Prokhorov said to eye a 100% sale of Nets
Brooklyn Nets owner Mikhail Prokhorov, unable to sell a minority stake in the moneylosing NBAfranchise, nowplans to off-load a controlling stake in the team, two sources close to the situation told The Post.
However, Prokhorov is hoping to sell the Nets in a two-part process, the sources said.
The 52-year-old hopes to first sell a minority stake in the team — but give the buyer the right to buy the entire team in a short period of time — say three years, the sources said.
“There will be a newownerin the next few years,” one of the sources said.
Prokhorov, after the NBA’s Houston Rockets sold earlier this month for a record price of $2.2 billion, is seeking roughly $2 billion for the Nets, sources said.
In July, The Post reported exclusively that Prokhorov, growing frustrated at the glacial pace of the effort to sell up to 49 percent of the team, was warming up to the idea of letting go of the team entirely.
Since then, the eventual sale of 100 percent of the team has become the primary goal.
“Thepath to control is what is sparking this [revamped] auction,” a source said.
Prokhorov is not selling the separately owned Barclays Center, where the Nets play, sources said. The Nets, who had the NBA’s worst record last season, recently reworked their lease with Barclays in a way that will leave the Nets paying less rent, a source said.
Suitors are waiting for the details of the new lease agreement to be hammered out before submitting formal offers, a source said. Key to determining a franchise value is how much revenue the team will receive from suite rentals and sponsorships.
The Nets declined to comment by press time.