sports

The Russians Are Here And The Nets Are Coming!

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Nets Basketball, which was acquired by Mikhail Prokhorov in May, is launching a Russian-language Web site, www.NetsRussia.com, in the latest pitch to Eastern Europeans for the team, whose new owner is Russian and which recently signed a marketing deal with Russian airline Aeroflot. Efforts by the team to speak Russian make sense given that in two years the Nets will move to Brooklyn, where more speakers of Russian live than any other city in the U.S. and in most other places in the world.

Principal owner Prokhorov, who is the first majority owner of an NBA team from outside North America, has said he wants Russian speakers from the New York area as well as Moscow to think of the Nets as their NBA team, "and a Russian language Web site is an excellent way to further that goal."

Prokhorov is also involved in the National Basketball Association's (NBA) efforts to expand into Eastern Europe. The league opened a new office in Moscow this fall and hired NBA Universal's director for Russia and the Commonwealth of Independent States Egor Borisov as VP of development, Russia and Eastern Europe. He is based in the NBA's new Moscow office.

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On the way to China in September to play a pre-season game, the Nets did some marketing of their own in Russia, playing exhibitions and doing clinics and attending the Moscow opening of a new Adidas team store. The team was also involved in opening the NBA front office in Moscow.

"This is a great time for the NBA to expand its presence in Russia, especially given Mikhail Prokhorov's commitment to further grow the sport in the country," said NBA Deputy Commissioner and COO Adam Silver in a statement at the Moscow office's opening.

The league now has offices in 16 markets, including seven in the Europe, Middle East, and Africa region. The league has offices in London, Istanbul, Johannesburg, Madrid, Milan, Moscow, and Paris.

In October, the NBA brought over Russian team CSKA Moscow to play the Cleveland Cavaliers, Miami Heat and Oklahoma City Thunder. (It beat the Cavaliers, but lost to the Heat and Thunder.)

An NBA spokesperson says seven Russian players have donned jerseys for NBA teams, including NBA All-Star and current Utah Jazz forward Andrei Kirilenko.

Fred Mangione, SVP of ticket sales and marketing for the Nets, tells Marketing Daily the team has just signed Stolichnaya Vodka as a sponsor. He says that in addition to the presence of Prokhorov, the team's Russian outreach presages its move to Brooklyn, which has by far the largest concentration of Russian-speaking people in the U.S. -- close to half a million, according to city-data.com. The Nets will move to the $4.9 billion Barclays Center, now under construction, in late summer 2012.

"Obviously, we have more of a powerful backing with Mr. Prokhorov running the team but the community out there also gives us reason to get in front of them more, with the [new arena] coming up and a need to seed the fan base there."

Soccer is the No. 1 sport among Russian speakers, notes Mangione, but he says interest in basketball is growing. The team will run a "Russian Cultural Night" on Jan. 19 at the Prudential Center in Newark, N.J., where the Nets are ensconced, before heading to Brooklyn. The team moved to the arena this year from the Izod Center in East Rutherford, N.J. The event will include music and notables from the Russian community. "The goal is to open the culture to our current fan base as well as attract new Russians to our games."

Mangione says that the move from the Meadowlands to the Prudential Center in Newark was about getting the team to a transit hub to start building a fan base in the New York metro area. "Newark gave us quick access via mass transit for people [from New York] to get to the arena. It was tough to get [to East Rutherford.] Being in Newark gives us a chance to market to all fans and nationalities."

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