http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?id=1857444 The NBA Board of Governors on Wednesday unanimously approved the sale of the New Jersey Nets to an ownership group that plans to move the team to New York. The league expects the sale to the group led by Brooklyn developer Bruce Ratner to close next week. "What was only an idea less than a year ago is quickly becoming a reality," Ratner said in statement released after the approval. Ratner and his group will pay an estimated $300 million to buy the much-traveled team from Community Young Organization. Ratner plans to build a 19,000-seat arena that will be part of a $2.5 billion office, residential and shopping complex. The arena, which faces opposition from area residents who might be displaced, is expected to be completed for the 2007-2008 season. The entire project is expected to take 10 years to complete. "We're very thankful to Commissioner David Stern and the NBA's Board of Governors," Ratner said. "We are humbled by this vote and excited about the prospects of putting together a team that all Nets fans in the Metropolitan area can be proud of." The borough has not had a major sports franchise since baseball's Dodgers left for Los Angeles in 1957. Ratner has come under criticism in recent weeks for cost-saving player moves that seemingly have hurt the Nets' chances to be successful on the court next season. All-Star power forward Kenyon Martin was shipped to Denver last month after the Nets realized that matching a proposed offer sheet by the Nuggets would force them to pay him $23 million in salary and front-loaded bonuses before the start of the season. The moved annoyed Jason Kidd, the All-Star point guard who turned the also-ran organization into a winner after being acquired three years ago. The Nets also cut costs by dealing shooting guard Kerry Kittles to the Los Angeles Clippers shortly after the Martin deal. The Nets have played at the Continental Airlines Arena since the 1981-82 season. Philantropist Ray Chambers purchased the team in the mid 1990s with the hope of building an arena in Newark, N.J., for both the Nets and the New Jersey Devils of the NHL. When the arena deal fell through, the team was put up for sale and Ratner's group bought it. The Nets began as the New Jersey Americans in the old American Basketball Association in 1967 and played in a converted armory in Teaneck. In subsequent years, they played in arenas in Commack, West Hempstead and Uniondale -- all on Long Island -- and then at Rutgers University before moving into the Meadowlands sports complex in East Rutherford, N.J. In a separate action, the league's governors also unanimously approved the sale of a minority interest in the Golden State Warriors to a Silicon Valley investor group led by Michael Marks. "These transactions demonstrate the attractiveness of NBA teams to sophisticated investors, and we are pleased to welcome both ownership groups to the NBA," Stern said.
The borough has not had a major sports franchise since baseball's Dodgers left for Los Angeles in 1957. you obviously don't live in brooklyn.
no, i obviously don't. a borough that is not exactly light years away from Madison Square Garden. my neighborhood doesn't have a pro sports team, either. the jets, the giants the mets, the yankees the rangers, the islanders i guess a second basketball team was needed to even it all out.
Ratner bought the Nets to enlist New York in helping him get his development, and it looks like it's going to pay off. He buys the team, cuts as many costs as possible, and will sell it off after securing the necessary land grant, big-ass taxpayer subsidy and eminent domain crap to make his real estate development possible, screwing Brooklyn residents and Nets fans left and right. He is the worst that professional sports has to offer.
You have the Jets and Giants in Jersey.. Yankees in Bronx.. Mets in Queens.. Rangers and Knicks in Manhattan.. and the Islanders in Long Island. What does Brooklyn have? Oh by the way, I hate the Nets.. can we swap teams? We give you the Nets and you give us the Rockets?
Its all basically the same damn city. Who gives a **** if its in the Bronx or Manhattan. Thats like saying we have a team in Clear Lake and a team in The Woodlands. Its all the same town. NY gets teams and national coverage just for the sake of being NY. I'm gonna go vomit again now.
I think moving the team to Brooklyn will be great for the team and for the sport of basketball. What's the downside? The new stadium will probably be just as close to Manhattan as the meadowlands. Besides, if the 5 boroughs hadn't been combined into one city, Brooklyn would be the fourth largest city in the US. Why shouldn't they have one major league sports franchise?
i think it's something like... after the completion of the brooklyn bridge in 1883, commerce between the city of new york (manhattan) and brooklyn rapidly grew. eventually it made sense to simply consolidate the cities into one.. while they were at it, they added queens and the bronx (although they opposed the idea). brooklyn is a city in itself with 2.3 million people.
I love reading new york threads in the hangout and almost always some Houstonian with an inferiority complex whines about NY's market! big ups to washington avenue
And don't forget Staten Island. Yeah, like Northern New Jersey is really any different. It's easy to compare it to Clear Lake/The Woodlands because everyone here has a car. But a lot of people in NYC don't. It isn't always so easy to go from the south side of B'lyn to the Bronx, or whatever. I bet the rivalry between the Knicks and the Nets will increase after this deal; the Brooklyn team will move a ton of merch. It will be good for the League. It's not like they're moving the team to Utah or something.
i'm no whining...i don't want to live in NY. you can have it. i love houston. i just think its funny. i'm not sure it's necessary to have 2 franchises in every major sport in one town. but it's business...and it's private enterprise...and if that's where they want the team...great.
