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tel/fax:
718.362.4784
Please note our new postal address when sending
contributions to the legal fund:
121 5th Avenue, PMB #150
Brooklyn, New York 11217
About DDDB
Our coalition consists of 21 community organizations and
there are 51 community organizations formally
aligned in opposition to the Ratner plan.
DDDB is a volunteer-run organization. We have over 5,000
subscribers to our email newsletter, and 7,000 petition
signers. Over 800 volunteers have registered with DDDB
to form our various teams, task-forces and committees
and we have over 150 block captains. We have a 20 person
volunteer legal team of local lawyers supplementing our
retained attorneys.
We are funded entirely by individual donations from the community at large
and through various fundraising events we and supporters have organized.
We have the financial support of well over 3,500 individual
donors.
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Press Release: Prokhorov's Nets to Utilize Obscure BS-5 Green Card Program to Lure New Talent
This NBA Nets franchise press release landed in our mailbox this morning:
Nets Basketball Press Release
Nets to Use Federal BS-5 Hope For Hoops Program
Mikhail Prokorov's Nets to Utilize
Obscure Federal Immigration Program in
Desperate Effort to Find New Hoops Talent, Fund
New Concessions, and Pay Off Prokhorov Debts
April 1, 2011
NEWARK, NEW JERSEY
- Newark Nets President Brett Yormark announced today that the 23-51 Nets, coming off another devastating season on and off the court, plan to utilize an obscure federal green card program for which NBA commissioner David Stern had long lobbied Congress in the hopes of injecting new, unknown talent and funds into the basketball league.
The program, officially called the BS-5 Hope for Hoops
Program but called BS-5 for short, allows NBA teams with at least four losing seasons in a row to offer green cards and a spot on their roster to any foreign investors willing to lend a minimum of $20 million to the team. The team is also required to start the foreign investor in at least five games during the season, and give the player a minimum of 5 minutes per game. If the team improves upon the past four season's records, the investor gets his/her money returned in full with interest (at a rate of .05 percent).
The BS-5 program also allows the franchise to expand its active roster by a maximum of ten players, all of whom must be BS-5 players. All BS-5 investors must be at least 5' 11".
According to the legislation enacting the BS-5 program, the funds from these foreign investors are to be used solely to improve the quality of the basketball team on the floor and the team's win-loss record through player development, the free agency market and trades.
Nets majority owner Mikhail Prokhorov said that the team will
defintiely seek out the maximum ten BS-5 players and expects to raise the maximum $200 million. Prokhorov said, "We intend to use the funds raised through this extraordinary program exclusively for the following: improve our concessions at The Rock and later at The Barc, to build more parking spaces at the Barc, research how to improve on our mascot Sly, how to make the piped-in crowd noise in our arenas more realistic, and, finally, to pay back some loans I have due to some tough guys back in Russia."
Forest City Ratner, which is building the arena in Brooklyn (though its construction has been put on hold for now) and still holds a minority share in the team, issued a statement from its Executive Vice President MaryAnne Gilmartin who said, "As citizen Gilmartin, hoops fan Gilmartin, I'm kinda troubled by this program. But this is not your schoolyard H-O-R-S-E player's green card program."
Barry Baum, Vice President, Business & Entertainment Communications, said, "I expect our BS-5 efforts to play out under the radar as we don't expect papers like The Times to cover what we're up to with this."
Team President Yormark and GM Billy King will make their first road show to promote their BS-6 efforts in Groningen in the The Netherlands. King said, "There's a lot of money splashing around over there in the lowlands and most Dutch people are at least 5' 11". After that we're headed to Belgium, where at the very least we can get some good frites, which we're looking to start selling at The Rock."
Jay-Z, a small minorty owner of the Nets franchise, was unable to make comment because the NBA is investigating a recent visit he made to the Kentucky locker room after the Wildcats clinched a Final Four appearance.
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Posted: 4.01.11
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