It's time for the New Jersey Nets to give up on the Brooklyn pipe dream.
Let's play this out.
Who is going to go to Nets games in Brooklyn?
People in Queens? Are they going to jump on the BQE in rush hour? Take a subway all the way into Manhattan and back out to Brooklyn? Not happening.
Long Islanders? Let's hop on the railroad and hit the Atlantic Yards? I get that it would be an easy trip but I don't see it. Do I catch the 10:15 home and change at Jamaica? Too much effort for an NBA game.
The Manhattan work crowd? Let's head out to Brooklyn and then after the game back into Manhattan for the bus/train/whatever? Arguably the same as hitting a baseball game but that's baseball and these are the Nets.
Legacy Nets fans from NJ? Good luck getting someone to cross two rivers.
It's time for the Nets to join the Devils in Newark. Sell some $5 seats and try to draw from the local community. Despite the hype that the arena is right by the train line, the best way to get there is by car - and folks in NJ, especially from the west not south, are not taking NJ Transit there. You drive and park pretty easily.
The Meadowlands is awful now. The failed Xanadu has made the spot uglier than ever, and the stadium construction has made it annoying.
The architect of the non-existent Atlantic Yards is saying that it's never going to happen. The Nets of course
are refuting that.
A $4.2 billion dollar project, for an arena with a financial institution on the nameplate? Not in 2009 folks. Head to Newark and start marketing.
www.metspolice.com
