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June 30, 2008
Booker attempts to woo new-look Nets
MetroNY
By Joe Brescia
Here is yet another story about negotiations that are under way to move the Nets to Newark, rather than Brooklyn.
When Newark Mayor Cory Booker welcomed Bruce Springsteen, Gen. Norman Schwarzkopf, Yogi Berra and others into the New Jersey Hall of Fame weeks before the NBA draft, Booker said he hoped to welcome another group of athletes to town in the near future: the Nets.
Booker is trying to help Jeffrey Vanderbeek, the owner of the Devils, assemble investors to purchase the team.
Bruce Ratner, the Nets’ principal owner, has denied reports that he is interested in selling the team or moving it to Newark. Booker, though, says otherwise.
“I’m going to work very hard to make it happen,” Booker says. If the deal were to go through, the team would play at the Prudential Center, the newly built Devils’ home arena. Both teams played at the Izod Center, the former Continental Arena, in East Rutherford, N.J., before the Devils moved to the new facility in Newark last season.
Posted by steve at June 30, 2008 6:32 AM