Both the NBA's Nets and NHL's Devils Wednesday took steps closer to leaving New Jersey's Meadowlands for their new homes.
Dealmaker Bruce Ratnor's Nets, who are headed to Brooklyn, finally received the last approval from the state of New York to go forward with its planned $4 billion Frank Gehry-designed arena. The deal not only brings a professional team back to the New York City borough, but it also promises to provide redevelopment for downtown Brooklyn in the form of 16 mixed-use skyscrapers. The arena is set to be completed by 2009, and the rest of the project by 2017.
Meanwhile, the Devils, who have already broken ground on a hockey arena in Newark, N.J., are near a naming rights deal with a hometown company: Prudential Financial. The insurer is expected to pay $5 million a year for 20 years to name the 18,000-seat arena the Prudential Center, which is expected to open in for the start of the 2007 hockey season. It could be one of the richest deals for a hockey-only arena, according to the Newark Star-Ledger.
Despite the Devils and Nets defection from the Meadowlands, both the NFL's Giants and Jets are committed to the complex. The two teams are working on the financing for a new stadium to replace the 30-year-old Giants Stadium by the 2010 season. As part of the spirit of cooperation between the two teams, the new stadium is expected to bear a sponsor's name rather than either team's name. In addition, the current home for both the Devils and Nets, the Continental Airlines Arena, is slated to become part of a massive retail complex the Mills Corp. is developing called Xanadu, which is expected to open in 2008. —Matthew Wurtzel
See Nets story from The New York Post
See Devils story from The Newark Star-Ledger
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