Chapter 499 NBA Team
Robert Kennedy Jr. "gifted" Lulana to Barron on behalf of the Kennedy family, and Barron happily accepted it, which would also deepen his friendship with the Kennedy family.
On the surface, you may not feel it deeply, because there don’t seem to be many members of the Kennedy family in American politics, and there are not too powerful figures-except for Edward Kennedy who can still carry the family’s banner, the others The younger generation has not made much achievements.
But in fact, the influence of the Kennedy family in the Donkey Party is still very large. This is because Kerry, who competed with George W. Bush last time, was introduced by the Kennedy family, and the next Guan Hai, who has reached the top, In the process, we also received strong support from the Kennedy family, which can be seen.
So maintaining Barron's influence in the United States and having good relations with the Kennedy family are also very important - it can be said that the Kennedy family is an important member of the American Onsa Group.
However, for the subsequent arrangements for Lulana, Barron does not need to rely too much on the Kennedy family. This kind of matter can also reflect his own strength.
Lulana's most critical problem is that her family in Russia is threatened by gangs there.
In this regard, although Barron's power has not yet reached Russia, Abramovich, who has a close relationship with him, is one of the oligarchs in Russia. These things are nothing more than a word from him.
For Barron, it was just a matter of a word to Abu. Abu, who hoped to integrate into the upper class society in Europe, was eager to have the opportunity to deepen his friendship with Barron.
…
"Although Bruce Laettner has no objection to selling the team, he wants a price of $500 million, which is too high for the current team."
At this time, Keb Harper, CEO of Pioneer Sports Group, also came to New York and said this after meeting Barron.
"Indeed, but Bruce Laettner is a businessman. He doesn't care about the team at all, he just wants to make money through the team..."
Barron shook his head and said:
"That way, you can talk to him about the new stadium and the Atlantic Yards project..."
What they were talking about was also the main reason why Kebe Harper came to New York this time. Pioneer Sports Group’s acquisition target was an NBA team, and the Bruce Laettner they were talking about was the basketball player. The owner of the Nets at this time.
As Barron said, the reason why Bruce Letterman bought the Nets was because he was not drunk. He mainly wanted to move the team from New Jersey back to Brooklyn, New York. , because he himself has a piece of land in Brooklyn and is preparing to build a real estate project called Atlantic Yards.
If he can get the league to agree to move the Nets back to Brooklyn, then he can convince the government to build a subway in the name of building a new arena, and then his Atlantic Yards project can sell for a big price.
So from beginning to end, Laettner's mind was not on team building at all.
In fact, when he took over, the Nets were not weak. They had three star players, Carter, Kidd and Jefferson, and they had even reached the NBA Finals before.
After he took over, he only thought about saving money all day long and sold all the stars one by one.
But things went counterproductive. Nets game attendance plummeted without their stars, and television broadcast revenue also declined. As a result, the team suffered losses year after year.
In the future, in the 2008-09 season alone, the team's losses will exceed 30 million.
Now that the league has agreed to move the Nets back to Brooklyn, and the local government has also approved the plan to build the subway to the new arena, the team will not be of much significance to Laettner. Instead, it needs to continue to invest. A liability.
But Laettner himself is a shrewd businessman. Since Pioneer Sports Group takes the initiative to acquire the Nets, he will naturally ask for a sky-high price first.
However, Barron is not a vegetarian. He knows that in his previous life, in 2009, Laettner sold 80% of the shares of the Nets to Russian tycoon Prokhorov for US$220 million. -In fact, the selling price of these shares was only a symbolic $1. At the same time, he assumed a total of $220 million in debt and operating expenses after Laettner purchased the Nets. He spent another $223 million to buy the Nets. 45% of the shares of the Nets Arena, and also invested US$120 million to become one of the shareholders of the Atlantic Court project.
The reason why the Nets were sold so cheaply was because after the subprime mortgage crisis, Laettner's financial situation reached a very critical stage. Without these capital injections, the mortgages he used to build the new arena and the Atlantic Yards project would Real estate will be repossessed by banks, and they will have to give up the Nets and keep their own real estate projects.
In fact, even now, he has not fully raised the funds to build a new stadium.
The future new stadium for the Nets will be called Barclays Center.
Does this name sound familiar to you? It was because Laettner had insufficient funds to build the arena. The construction of the arena was hindered for a time, so he had to sell the naming rights of the arena to Barclays Bank. So the name of the new arena was became the Barclays Center.
Therefore, Barron's meaning is very clear, that is, the price of acquiring the Nets can be negotiated, but $500 million is absolutely impossible anyway.
However, Laettner himself values the new stadium and the team far less than his real estate project Atlantic Yards. Therefore, Pioneer Sports Group can change a strategy and ask Laettner to lower the sale price of the team, and they can fully bear the cost of the arena. Construction costs, and in the future will fully own the arena, and even be able to invest in part of the Atlantic Court project to solve the financial problem for Laettner.
It's not that they can't afford US$500 million, but no one's money comes from the strong wind. Even if they know that the value of the Nets will exceed US$3 billion in the future, and through Barron's memories of his previous life, they can preemptively introduce some potential Players - not like the Russian tycoon who took over the Nets and spent huge sums of money to buy many heavyweight stars, but those stars were past their prime and the team's performance still failed to improve - -After Barron's operation, the Nets' performance will definitely be greatly improved, and it will be more valuable in the future.
But if he can save money, why would he be willing to be taken advantage of?
At worst, wait another two or three years. After the subprime mortgage crisis, I'm afraid Laettner will cry and beg himself to buy the Nets.
By the way, it is also worth mentioning that the new boss of the Nets after the Russian tycoon Prokohorov, the first foreign boss in the NBA, will be familiar to many Chinese people. That is the third boss of Alibaba Company. Cai Chongxin, the third-generation chairman of the board of directors, is also the first Chinese owner of the NBA.
