Other than the lease, what is the biggest impediment to a sale?
Complicating any deal is the capital structure of the Nets, the arena and the larger project known as Atlantic Yards. There are three separate corporations with three separate if somewhat overlapping groups of investors: Nets Basketball, which owns the team; Brooklyn Sports and Entertainment, which is the arena holding company; and Atlantic Yards Development, which would develop the commercial, retail and housing at the Brooklyn site. Overall, nearly 100 individuals, partnerships and corporations have invested in the three entities. “You have Forest City Ratner (Ratner’s parent company), Vinny Viola and his associates, remnants of the Secaucus Seven (a previous ownership group), and a variety of dogs and Katz,” said one insider, referring to Lewis Katz, one of the owners who sold out to Ratner (and still sits on the NBA Board of Governors as the Nets representative.) Ratner’s original plan called for Nets Basketball to operate the team for no more than three years, then sell it off as