By Craig Wolff and David Giambusso /The Star-Ledger



NEWARK — The bare facts confronting Josh Harris, as the untested owner of a pro sports team, might have been enough to intimidate the boldest speculator. A stagnant franchise functioning in the red, disinterested fans and bleak prospects for a turnaround.

These were the Philadelphia 76ers just two years ago before Harris came along with mounds of cash and energy. Since then, attendance and revenues have soared and the bottom line has the club at least breaking even. A team bought by Harris for $287 million now has an estimated worth of about $418 million.

For New Jersey Devils fans and the city of Newark, these may sound like pie-in-the-sky numbers, but they provide a fresh source of hope that the organization’s uncertain times will soon be over. It is now a matter of weeks, perhaps days, when the Devils will belong to Harris.

He is 48, grew up in Maryland, lives on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, and has deep ties to Newark. His grandparents from Russia settled in the city, where they owned an appliance store and toy store.

On Friday, Devils owner Jeff Vanderbeek and a group headed by Harris agreed to the price tag for the club — about $240 million, according to three people with knowledge of the talks. These people, citing the approvals which still need to come from National Hockey League owners as well as creditors before the deal is finalized, requested anonymity.

One of the sources told The Star-Ledger yesterday that the deal could be finalized in the next week. The package includes a jewel — the right to run the Prudential Center and reap the benefits of a full slate of concerts and other events. The arena is regarded as among the most profitable in the world.

Beyond that, the balance sheets could not have looked too attractive — underscored by a $161 million debt to the banks and two loans that enabled Vanderbeek to meet basic expenses over the last several months. The organization owes the NHL $34 million (though it is possible the league will forgive at least part of the loan) and another $30 million to Andrew Barroway, a Philadelphia attorney who also was trying to buy the team.

For Harris, the dollars pale next to the kinds of deals he is accustomed to making. He is a self-made billionaire and the co-founder of Apollo Global Management, a private equity firm that manages roughly $110 billion in capital. Firms such as his sometimes become corporate pillagers, gutting budgets and jobs from the companies they obtain. But Harris is generally viewed as a builder, not a slasher.

If anyone could turn around the team’s fortunes it would be Harris, said Scott Rosner, a sports economics professor at the Wharton Business School at the University of Pennsylvania.

“If you look at how he has made his fortune, it’s basically through buying distressed properties, injecting cash and turning them around,” Rosner said. “So the Devils would certainly fit the bill.”

A conversation yesterday with a longtime business associate of Harris evoked the image of a born entrepreneur, someone who saw a boyhood comic book collection as an investment, who during college breaks from the Wharton School ran a lemonade stand near the Farragut North Metro stop in Washington. The associate, saying that the sale of the Devils is not complete, requested anonymity.

Harris and his wife, Marjorie, have three sons and two daughters, ages 3 to 15. But Harris, the associate said, manages to work long days and weekends without sacrificing attention to his family. Sports, too, the associate said, is a vital part of his life. He was a wrestler at the Field School, a prep school in Washington, and in the last 18 months has run three marathons. He also skis in Colorado.

The business associate said Harris has a necessary attribute for successful team owners: patience.

“What struck me about Josh and all the Apollo people is they are incredibly smart and high energy,” the associate said. “But uncharacteristic for Wall Streeters, they aren’t ruthless. They are long-term thinkers.”

The Devils, a winning team during Lou Lamoriello’s long reign as general manager, do not present the same challenges as the Sixers competitively. Under Harris, the Sixers’ attendance has risen from about 14,000 a game to 17,000, mainly through improved marketing and lower ticket prices, the associate said.

In Newark, the Devils’ average attendance last season was 17,114, according to ESPN, but more than half of the arena’s 76 luxury suites are empty, one source said, costing the organization more than $8 million in lost revenue.

By the time Harris was born, his grandparents, Morris and Jenny Harris, had left Newark for Caldwell, where his father went to Caldwell High School.

“All he heard growing up,” Harris’s colleague said, “was Newark, Newark, Newark.”