Yes, we suppose there is some small amount of pride to be had in the fact that the Garden State is home to the New Jersey Nets.
And yes, we will not make the mistake of saying no one in southern New Jersey cares about the fate of the NBA team or the NHL's New Jersey Devils. There are, apparently, here in the land of the Sixers, Eagles and Flyers, some folks who look north for their professional sports teams.
But a recent Star Ledger/Eagleton-Rutgers poll found that 61 percent of those surveyed said they would miss the Nets little if at all if the team moved to New York.
YankeeNets, the conglomerate that owns the Nets (and the Devils and the Yankees) wants to sell the money-losing basketball team. A plan to build a new arena in Newark and move the team there fell through over the issue of how much money the state and city would chip in. And Gov. James E. McGreevey and George Zoffinger, the head of the N.J. Sports and Exposition Authority, have wisely nixed the possibility of state subsidies to any new owners in order to keep the Nets in New Jersey.
Already, the fate of this basketball team has had too long a run in the arena of public policy.
A majority of New Jersey residents apparently do not care if the team is sold and moved to New York. Certainly, there would be even less interest in spending public money to keep the team here.
State and municipal governments all over the nation seem overinvested in the fate of their professional sports teams, in our opinion. Money - the wise expenditure of the public's money - is all that should matter. And when they start telling you that it's important to keep a team or attract a team so that you can "take pride" in it - hold on to your wallet. That pride is going to cost you.
The problem is especially complex in this state. Note we are not talking about the "Hackensack" Nets. These are the New Jersey Nets, a state team in a state that is remarkably divided along north-south lines over what professional sports teams it cares about (among other issues).
So if the Nets, who play to thousands of empty seats at the Meadowlands, pack up and move to New York, so be it. It's a slam dunk, if you ask us.
http://www.pressofatlanticcity.com/news/columns/091903NETSMOVE.html
And yes, we will not make the mistake of saying no one in southern New Jersey cares about the fate of the NBA team or the NHL's New Jersey Devils. There are, apparently, here in the land of the Sixers, Eagles and Flyers, some folks who look north for their professional sports teams.
But a recent Star Ledger/Eagleton-Rutgers poll found that 61 percent of those surveyed said they would miss the Nets little if at all if the team moved to New York.
YankeeNets, the conglomerate that owns the Nets (and the Devils and the Yankees) wants to sell the money-losing basketball team. A plan to build a new arena in Newark and move the team there fell through over the issue of how much money the state and city would chip in. And Gov. James E. McGreevey and George Zoffinger, the head of the N.J. Sports and Exposition Authority, have wisely nixed the possibility of state subsidies to any new owners in order to keep the Nets in New Jersey.
Already, the fate of this basketball team has had too long a run in the arena of public policy.
A majority of New Jersey residents apparently do not care if the team is sold and moved to New York. Certainly, there would be even less interest in spending public money to keep the team here.
State and municipal governments all over the nation seem overinvested in the fate of their professional sports teams, in our opinion. Money - the wise expenditure of the public's money - is all that should matter. And when they start telling you that it's important to keep a team or attract a team so that you can "take pride" in it - hold on to your wallet. That pride is going to cost you.
The problem is especially complex in this state. Note we are not talking about the "Hackensack" Nets. These are the New Jersey Nets, a state team in a state that is remarkably divided along north-south lines over what professional sports teams it cares about (among other issues).
So if the Nets, who play to thousands of empty seats at the Meadowlands, pack up and move to New York, so be it. It's a slam dunk, if you ask us.
http://www.pressofatlanticcity.com/news/columns/091903NETSMOVE.html
