Vanderbeek's comments drew a strong rebuke Friday from Dennis Robinson ? president of the New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority, which runs the Meadowlands Sports Complex.

"We are disappointed that Mr. Vanderbeek has chosen to take this aggressive tack in his continuing efforts to close the Izod Center," Robinson said. "Based on our last meeting with the Devils organization, it was our understanding that we were going to work together in a cooperative manner to ensure that both facilities are as successful as they can be. Unfortunately, Mr. Vanderbeek has chosen to breach our agreement to cooperate. We are puzzled by his motivation."

Vanderbeek ? who previously has left the most forceful "close the Izod Center" rhetoric to Newark Mayor Cory Booker and Essex County Executive Joseph DiVincenzo ? suggested that a convention center might be a better use for the site.

But he also said the state should solicit a wide variety of potential suitors to see whether any entity would be willing to pay off the $77 million in debt at the site. That debt currently is managed by the state by just paying a small portion of the total each year.

Vanderbeek said that the Izod Center is a drain on taxpayers because it loses at least $10 million annually ? a figure disputed by the New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority, which lists about a $1 million annual profit. Vanderbeek said those figures are based on an overly generous set of accounting figures, including a failure to fully factor in administrative expenses.

"We are not going to dignify Mr. Vanderbeek's comments relative to our financials, other than to say that our financial reports have always been available to the public and are audited by independent outside auditors on an annual basis," Robinson replied.

Sports authority officials have had discussions with Vanderbeek in recent months about whether the state agency might take over management of the Prudential Center from AEG. But in a 60-minute presentation to The Record, Vanderbeek criticized the sports authority as "patronage heaven" for politicians and cited two letters from fans imploring him not to use agency employees.

"People [at the agency] have no fear they'll ever lose their jobs," Vanderbeek said, adding that his franchise's complaints about specific employees working at Devils games frequently would fall on deaf ears.

The Nets Basketball team continues to play at Izod Center on a year-to-year basis as it awaits groundbreaking on a proposed new arena in Brooklyn. Asked if he would rather the Nets move to Brooklyn or to Newark, Vanderbeek replied, "Personally, I guess I would marginally rather see the Nets in Newark."

The team's financial experts are "about 50-50" on whether the added revenues and public attention for the arena from Nets games would offset losing some flexibility for the Devils on desirable weekend home dates, Vanderbeek said. He said the uncertain fate of the Nets has allowed state officials to postpone making a decision on Izod's future.

"I just want the Nets off the fence," Vanderbeek said. "The biggest problem for us is that the Nets are being used as a pingpong ball [by the sports authority]. For a while they wanted to throw them out, then they love them."

The Nets continue to insist that they will break ground in Brooklyn later this year, and that the team is not for sale.

Vanderbeek said closure of the Izod Center would boost the Prudential Center and the Devils' collective bottom line by at least $10 million annually, with about $2 million of the new money going to Newark. The monopoly on North Jersey arena offerings would bring the Devils from a loss of a few million dollars annually to around break-even or better, Vanderbeek estimated, depending on postseason success and ticket sales.

E-mail: brennan@northjersey.com