New Jersey Nets
Who owns them?
Onexim Sports and Entertainment USA owns 80% of the Nets, the remainder is owned by Forest City Ratner Companies and Nets Sports and Entertainment.
The majority owner of Onexim S&E is Mikhail Prokhorov who is a Russian investor who is the head of Onexim LLC, an investment fund which holds about $18 billion in assets, much of it from metals and agriculture, but they also have investments in media, real estate, banking and agriculture. His right hand woman Irina Pavlova is the President of the organization, who handles the day to day handlings between Onexim in Moscow and the day to day handlings of the Nets back in Newark.
Bruce Ratner heads Forest City, and is a New York area real estate developer and used to be the majority owner of the team. He was trying to secure funds to move the Nets to a new arena in New York City but monetary issues with securing real estate and eminent domain issues in the Big Apple must've compelled him to sell the majority stake in the team.
Does Ownership own other teams and facilities?
No. The Nets lease space from the Newark, NJ Government which owns the Prudential Center, their current, albeit temporary home. The Prudential Center also hosts the NHL's New Jersey Devils, it will be a temporary home for the WNBA's New York Liberty from 2011-2013 due to Madison Square Garden's renovation. It even hosts the Seton Hall University men's basketball team and at least some games for the NJIT men's basketball team as well. Prudential Center is one busy place.
The Barclays Center in Brooklyn is the planned new home for the Nets. Onexim will own 45% of the arena, and I dunno how much of the rest Ratner will own. But it's safe to say that the Nets will pretty much own their house when Barclays opens.
Do I think that Ownership is doing a good job?
No, before Prokhorov, but after he bought the team, it's too early. I'll hit the box office performance first. The Nets were averaging under 90% capacity over the last few years, and about 70% for each of the last two years, especially when fans and season ticket holders of this team knew they'd move to NYC for each of the last several years. With a team moving back to New York City and into Brooklyn rather than Manhattan or Staten Island, that is going to hurt the Nets quite a bit in terms of season ticket holders. I can deal with that reality. It takes a long time to commute from Newark to Brooklyn though they're all in the New York City metro area.
But putting out sad marketing ploys such as the reversible Nets/other big market team jerseys last year is very bad. Hmm. Who do I like better? Robin Lopez or LeBron James? At least just have really cheap tickets over the next few years until the move to Brooklyn.
On the court, we know they're rebuilding. They have some promising pieces like Lopez, Harris, but what's up with Troy Murphy? Last year he's a double double man and this year he's not doing much. But we can say that under Prokhorov's watch, he'll be aggressive sooner rather than later to add draft picks and get a timely free agent to get the Nets back toward the Finals within his goal of five years.
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