Source: NYCB Live for sale by Prokhorov
As Mikhail Prokhorov closes in on the 10-year anniversary of buying the Nets and investing in Barclays Center, he may also be closing in on the sale of another local arena.
Sources told The Post the Russian billionaire is looking to sell off control of NYCB Live, home of Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum. It’s part of the portfolio of properties held by his ONEXIM Group and run by BSE Global.
Though Barclays Center is largely considered the more attractive venue — and could turn a profit with the arrival of new Nets stars Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving — Prokhorov has “interested parties” looking to buy NYCB Live even without getting the Brooklyn arena along with it.
That would be good business for Prokhorov, who first reached an agreement on Sept. 23, 2009, to pay $200 million for an 80 percent stake in the Nets and a 45 percent interest in the yet-to-be-built Barclays Center. There was debt taken on and losses incurred over the years, but the investment has proven shrewd.
Prokhorov reached an agreement last year to sell 49 percent of the Nets to e-commerce billionaire Joe Tsai at a valuation of $2.35 billion. Tsai has the right to buy a controlling interest in the Nets, confirming to The Post that the date of the takeover would be by January 2021, and a source said it would be for 100 percent of the franchise.
But the arenas are a different story, with neither building part of that deal. And Prokhorov appears to have buyers interested in NYCB Live without letting go of Barclays Center.
If a deal goes through, it would not be able to take effect for some time because BSE Global signed a contract in December for four-plus years with Nassau County.
A change in ownership would mark the third lease holder of the Coliseum since Nassau County picked Forest City Ratner to refurbish the county-owned building six years ago. Two years ago, ONEXIM bought 85 percent control of the Coliseum. It’s looking like it could change hands again, albeit separated from Barclays Center.
While The Post reported in March that Tsai was in talks to buy Barclays Center, two months later Tsai said that was not a foregone conclusion.
“I don’t know [if that will happen],” Tsai told The Post in May. “But I would say this: If you talk to all the NBA owners, they all say it makes a lot of sense to combine the ownership of a team and the arena.
“There’s a lot of synergy. The fans do come into the building to watch the team play, so from a business standpoint it makes a lot of sense. I hope that I would have an opportunity. But it’s up to Mikhail Prokhorov, who owns the arena, to figure out what they want to do.”
Which also goes for NYCB Live. It would presumably come with development rights to the vast swath of land around it, but to this point it has not been a moneymaker.
It was also the subject of an extensive (18 months) and expensive ($180 million) renovation, seats just 13,900 for hockey and could lose its NHL team if the Islanders bolt for a proposed Belmont Park arena as expected.