“Barclays Bank could be getting two horrendous teams for half off what it originally agreed to pay for naming rights to the planned Brooklyn arena”, sneers the NY Post’s Rich Calder, which may or may not be an infringement on the Rangers’ territorial exclusivity, and/or a brutal blow to however many persons in Kansas City hoping to lure the New York Islanders.
New arena financing documents released yesterday leave the door open to the NHL™s Islanders joining the NBA™s Nets at the planned Barclays Center in Prospect Heights, and they also indicate that a once-record $400 million naming-rights deal the British bank agreed to pay over 20 years has been chopped to $200 million.
Barclays would now pay $10 million a year to the arena™s owner over the 20-year deal as part of a renegotiated agreement, according to a 772-page statement prepared by Goldman Sachs for the $900 million arena project sent out to potential investors.
Joe DePlasco, a spokesman for developer Bruce Ratner, indicated the deal would pay the Nets other fees above the $10 million annually, saying œNaming-rights agreements always include the arena, team and hospitality assets. Ours are the same.”
But there™s one problem: When Ratner spiked Gehry™s original arena plan for a cheaper design, the size of the arena™s playing area was a casualty, and, as planned, it™s no longer wide enough to host pro hockey games.
However, with shovels yet in the ground anything could change, and Borough President Marty Markowitz told the Post in October that Brooklyn wants the lslanders.