From the Desk of Marty: Newark–Brooklyn Smackdown!
Julia Lipkins | May 2, 2008
Yesterday, The Star-Ledger of New Jersey reported that NJ Devils owner Jeffrey Vanderbeek is working with Newark Mayor Cory Booker to “assemble a group of investors to buy the Nets and move the basketball team to Newark.” Unnamed sources also told the paper that Booker discussed the Newark deal with an official at Forest City Ratner – the developer behind the Atlantic Yards project.
A long-time supporter of the Atlantic Yards project, Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz released a statement about the Star-Ledger’s report:
After years of obscurity mired in the Meadowlands, the Nets are ready for a slam dunk in the Brooklyn big leagues—who knows, maybe the Devils want to lace up and come here too! If my esteemed colleague Cory Booker in Brooklyn’s ‘western suburb,’ a.k.a. Newark, New Jersey, is looking for a professional basketball team, maybe he should ask the Knicks. But seriously, I own a Brooklyn Nets jersey and I’m ready to suit up and cheer for our new ‘dem bums’ in Brooklyn’s fabulous new Barclay’s Center.
Booker was none to pleased that Markowitz called Newark a “western suburb.” In response, Booker said:
I yield to…Marty Markowitz, my esteemed colleague in the “eastern suburb” of Newark a.k.a Brooklyn, and would like to officially challenge him with the remaining shreds of my athletic pride to a one and one basketball game to battle for the Nets!
Markowitz replied, “…I am only 5-foot-5…I’ll accept the challenge only if I can have a ringer play against him.”
Maybe Markowitz could expand his list of classified ads to include a “proxy/ basketball star.”
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I’ve met Cory Booker. He’s a big guy. I can see why Brooklyn Boro President Markowitz would want a ringer. Brooklyn’s big on ringers. They’ve got a guy (and company) from Cleveland standing in for a Brooklynite in this huge Atlantic Yards ‘development’ boondoggle that will swallow hundreds of millions of New York taxpayer dollars — for a “Brooklyn nets JERSEY”, you should pardon the expression. NEW Jersey is where the Nets belong, and more specifically in Newark, where we know how to build a great arena for less than a billion dollars. How is a billion-dollar arena ever supposed to make money? You’d have to fill it to capacity three times a day, 365 days a year, and that is not going to happen. Or they’d have to charge a fortune for every ticket, which means that the typical taxpayer would never be able to set foot in an arena their tax dollars built. If Mr. Markowitz had the best interest of Brooklynites at heart, he would build the housing component of the Atlantic Yards project, making sure there is lots of affordable housing in the mix, and turn thumbs down on the arena. Ratner wouldn’t lose a dime, even if he didn’t sell a losing team for $30 million more than he paid for it, and Brooklynites would have something good for ordinary people, not just sports and corporate millionaires, to show for their tax credits. Oh, I’m sorry. That would make sense.