Gilmartin: Forest City bought Nets “to control the decision to move from New Jersey to Brooklyn”

There wasn't much news in FOREST CITY RATNER CEO MARYANNE GILMARTIN: 'WHEN YOU BUILD A BUILDING IT BECOMES LIKE A CHILD', published in Bisnow 3/1/16, just a couple of quotes:

MaryAnne pointed to the volatility of income from an asset like an arena as not suited to the direction of the company. MaryAnne put it like this: a stadium’s not a typical “food group” of a public REIT.... she sounded less sad to part ways with the basketball team, which Forest City acquired before moving it across the river, in her words “to control the decision to move from New Jersey to Brooklyn.” “I do not recommend buying a basketball team if you’re a real estate company,” she told the crowd. 

So, they bought the team “to control the decision to move from New Jersey to Brooklyn”? Well, I think that means "to move them to Brooklyn to leverage a real estate project." After all, the other buyers would have kept the New Jersey Nets in New Jersey, either at the Meadowlands or at the new arena in Newark.

But the unreliable Bruce Ratner, Forest City Ratner's Chairman and former CEO, said last year, "It was really about civic pride."

Right.