$$$ The Rock makes for Newark

[oat77]

NJBIZ.com

Just thought some might be interested in this article written by our owner. Seems to me that it turns out Prudential Center has contributed more, money wise, to the city of Newark then people at the Star Ledger would have you believe.

I always thought that Newark should of payed for the whole building. Just having this in downtown Newark is doing for the city what few things ever could have. Drawing people by the millions and putting Newark back on the map and headed in the right direction.

Simply put, funding infrastructure projects will help to stimulate the economy, but only if the work makes sense and begins quickly. As an example, look at the Prudential Center in Newark. This was a major capital project that cost a little more than $400 million using both private and public funds. More than 2,600 construction workers built The Rock, and more than 1,200 new jobs were created at the arena, with about 60 percent of the new employees living in Newark. Just as important, tax revenue from salaries, ticket sales, food, gifts, parking and property assessment already has totaled more than $11 million since the arena opened in late 2007. Finally, more than 2.5 million patrons have attended more than 275 events at the Prudential Center, bringing a vitality to Newark where little existed before. What

[koolkoreankid23]

I was skeptical about putting our building in Newark, but boy have I eaten a lot of crow.

[NJTank99]

Newark needed something like this for years

[metallidevils]

Does the star ledger write crap about the Devils/PRU? They do the same thing about Rutgers Football. A very large amount of people on the Rutgers board cancelled their subscriptions and are boycotting the paper.

[overtime98]

Does he explain why the Devils do not want to pay their rent?

Does he also answer when the pru center will operate under a CO and not a TCO?

EDIT:

..... after actually reading the article, the article basically says, build an arena in every town and the economy will be better.. LOL

Edited March 4, 2009 by overtime98

[Shtikl]

We would never have gone to Newark if not for the Devils relocating there. Hotel, dinner, public transit, etc., yeah, we dropped a little green. But most of it was the tickets. I'm not sure we did much good for the economy of Newark.

But I seriously hope somebody else in NJ falls for Vanderbeek's blue sky vision and builds an arena to house the Devils' AHL franchise so they can move it out of Lowell, preferably next week. For various reasons, including an antique Lite-Brite scoreboard, being located on another club's turf, having a serious losing record, and in a huge way getting off on the wrong foot marketing-wise, the L-Devils are actually *costing* the city of Lowell at least a million a year. The trick is to invest in an arena that's the right size, and not over-economize to the point that the result is a useless white elephant. Lowell's arena is not big enough for most concerts or for the various prom nites, co-ed mud-wrestling, tractor pulls, etc., that other arenas can book, and too big/expensive for just high school and college hockey. From my perspective, the result is that a team of truly fine young men has to bear the humiliation of playing before maybe 300 fans in an arena that can hold 6,000. IMO Lou did Anssi Salmela a whopping huge favor by getting him out of Low Hell, too bad he can't do the same for the other guys.

Edited March 4, 2009 by Shtikl

[LucifersDog]

There are two side to this story and we have only heard from the guy that isn't paying his bills.

[Marv4Life]

Some of you do know they are still in litigation as far as the rent is concerned right?

[skeeter]

The Nets are back to playing pre-season games at the Rock, vs. Boston and the Knicks.

http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2009/03/n...on_in_newa.html

[maxpower]

Does he explain why the Devils do not want to pay their rent?

Does he also answer when the pru center will operate under a CO and not a TCO?

EDIT:

..... after actually reading the article, the article basically says, build an arena in every town and the economy will be better.. LOL

Maybe he should explain why the Newark City Council is functionally illiterate and didn't read the lease agreement.

[95Crash]

The Nets are back to playing pre-season games at the Rock, vs. Boston and the Knicks.

http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2009/03/n...on_in_newa.html

Oh great, and also a game against the 76ers at St. Johns University's Carnesecca Arena in Queens.

"We are excited to bring our team and our brand to Newark and Queens for the pre-season schedule for next season," said Nets CEO Brett Yormark. "We are looking forward to playing two games against two of our biggest rivals, the Celtics and the Knicks, at the Prudential Center. We are also excited to be playing a game at St. John's in Queens, a borough where we expect great support for the Nets when we move to the Barclays Center in Brooklyn in 2011."

F-U and your "brand," Brett Yormark! ... You know, even if Brooklyn does fall through and the Nets do move to The Rock, I could see Yormark playing games with the team name -- like maybe changing it to New York -- all in the name of marketing.

Edited March 4, 2009 by 95Crash

[Kulags]

Oh great, and also a game against the 76ers at St. Johns University's Carnesecca Arena in Queens.

F-U and your "brand," Brett Yormark! ... You know, even if Brooklyn does fall through and the Nets do move to The Rock, I could see Yormark playing games with the team name -- like maybe changing it to New York -- all in the name of marketing.

Basketball sucks, who cares?