Nets Gate Receipts Drop a League Record 29%

Perhaps if we didn’t field a lame-duck team that can barely compete against the OKC Thunder, maybe our receipts might not have dropped so much.

Yes, Nets fans have always been so loyal.

With articles like these, the carter-anderson sweepstakes and the net-sixers cheapskates becomes understandable and easier for Nets fans to bear with.

That’s basically the decision of trading Carter there.

We need to run a pool on how bad the drop off will be this year

I say a jaw dropping 45%

gonna get much worse this upcoming season. long live the RAT

not having a contending team + lame duck situation + a fan base that never turned out consistenly well for Finals team + not having an exciting system + not playing exciting basketball + a horrible arena + no trains = bad bad bad results.

no shock here. this is why ive been pro-brooklyn since day one. we would probably be a little better in newark, but we’d still have a big problem on our hands. we gotta get outta the crap hole IZod and get to brooklyn or at least to newark until BK is ready imo.

and we expect ratner to give out max contracts and spend next summer while losing MILLIONS when we are still in NJ? yeah reality is going to suck and suck hard in the summer of 2010

If any of you actually believe Barclay’s Center will be built, I’ve got a bridge in BROOKLYN I’d like to sell to you…

@ Mr. T …. how much for the bridge ??

WOW…
Isnt Bruce Ratner for saving money? Well you have to spend money to get money as in sign some superstars. Why cant we be like other teams and make some trades for some big players that will bring nets fans in there seats?

Is it really that hard to believe? You put a bad product in one of the worst stadiums for live sporting events in the WORLD.

Move them to Newark. Gate receipts go up 50%.

They should stay just land someone huge to bring in fans

This is the cumulative effect of a potential move from one state to another lingering for years on end. Why should the people of New Jersey invest in a team that wants to leave them? It’s not surprising to me.

They need to move to Brooklyn. The fan base in NJ is weak. Do a poll with most of your friends and co workers and you’ll see the Nets are not relevant and never really have been to the people in NJ. Let them go to BK where they have a fighting chance of staying in the area. Ratner may be unpopular and not know much about hoops, but no owner will take on a franchise that loses so much money. I just hope BK comes through..

I went to a couple of games this year…and I couldn’t believe how expensive the tickets were. If the tickets were priced lower, I would have gone to more games (and in the end, probably would have spent more money overall).

This team will be disbanded and the decent players they have will be taken away by the other teams.

i hope hayes, harris and lopez join Orlando too!!!

sure champions for the next coming years.

P.S. This team will rise only if Ratner and Thorn are taken away and signin at least 2 decent players ( i hope all-star caliber )

Some1 who fells to oklahoma`s summer league team must be killed

Unless the Nets get a quality PF, expect revenues to plunge again this year.

I just read that Boozer may go to Chicago (in a 3 way deal involving Portland) where Utah gets Tyrus Thomas.
It is just preliminary, and I don’t know if Utah has to complete the signing of Millsap first. ESPN (Stein and Ford) say they still have to match up salaries.

Apparently Thorn isn’t making serious efforts to land Boozer or any respectable PF. That is very disappointing.

Anyone who doesn’t realize that it would be much better to have a competitive team in 2009-10, even if going to Brooklyn, deserves to suffer the consequences. Fans will drop off like flies otherwise.

More like Ratner drops 29%

Its not even the Nets anymore, its all his doing.

And yes NetIncome, there are some loyal nets. God forbid the area doesnt have lines down the turnpike to get in. You’re even more jaded than me. Jeez.

I’ve been called by a nets account rep a few times asking me if i want to re-up by season tickets. I’ve told him flat out that I don’t see it happening unless they move to newark. The commute to the meadowlands for games is killer, especially during the week. He told me that he’s heard that from large number of people he calls. will it cost the nets and ratner more money if they move to newark or are they just not doing it out of spite or idiocy or something else? i just don’t understand it because a can tell you right now that the nets will be making money from me if the games were in newark which they aren’t making from games in the meadowlands

It was a stupid decision, out of spite, to not at least have the Nets in Newark until Brooklyn happened(which now may not happen at all). If Ratner had moved the games to the Prudential Center he could have at least struck a deal with Vanderbeek to give him a smaller percentage than he pays to Izod and the games would sell more tickets just from having access to mass transit alone. Then if the Brooklyn deal fell through, which is a major possibility now, he would have already had a home for the Nets where his losses wouldnt be nearly as bad. Sometimes you just reap what you sow.

So when you figure in the what the Nets “recovered” from the league in player escrow, luxury tax sharing (and probably the league discretionary supplemantal funding), Nets probably made out no worse than the season before.

Face it- until either Brooklyn happens or Ratner sells, Nets are headed into Donald Sterling territory.

That’s an interesting point, fly75. While there are certainly similarities, here is the difference between us and the Clips: we have better management, but less money.

Sterling has spent money lately, giving big bucks to Baron Davis and taking on Camby’s and Randolph’s huge contracts. Not the best decisions, but certainly more spending than the Nets will do in the foreseeable future.

Our only hope is that we will use our scant resources wisely given Kiki and Rod’s leadership. Miracles happen, but we are looking at a ~25 win season right now. The Clips are better than that, and could even make the playoffs if they stay healthy.

@Tom,

I don’t think a Nets move to Newark is being held up by Ratner at this point. Brooklyn, at this point, is a joke. I think he (Ratner) wants to get rid of the team ASAP. The holdup, IMO, is the NJ Sports and Exposition Authority. As long as they are in charge of the Meadowlands, subsidizing Izod with our tax money, a move to Newark can’t happen. Considering all of the revenue lost from the Devils move, the Red Bulls pending move, the privately-owned new football stadium and accumulated debt fron the existing facilities and loss of racetrack revenue to other states, the NJSEA is hurting for cash.

Gov. Corzine will have to get off his butt and make the decision to disband the NJSEA, despite what Bergen County politicians think. The problem is, this is an election year for him, and he’s down in the polls, so politics will figure into any decision he makes.

are some of you guys serious? Are you actually questioning the loyalty of the Nets fans Net Income?

The fact that 12 or 13 thousand people still attend these games is a near miracle for Ratner!!! He has told us (the loyal fans) for 5 years he has NO USE for us, and we still keep going and in effect put money in his pockets that he in turn is trying to use to sweep the rug from udner us! You have got to be kidding questioning the loyalty of the fans when the owner and his marketing puppet have been spitting on us all this time! Can’t wait to see those hideous despicable red jerseys 41 times a year so they can spit on us again by stripping the words “New Jersey” from our team name. NOBODY should be attending any more Nets games until Ratner is gone with Brooklyn hopefully off the table.

I don’t understand why people think if the Nets move to The Rock attendance will improve. The Devils for the 2 years they have been at The Rock were 23rd (out of 30) in attendance. What is great about being number 23 in a brand new arena with a playoff caliber team?

NJ fans have abandoned the Nets because of the Brooklyn move and not enough NY fans are on board yet. When the Nets move to Brooklyn attendance will surge, and if for some chance Brooklyn doesn’t happen and they stay it the Izod, the NJ fans will come back.

And to the person who said Nets games are expensive, I don’t know what you are talking about. For starters, with a minimal amount of effort you can get substantial discounts to most games. If you go to Stubhub or a service like that you can usually get seats at below face value from season ticket holders.

A half season plan will get you on the lower level for 35 bucks a game and 25 bucks per game will get you onto the lower level for the whole season. If you buy the day of the game there are $10 seats available and for $299 you can get the whole season.

What is expensive about that?

“The Devils for the 2 years they have been at The Rock were 23rd (out of 30) in attendance. What is great about being number 23 in a brand new arena with a playoff caliber team?”

1) NHL is still a fringe sport compared to the NBA, ESPECIALLY in this region. The star power gap is still huge, therefore the box office draws are better in the NBA despite the league’s problems.
2)Even if the Devils sold out most or all of their games, they’d still be in the bottom half of attendance. They have one of the smaller arenas in the league and the Canadian teams plus a couple of others sell out or have standing room only every night.
3)Until the team can show they can compete for a Cup, the house won’t be packed often. Cups own division titles. Duh. Oh, and their marketing sucks, unlike the Nets.

Devils were 23rd in % of seats sold both years as well. Hockey is certainly doing well at the Garden, the Rangers have a waiting list.

WHJ,
when you are in a city of 8 million people atop of the worlds busiest train station with a large corporate population and for being around for 80+ years, dont you think that you could find 18,200 people to come to a game?

I guess you’re referring to Tokyo’s Shinjuku Station, which is the world’s busiest. I don’t know if basketball is sufficiently popular there that you could get 18,200 people to come, even with a population of 12 million.

North America’s busiest, excuse me… But if that Tokyo team was there for 80 years, then they could find 18,200 people to come per night.

I find it an irony that there are some doubting that if the Nets move to the Prudential Center it will help them yet they are saying that being at the Barclays Center will help improove that when it’s hardly case. It’s already been shown that attendance increased for both the Devils and the Seton Hall Pirates who are playing there now. In other words, it will probably work for the Nets as it did for them. The NJSEA doesn’t have to just worry about the Nets, they still have the Giants and even the Jets, who have agreed recently to 99 year lease to stay at the Meadowlands after failing to get their new stadium on the West Side Yards. It’s not like they won’t have any other professional sports teams there anymore after the Nets leave.

The Newark move would help the Nets even more than it did the Devils because Newark is a basketball hotbed which it is not for hockey. So you would get the NJ fanbase back, the train crowd, maybe some of the NYC crowd, and the people of Newark too.