October 22, 2009

Nets considering Newark move (temporarily)

New Jersey Nets officials have told the Newark Star-Ledger the team is considering a move to Newark as early as next year — but only a temporary one, until a new arena in Brooklyn can be completed. The deal, say the Star-Ledger's unnamed team sources, would be contingent on getting out of an $8 million penalty that the Nets have to pay to their current landlords at the Meadowlands if they move anywhere but Brooklyn before 2013.

Of course, a more permanent Nets move to Newark has long been bandied about, and it's certainly possible to spin a conspiracy theory that this is the Nets trying to figure a way to get their state landlords to let them out of the penalty clause by pretending that Newark is just a waypoint on the road to Brooklyn (or, more plausibly, as a fallback in case the Brooklyn deal falls through). Why the New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority would agree to let them out of the payment, I have no clue, but I guess you can't blame an unnamed source for trying.