NBA New Jersey turns down Nets' appeal

TRENTON, N.J. (AP) -- New Jersey won't provide U.S. Sen. Jon Corzine and real estate developer Charles Kushner with at least $100 million in subsidies to help them buy the Nets and keep the team in the state, according to published reports.
Former U.S. Sen. Robert Torricelli, brokering the deal for Corzine and Kushner, said they need the help to compete with two other investor groups who want to move the NBA team to New York, the Star-Ledger of Newark and the Asbury Park Press of Neptune reported.
The partners' group requested the money during a conference call Friday with officials from the New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority.
One potential buyer is New York developer Bruce Ratner, who would want to move the team to a new arena in Brooklyn. The other is New York Islanders owner Charles Wang, who has intensified negotiations with Nassau County for a new arena.
George Zoffinger, chief executive officer of the New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority, would neither confirm nor deny that the funding request had been made. However, he said the authority -- which operates the Meadowlands Sports Complex in East Rutherford, the current home for the Nets and the New Jersey Devils of the NHL -- wouldn't run a deficit to help underwrite the teams' operations.
"We have worked very hard to take the sports authority out of public subsidy and we have no intention, for anybody, to reverse that direction," Zoffinger told the Star-Ledger.