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Daily News beat writer: 2011 Brooklyn arena's a fantasy; Lupica piles on

In the New York Daily News, Julian Garcia, the Nets beat writer, writes a scathing piece about the lukewarm support given to a decent team--the product of the Nets' lame-duck status. The headline: IZOD Center? How about we start calling it the U NOD OFF Center.

He writes:
But instead of fighting each other, the team and its fans should point the finger at ownership and those executives who promised more than five years ago to relocate to Brooklyn but have so far managed only to move to a town called limbo.

Delay after delay, mostly due to legal issues, has continuously pushed back the start of construction of a proposed downtown Brooklyn arena that is supposed to be part of a larger development project, Atlantic Yards. However, spokespeople for team owner Bruce Ratner continue to tell reporters that the Nets will be playing in Brooklyn before the end of 2011.

And I'll be the Nets' starting center by then.


Indeed. Maybe he's done the math, too, or just stopped believing Nets CEO Brett Yormark.

Value engineers

He writes:
wouldn't want to sit with 20,000 others in a building put up by "value engineers" and made out of materials bought on the cheap. Would you?

Well, I think he's misreading that one.

Destination Newark?

But he's reading this one right:
It seems less and less likely that the Nets are going anywhere except the place that really would make sense, the Prudential Center in downtown Newark. But you never know, which is the major problem here. Not knowing whether their team is coming or going, fans are apathetic toward the Nets. They aren't emotionally investing themselves in a team that is not fully invested in them.


Well, this ownership group, which is hoping Brooklyn would bring in the revenues, may not want to move the team to Newark. But there is already an arena built, and at least three more years at the Izod Center might be excruciating.

On NetsDaily, some fans agree with Garcia about the crowd's apathy.

Lupica piles on

Daily News sports columnist Mike Lupica adds:
Quick question for Caring Bruce Ratner:

Where can I buy my "Brooklyn Nets" T-shirt?


DDDB collects the barbs.

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