« Hunley-Adossa, FCR beneficiary as head of dubious CBA signatory, will challenge Tish James for 35th District Council seat | Main | Nets will play two of three preseason games in Newark, one in Queens »
March 4, 2009
New Jersey Nets to open preseason in Newark
NJ.com [The Star-Ledger]
by Ted Sherman
Now we'll be able to call them the New Jersey, Newark and Queens — but not-yet-Brooklyn — Nets.
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.
A third preseason game will be played on the campus of St. Johns University in Queens against the 76ers at Carnesecca Arena on Oct. 23.
"We are excited to bring our team and our brand to Newark and Queens for the pre-season schedule for next season," said Nets CEO Brett Yormark. "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."
The Devils organization has made no secret of its desire to have the Nets move into their arena, known as The Rock, and to close the Izod Center. At the same time, 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.
Posted by eric at March 4, 2009 3:57 PM