NEW YORK (CelebrityAccess) — Joe Tsai, the Taiwanese-Canadian billionaire co-founder and executive vice-chairman of Alibaba Group, announced that he has acquired full ownership of the Brooklyn Nets and their home court the Barclays Center.
With the closing of the transaction, Tsai becomes NBA Governor of the Nets and its affiliates and Chairman of Barclays Center.
“With full ownership of the Nets and Barclays Center, we will continue to bring our exciting brand of basketball to our fans,” said Tsai. “We’ve made a strong commitment to Brooklyn and it will be a privilege to present the best of Barclays Center with its great entertainment to our community.”
It was also announced that media and sports executive David Levy has been appointed to the role of Chief Executive Officer of the Brooklyn Nets and Barclays Center.
In his role as CEO, Levy will oversee all business, revenue, strategy, and operations for the franchise and arena.
“David brings a unique combination of sports and media know-how, strategic thinking and operating skills to our sports and entertainment business. He is an entrepreneur at heart with the experience of managing and scaling organizations, and I really look forward to working with him,” said Tsai.
“I am excited and honored to join the Nets organization and look forward to working alongside Joe and the talented forward-thinking executives and team members across the entire organization,” said Levy. “Sean Marks and Kenny Atkinson have done a terrific job instilling a winning culture and I am looking forward to supporting them as we build a sustainable foundation of success on and off the court. I am excited for our fans and can’t wait to get started.”
Levi brings more than 30 years of experience with the NBA to his new role and previously spent 32 years at Turner Broadcasting, including the last six years as President of the company. His tenure at Turner included orchestrated a 2010 agreement between Turner, the NCAA and CBS for the rights to the NCAA Division One Men’s Basketball Championship.
As part of this first of its kind partnership, all of the tournament games are televised across four networks — TNT, TBS, truTV and CBS. In 2014, TBS exclusively televised the Final Four and two years later the National Championship Game, marking the first time in the event’s history the games were aired on a cable network.
