A subcommittee of owners of the National Basketball Association has unanimously
recommended the sale of the New Jersey Nets to developer Bruce Ratner,
paving the way for the league’s Board of Governors to seal the $300-million
deal some time next week, the NBA said Thursday.
The news comes amid reports that Ratner, who wants to move the team to
his proposed Atlantic Yards development in Downtown Brooklyn, had lost
the funding necessary to complete the purchase.
Citing a Nets insider, the New York Post reported on Tuesday that several
investors in the deal had pulled out in the last week of July, causing
a major setback in Ratner’s quest to buy the team.
On Wednesday, the Star-Ledger of Newark reported that three Ratner investors
had “reneged on their commitment to buy the Nets.”
The Star-Ledger also said that the team’s owner, YankeeNets, “are
still fighting over how to break up the company.”
But on Thursday, Ratner spokesman Joe Deplasco told The Brooklyn Papers
that the deal was done.
“The Post story was wrong,” Deplasco said. “The financing
project is in place and was sent to the NBA last week.”
Also on Thursday, NBA spokesman Tim Frank told The Papers that the subcommittee
of NBA owners recommended that the purchase go through.
“They have been submitting stuff the entire time,” Frank said
of Ratner’s finances. “It satisfied the subcommittee.”
Frank added that the league’s 40-member board of governors will vote
on the sale “sometime before mid-week next week.”
Ratner needs 23 out of 40 votes for the deal to be approved.
Ratner had reached a deal in principal in January, and it was supposed
to have been finalized by June 30.
The Star-Ledger, citing three sports industry executivers with knowledge
of the deal, reported the investment firm Goldman Sachs was one of the
investors that had backed out.
The newspaper said the firm’s withdrawal was the result of NBA rules
that put an owner’s personal assets on the line in the event of a
default.
“This is standard NBA stuff, but these were guys who had never done
an NBA deal before, and Ratner had to take them out,” one of the
executives told the Star-Ledger.
— reported by Deborah Kolben
