Thanks to money from Tsai, Barclays Center paid PT arena staff nearly $6M (<$200/week?) through June (not May)--and now will pay them through 2020

The main news from the FY 2020 annual report from the Barclays Center operating company, Brooklyn Events Center, is that revenue fell well short of projections, unable to cover the required annual bond payments. Also, as I reported, the company attributed more than 41% of the arena's assets to the ethereal notion of "Goodwill."

But the document also discloses that billionaire Joe Tsai, who owns a set of interlocking companies--B-Cubed Arena owns Brooklyn Arena, which owns Brooklyn Events Center--has contributed funds to bolster the arena, backing a commitment to pay workers who've had no events to staff:

Since the COVID-19 outbreak, Brooklyn Arena has supported the Company through capital contributions totaling $13,500,000 during the Successor Period. Among other things, the Company used these contributions to pay for the salaries and benefits of its full-time and part-time employees, despite the Arena having been closed. During the Successor Period [through June 30], the Company’s part-time staff received $5,986,090 in such compensation.

That nearly $6 million, though a significant sum, is clearly less than the sums previously estimated--via anonymous sources--after the arena shuttered and Tsai 3/14/20 publicly committed to paying employees through the end of May. 

Previous coverage

In a 4/30/20 article, the New York Daily News reported:

Barclays Center has also continued to pay its hourly workers despite the suspension of the NBA season. A source confirmed to the News that roughly $6 million has been paid to arena employees while the season is on hiatus.

 In a 3/30/20 article, the New York Post reported:

A source familiar with the unions and the overall process told The Post the checks cut [through the end of May] could end up totaling an estimated $6 million.

By contrast, the new document confirms that $6 million was not paid by the end of April, as the Daily News suggested, nor by the end of May, as the Post projected. Rather, it took until the end of June. (Obfuscation from anonymous sources? Who knows.)

How much did workers get?

Arena spokespeople have not provided any further details about the payments, but I can try to do some math.

Assuming the commitment started March 14, on the day of the announcement, that meant 109 days through June 30. Divide $5,986,090 by 109 days and the result is $54,918.26 per day, or $384,427.80 per week over 15.6 weeks.

How many part-time workers are there? The arena has reported, at different times, between 1,900 and 2,200 such workers. At $384,427.80 per week, 1,900 workers would average $202.33. At $384,427.80 per week, 2,200 workers would average $174.74. 

March 14, 2020 pledge

Commitment extended in June

Though the arena was closemouthed about it, with no formal announcement, Tsai in early June agreed, shortly after the expiration of the pledge, to extend payments to workers for an unspecified time. 

As I wrote, evidence suggested the decision was last-minute and strategic, perhaps catalyzed by the Barclays Center's prominence in days of protest over police brutality. 

Now extended through 2020: nearly $10M?

Now the commitment has been extended through the end of 2020, the financial report discloses:

On September 25, 2020, the Company notified the collective bargaining units representing its part-time workers that, due to the sustained impact of the COVID-19 outbreak, it will be extending payments to the Company’s part-time employees until the final work week of calendar year 2020.

Over the remaining six months, or 182 days, assuming the same rate of pay--not a given, as noted below--the arena would spend nearly $10 million, or $9,995,122.75.  

You'd think they'd make a bigger deal of it, though perhaps they don't want to highlight the fact that such part-time jobs were never expected to pay a worker's full bills. Neither rate of pay would interfere with unemployment payments.

The reference to September 25 suggests that the arena had extended payments through the end of the calendar year's third quarter, with an option to revisit the situation if the arena was on the road to reopening. It, of course, is not on that road.

Some questions remain

The document does not specify the number of workers involved, so it not clear who's been left out. The Daily News reported 5/7/20 that contractors who run the jumbotron were not being paid.

Nor does it explain how the pay was calculated. The initial pledge in March referred to "the paychecks they would have earned if Brooklyn Nets regular season games and non-Nets events at Barclays Center were to continue as originally scheduled." 

Given that far fewer events had been scheduled for later in the year, other than Nets and Liberty games, is the ongoing pay based on 2020 scheduled events, or aimed to match, for example, last year's schedule?