February 10, 2006
Nets seeking Jersey fallback option?
Don't get all excited just yet (especially you, Marty), but the Newark Star-Ledger is reporting that the New Jersey Nets are in "serious negotiations" to extend their lease at the Meadowlands should plans for a new arena in Brooklyn fall through. According to the paper, the lease extension would last until 2010, with options to extend it further; the $600 million Brooklyn arena is still officially planned to open in the fall of 2008, but faces community opposition and has yet to begin a months-long state land-use review. (And you also have to wonder what the Katrina Effect is doing to the price tag of the multi-billion-dollar Frank Gehry-designed development project that Nets owner Bruce Ratner has planned for the blocks adjacent to the arena.)
While New Jersey officials would certainly be glad to have the Nets stay on, it would create an odd situation where instead of the existing Continental Airlines Arena begin demolished, it would be in direct competition for events with the Devils' new taxpayer-subsidized arena in Newark. That sort of thing seldom ends well.
—Neil deMause
