Nets Angling For Brooklyn Season-Ticket Buyers Ahead Of Move

Nets Have Only Sold Out One Of Their Playoff Games This Season

The Nets last week sent out 30,000 mailers to Brooklyn residents “telling them they should become season-ticket holders now — even though the club is still in New Jersey — to guarantee them seating” when the franchise moves to the borough in ’09, according to Rich Calder of the N.Y. POST. The mailers offer buy-one-get-one-free season-ticket packages through the end of the month. Nets Sports & Entertainment President & CEO Brett Yormark said, “If you want priority seating in Brooklyn, this is the best way to ensure you get the best seats” (N.Y. POST, 5/14).

GETTING TERRITORIAL: On Long Island, Shaun Powell notes the Nets are in the playoffs again, but New Jersey “doesn’t care.” At tip-off of Game Three of their second-round series against the Cavaliers and LeBron James on Saturday night, Continental Airlines Arena was “one-third empty. More people trickled in and the announced attendance was 20,032, but there were rows of empty seats.” Only one of the Nets’ four home games this postseason has sold out. Powell wrote “now you know why the Nets have given up on Jersey” and plan to move to Brooklyn. Nets TV analyst Mark Jackson, a Brooklyn native who formerly played for the Knicks, said of having the Nets in Brooklyn, “Being able to go to a game right off the street will be attractive to a lot of people. They’ll be able to claim this team.” But Powell added, “Brooklyn claims the Knicks; always has, always will” (NEWSDAY, 5/13).