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November 15, 2010
"Our history is the borough right now": the Nets' selling point is their new home's "authentic" history
Atlantic Yards Report
A Wall Street Journal article today, headlined Selling Tickets the New Jersey Way, contrasts the two teams playing in Newark's Prudential Center:
Their starkest difference relates to their home state; the Devils have embraced New Jersey, while the Nets are increasingly shifting their focus to a future in Brooklyn that is slated to begin in the 2012-2013 season at a new arena in Atlantic Yards.
"Unfortunately, New Jersey never gave the team enough support on a consistent basis," said Fred Mangione, the Nets senior vice president of ticket sales and marketing, though he added, "We market and sell in New Jersey like we're never leaving."
Still, the team's Midtown headquarters is an ode to the outerborough. The team may be pitching wealthy potential suite-holders from Manhattan in Manhattan, but the marketing pitch is all Brooklyn.
Of course, the Nets' attachment to Brooklyn is all manufactured. As I explained last June, the Barclays Center markets "brownstone" and "loft" suites, and a canvas bag distributed at the groundbreaking places the giant arena next to the Brooklyn Bridge.
"New residents are using this idea of authenticity to soften their entrance into Brooklyn," observed academic and former Brooklynite Jonathan Silverman at the Dreamland Pavilion conference in October 2009.
...Of course, to establish that history they had to demolish buildings with their own history, such as the Spalding sporting goods factory recycled into handsome lofts or the Ward Bakery, moribund but certainly with significant potential for rehabilitation, as with a Newark cousin.
Posted by eric at November 15, 2010 12:53 PM