EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. (AP) — New Jersey Nets owner Bruce Ratner says the sale of the NBA team to Russian businessman Mikhail Prokhorov is the final piece to building an $800 million arena and moving the Nets to Brooklyn.
Ratner says in a telephone interview Friday with The Associated Press that the joint Russian-American venture still requires that he sell almost $600 million in tax-exempt bonds by Dec. 31, but he sees no problem in getting that done.
The Nets owner says he does not believe a pending legal challenge to the state's use of eminent domain to assemble land for the arena will succeed. Ratner says ground will be broken on the new Barclay's Center by the end of the year.
