I have no answers, only guesses, however there are some facts to base views upon.
Let's be clear NYS owns the land under the Barclay's Center, Mr Ratner/Prokhorov own the rights to operate the facility.
Mikhail Prokhorov owns 80 percent of the Nets and 45 percent of Barclays Center.
Bruce Ratner owns 55 percent of Barclay's Center and 20 percent of the Nets.
Prokhorov wants to buyout Ratner's stake in both, and is exploring selling everything if he buys out Ratner.
Mr Ratner owes Mr Prokhorov 31 million dollars or equity in the team/arena as part of the cash-calls on the teams payroll/luxury tax losses for the last three years. That deadline has been pushed back twice to 9/8.
Prokhorov is also a minority partner in the Coliseum renovation.
One guess would be that a Coliseum renovation ground breaking for mid-August (now 8/24) will not happen until Bruce Ratner & Mikhail Prokhorov resolve their issues.
Mr Yormark made clear on 8/4 "The whole sponsorship profile and program is something that has been taking up a lot of our time," he says, "and I feel very confident that by the end of the month we'll have a naming rights partner."
The articles first paragraph said a Coliseum groundbreaking will take place later this month.
My math says that means this week or 8/31.
That ties directly into the Bridgeport Sound Tigers future status.
A full sale of the Barclay's Center/Nets to Prokhorov from Ratner is a huge game changer, and very likely to happen sooner than later.
Ratner is developing his Pacific Park real estate around the Barclay's center, and will be for the next decade or longer.
A sale could also mean heads quietly start rolling among Ratner's people still working at Barclay's given how badly the basketball operations/losses have been or people stay in place until Prokhorov sells everything at some future time if he decides to no longer wants to own a team/arena.
No, I do not see the Nets moving under any circumstances despite their massive losses. Mr Prokhovov is done spending over the luxury tax limit so losses on the basketball operation will go down. They will finally move their practices facilities out of New Jersey the same month the Islanders new offices in Cantiague Park will be ready in Feb 2016.
The only thing Mikhail Prokhorov has ever definitively said about the New York Islanders was he was not interested in purchasing the hockey team. (2011)
What does that mean for the New York Islanders?
If you believe Wang's iron-clad 25 year lease agreement is binding on all future owners of the Barclay's center for the next 25 years it means absolutely no problem for the Islanders which Gary Bettman somewhat confirmed in Feb 2015 unless an owner of the New York Islanders purchased the Barclay's Center.
Bettman 2015:
“Whatever agreement Charles Wang made has been assumed in full. (It’s)
not based on a change in ownership. I know (new minority owner)
Scott Malkin is very excited about playing at Barclays.”
Mr Bettman did not say a word about ownership of Barclays. What happens to that agreement if Ratner sells his majority stake in Barclay's to Prokhorov, who flips everything entirely to another party at some future point?
To write whoever owns the Barclay's Center inherits Wang-Ratner agreement reads nice but that would still be a guess, and yes I read the articles the Islanders agreement may be a problem for selling the Barclay's center so that's a good thing for our team's future because we want the agreement to be binding on all hockey owners and arena operators.
Of course in October 2012 Wang said he would remain sole owner of the New York Islanders.
At that same press conference Gary Bettman completely shot down any expansion for the NHL so these days I'm not that sold on 2012 statements.
Yes, we know the teams future practice facility lease agreements at Cantiague Park.
We have zero guesses to make on where the incoming 2016-17 majority owners stand on anything based on one press conference, for now they have their own payments to make before they should say anything.
But when they become majority owners there are going to bring in their own people.
Let's get the very minor issue out of the way:
No idea how a Wang-Smg sublease lawsuit plays out. My guess is Wang stopped
paying his yearly 3.5 million in 2012 when Smg brought in Jerry Goldman
as Coliseum general manger (see archives) to do what Wang paid for
which was to book events in a facility he was getting all revenue in the
sublease. Smg moved Goldman to Minnesota in August.
That's a guess but who cares.
We have more important things to guess about.
