When your career consists of parading around like an immature 17 year old, you can be worth 150 million dollars and still look like a dummy, especially when there’s a billionaire real estate tycoon with his hand up your butt.
Barclays Center, the $4.9 billion sports arena and business and residential complex slated to be the centerpiece of the extensive Atlantic Yards redevelopment project in the Prospect Heights neighborhood of Brooklyn, NY, was to be one of the great American entertainment complexes. Barclays planned to be the host of the New Jersey Nets, concerts, conventions and various other sporting events placing it in direct competition with both the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey and Madison Square Garden in Manhattan. Barclays Arena was to bring sports back to Brooklyn for the first time since the Trolley Dodgers relocated to Los Angeles following the 1957 season. Barclays was masterminded by of the current minority-once-solo owner of the financially fledgling New Jersey Nets, Bruce Ratner who plotted from day one to relocate the team to New York. Moving the team from New Jersey and to New York would be some feat but Ratner was determined. After paying $300 million in 2005, beating out a group led by Charles Kushner and former New Jersey governor Jon Corzine, Ratner became the owner of the New Jersey Nets and Ratner knew in order to make this multi-billion dollar deal a reality he would need a dummy: one with money to burn who was willing to spend it buy a modicum of respectability.
Brooklyn born and raised Shawn Corey Carter is the local boy who made good if you consider parlaying a supposed career peddling illegal drugs into one peddling expletive-laden beats and rhymes as making good. Known to the world as Jay-Z, Mr. Carter has sold over 40 million albums and is reportedly worth over $150 million, has a young beautiful successful wife and has done his part to increase the sale of Bentleys, Range Rovers, button down shirts, Cristal and snow white Nikes to his listening constituency. In addition to a lucrative career as a rapper, Jay-Z has spent time engaging in the usual rapper-esque forays into the mainstream business world such as: being the part-owner of a nightclub, starting a clothing line that is able to provide his fans with all the sweatpants and hoodies they desire and running a now defunct record label. Jay-Z is at the pinnacle of his life and the world seems to be his oyster but these ventures indicate a presence of money rather than respectability and respectability is what Jay-Z is after. Being a worldly man, Mr. Carter had come to understand that it’s not about how much money a man makes but rather how a man made his money and when Bruce Ratner approached him with the opportunity of a lifetime: partial ownership of a professional sports team.
Bruce Ratner knew that moving the Nets to Brooklyn would be quite a challenge and after the check cleared on his $300 million purchase, he sought out one of Brooklyn’s favorite sons, Shawn Carter. Jay-Z needed respectability and Ratner needed Jay-Z and his hype machine to bring attention, support, a fan base and hopefully Lebron James to his endeavor to revamp the Nets into a championship team. Ratner could use Jay-Z’s hip hop connections to propel him to where he wanted to be in the sports world and Jay-Z could use owning a slice of the Nets to prove that he was a bonafide business man that could transcend his questionable beginnings and the limitations of hip hop. For $4.5 million Jay-Z became part owner of the New Jersey Nets and Bruce Ratner acquired a new mascot. Yes, a mascot as although Jay-Z is a part-owner of the Nets, he is a silent partner making him little more than a stuffed shirt. Jay-Z can brag about owning a team but in reality, he has absolutely no control over the day to day operations of the team and no one will be eliciting his opinion on these matters. For Ratner, it’s a win-win: he gets the advertising power that goes along with being a platinum rapper without spending a dime or getting his hands dirty. Rater brought Jay-Z into his world just enough to control him.
In the meantime, due to the economy, the downturn in real estate markets, and eminent domain lawsuits, the deal for the Barclays Center is hanging on by a thread and although concrete was poured on June 29th, uncertainty still exists regarding the future of the entire Atlantic Yards redevelopment effort. Looking to cut his losses, Ratner sold 80% the team to Russian billionaire, Mikhail Prokhorov for a paltry 200 million dollars. It is unclear what Jay-z’s partnership position is with the new owner and this is clear to everyone. As I was leaving NYC recently, I noticed they were taking down the prominent billboard featuring Jay-Z and Bruce Ratner, who ironically are virtually equals with regards to controlling the Nets. I stared at the giant photo very carefully and maybe it’s just me, but if you look closely it appears that Ratner’s hand is in Jay-Z’s back prompting him to say something nice to the audience.
Ernest J DuBose
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