When Bruce Ratner was looking for someone to buy the Nets and help fund Atlantic Yards, he turned to–where else–Goldman Sachs. And Goldman found Russian billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov, because he “was in the newspapers, he was someone who was interested in buying a team,” Mr. Ratner explained to Eliot Brown on their hard hat tour yesterday. (The slideshow is here.)
In mid-July, Mr. Ratner flew over to Russia, had dinner at Mr. Prokhorov’s house, and they finished the $200 million dollar deal later in New York.
Eliot writes that Mr. Ratner didn’t sound especially distraught about no longer owning a team. “It was important to go to Brooklyn, and we’re going to Brooklyn, and it’s important that we have a really good team in Brooklyn,” Mr. Ratner said, “and he’s going to make that more possible than I think we could, economically.”
Naturally, Mr. Ratner prefers to speak as if it’s a done deal, although Eliot points out there are still hurdle: The N.B.A., the courts, financing.
