It appears that we have no more certainty surrounding the plans to make the New Jersey Nets the Brooklyn Nets. An outfit which includes some dude who happens to be Beyoncé’s husband, has been pushing to move the other New York area NBA team to Brooklyn, but a range of obstacles continue to block the move.
This from New Jersey’s Star Ledger:
The Nets will open their preseason next fall in Newark. The team, which plays at the Izod Center in East Rutherford, will meet the Celtics on Oct. 13 and the Knicks on Oct. 21, in two preseason games at the Prudential Center, bringing NBA basketball for the first time to the state’s largest city.
However the Nets’ CEO, Brett Yormark is quick to mention the continued plans to move to Brooklyn:
“We are looking forward to playing two games against two of our biggest rivals, the Celtics and the Knicks, at the Prudential Center. We are also excited to be playing a game at St. John’s in Queens, a borough where we expect great support for the Nets when we move to the Barclays Center in Brooklyn in 2011.”
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There are mounting questions over whether construction on the long-delayed Brooklyn arena will ever get underway, in the face of continuing community opposition and a worsening recession that is killing major development projects across the country.
But while the disclosure of initial talks of a preseason series in Newark led to speculation that the Nets were exploring the viability of a permanent move to Newark, team officials say their future is still in Brooklyn.
It sounds like it is still a game of wait-and-see.
