Posted Feb 10, 2012, 9:37 PM
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New Yorker for life
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Join Date: Jul 2001
Location: Borough of Jersey
Posts: 51,747
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http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000...googlenews_wsj
Jay-Z Determined to Make the Nets Stylish
As the Team Moves to Brooklyn, the Rap Mogul and Part-Owner Is the Czar of Aesthetics; Don't Skimp on the Forks.
Feb 9, 2012
By SCOTT CACCIOLA
Quote:
Jay-Z was sitting on the edge of his impossibly large oak desk when he stressed the importance of flatware. Forks need to be heavy, he told his small audience, which included Chris Sharples, the architect in charge of designing a block of luxury suites at Barclays Center that would bear the rap impresario's imprint. Forks, Jay-Z said, need to have substance. A plastic fork? Please. Even stainless steel was out of the question.
The meeting, which was held last spring at Jay-Z's offices in Manhattan, was Sharples's introduction to him, and he said it was revealing: The team's most glamorous part-owner wanted to be involved. "He's a very confident individual," said Sharples, a principal at SHoP Architects.
His influence, particularly when it comes to style and branding, far outweighs his financial stake in the franchise. "I don't tell Jay-Z to do anything," said Brett Yormark, the CEO of Barclays Center and the Nets. "I mean that. He tells me what to do. Listen, when it comes to our engagement, let's just say he's the CEO."
The Nets are celebrating the role that he's played in everything from revamping the logo ("He's refreshed it," Yormark said) to designing new uniforms ("His fingerprints are all over it") to coming up with a new color scheme ("A bold redirection"), all of which the team plans to unveil this spring.
The suites themselves, which are still under construction, will be unabashedly bold—and that includes the price tag: $550,000 per year, with a minimum three-year term. That works out to $45,833 per month, instantly making them some of the most expensive rental properties in the city. That's just slightly less than the $50,000-per-month asking rent on the townhouse in TriBeCa where Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the beleaguered former director of the International Monetary Fund, recently resided. The tenants of each suite will receive eight tickets in the first 10 rows to all Barclays Center events, including Nets games, other sporting events, concerts and family shows. Yormark said he hopes to book 220 events per year. So here's some rough math: If each event averages five hours, that means tenants will be paying $500 per hour—or about $8.33 per minute—for access to The Vault. "It enables us to appeal to a different demographic," Yormark said.
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