among universities in the Middl…

When Forbes last February valued the Brooklyn Nets at $2.5 billion I missed this key piece of fine print: "Our appraisals are what we think the team would sell for. So while [Joe] Tsai paid $3.3 billion for the Nets, we think the team is worth more like $2.5 billion because he paid around $1 billion for a money-losing arena business."

Actually, Tsai paid an estimated $3.3 billion for both the team and arena operating company.

That came to light after I looked at Forbes's 7/31/20 The World’s Most Valuable Sports Teams 2020, which ranked the Nets as tied for #38, valued at $2.5 billion, after Tsai purchased them--along with the arena operating company--last year for $3.3 billion.

I tweeted at writer Kurt Badenhausen, asking if they were saying the Nets were worth less than what Tsai paid, and he responded, "We believe Nets and rights to operate Barclays are worth less than what Joe Tsai paid."

That, indeed, is possible, given that the arena has lost money, though…

From the Business of Home yesterday, How Goldman Sachs convinced this New Jersey designer to change her firm’s name. an interview with Greenbrook, NJ–based Kesha Franklin of Halden Interiors.
When did you know that you wanted to be a designer? I actually didn’t know for the longest time—this was something that I fell into, or that found me, I should say. My husband is in the entertainment industry, so back in 2002 we had heard that Barclays Center would be coming to Brooklyn. The following year, there was a four-story building [near the Barclays site] that was vacant; we reached out to friends of ours and [decided to] partner on putting a bar-lounge and restaurant there. I have a background in corporate event production, so I knew that I could fill it and run it. But the part that we didn’t really think about was how to actually build it and get it to open.

Doing that venture is how I got exposed to interior design without even realizing it... (Emphasis added)

Yes, it's possible

Wai…

Because, when it comes down to it, that's what it is -- a bubble. It doesn't reflect the real world. It doesn't reflect what's happening in society or, for that matter, mere miles from the area Disney has partnered with the NBA to cordon off from Orlando and Central Florida. — Mike Wise (@MikeWiseguy) July 29, 2020And more, ending with:
And if we're really going to heap massive praise on a locked-down sports league about to re-start -- amid record-breaking cases and fatalities in many states across the country -- we also need to acknowledge that the good happening in that bubble is not real life; it's sports. — Mike Wise (@MikeWiseguy) July 29, 2020But then:
If Covid-19 testing sites are shutting down in Florida in anticipation of the hurricane and NBA players are unaffected and continue to take multiple tests, this is where you have to have some cognitive dissonance to be and work in The Bubble. https://t.co/rya3eooNQb — Mike Wise (@MikeWiseguy) July 31, 2020On the…