Why We Cheer

I think this is false, Nets fans are not 3rd worst, they are 1st worst.

Ratner has killed the Nets fanbase.
It was growing until he came along, now practically no one is a Nets fan anywhere in the world.

This is the reason why the Nets must move to Brooklyn.. weather out the first few years where the arena is full of corporate shmucks and then get a loyal fanbase in an area where going to games is actually ACCESSIBLE and does not cost too much.

Driving to IZod center from Long Island: 34 miles round trip, $10 gas considering the traffic jams and city fuel efficiency.

$16 for parking.

$20 for round trip on the Throggs Neck Bridge and $8 for the return trip on the GWB.

The Tickets themselves… which are a bargain… let’s just say $15 each for now after all the handling fees.

Concessions: Less syrup soda and shorter hot dog franks this year?? $20 to get satisifed.

The cheapest souveneir possible so that the trip didn’t feel like a wasted evening (what with the losing and watching a team like the Wolves): $20 for a TShirt.

Total cost for the evening for a family for four:

$146

and that’s NOT including the the food a family will buy later…

Of course, a family of four taht’s well to do SHOULD be able to afford this fairly well without a problem. But just because one CAN spend money, doesn’t mean one SHOULD spend money.

With a vastly superior team and a more accessible arena next year, look for more “families” to show up and give more support.

@Jersey Pride
Quite simply…false. Get off the Ratner issue. Move on.

the nets fans that still come here everyday and express their opinions about this teaming getting better are the handful of loyal nets fans left. simple as that.

Jersey Pride:

Wrong, the Nets losing ways is what killed the fanbase.

If ratner did not exist and the Goldman Sachs group still had the Nets, they were losing money even during the Finals runs. They would still have slashed KMart’s salary (especially after the fact Thorn decided the microfracture surgery was too dicey) and Kidd would have been unhappy.

Ratner only consented to the VC trade and eventually giving him an extension because Ratner started to get into the basketball side of the business (when previously he had no interest) because he did not anticipate the backlash from trading KMart.

If Goldman Sachs had their way, they would have dumped Kidd soon after his own microfracture and then teh Nets would never have had VC (he may have gone to the Knicks, further leaving the Nets in irrelevancy) and we would be having this discussion about a dead end franchise, possibly moving to Oklahoma city, kansas city, or seattle right now instead of Brooklyn.

I see no one read the links, which are quite interesting, particularly the one on Little Friend.

“Get off the Ratner issue. Move on.”

No. I’ll never forgive him for moving the Nets off Long Island and selling Dr. J. Never.

I just read it.

Well, this MIGHT be a case of reading too much into lyrics… but we all know these particular entertainers always send out subtextual messages in their works.

Oh well.. a few years ago Jay Z said he would brings us some Nets… and now he will settle for DWade (who won’t even come)

This makes sense. Lebron would never settle for playing in the Swamp for two seasons. That’s probably the reason for the Newark move… to try to show him that Newark is still a bustling city… though it is no Brooklyn.

Calling All Toasters:

Funny. But sarcasm is not the easiest of things to read in text.

(Groan)

All this time I assumed JZ stopped coming to games because the team sucks. Turns out he can’t because he’s enjoying a good deal he got?

rightclue:

That’s very insightful.

The team didn’t sell out the arnea when we made the finals its clear anyone left are loyal but there are plent of disloyal fans too.

I’m a loyal Nets fan, but I’m called a hater because I express the honest viewpoint that current management is incompetent and needs to go. Yi sucks. Devin is a bum. And did I mention Nets management is incompetent.

Even when we were winning, Collins was getting Boo’ed, the team getting boo’ed… that’s just uncalled for.

I have been a Nets fan for a long time since the days of Cassell, Jayson Williams, Keith Van Horn, Kendall Gill etc. I stuck with them through John Callipari, Stephon Marbury’s “all alone” Schick, through Jason Kidd and finals appearances, through the Ratner sale and VC years, all the way to now, so I know I am a Nets fan, and a loyal one at that, I dont go to a lot of games because I cant afford to, if I’m ever able to go to more games I would.

Ratner is the reason why this team is the way it is right now there is no denying that, his cost cutting and cheapness in his attempt to move the Nets to Brooklyn is what crippled this team and it’s growing fanbase. During the mid 2000’s the Nets were an okay team with the big 3, but were never serious contenders. Because of the cost cutting Thorn couldn’t make the moves he wanted to, because it was constantly rejected by Ratner for costing too much.

I think there is a light at the end of the tunnel, Brook Lopez will only get better, CDR has shown promise, Harris while banged up this season is still a good point guard when healthy, we have some other pieces like Courtney Lee, and Yi who are solid players, for this franchise to get going I think it needs to have the number 1 pick and draft John Wall.

But the article is right in a way it’s about next year and hoping the team is better. Also while I know chances are slim I hope the Nets remain in NJ and move to Newark.

That “Little Friend” piece was more than a tad confusing. But it just shows Jay-Z to be a scummbag.. nothing new.

It wasnt about Jay-Z no matter how often people want to make it to be about Jay-Z.

i think it comes down to true fans, and fickle fans. Remember a few years back when Boston was one of the worst team in the league and the garden would be empty and nobody was a Celtics fan except the true fans who would still follow them… my point is there is more fickle fans than true fans and everything depends on how successful said team is at that point in time.

my 2 cents

@Robert
His cost cutting and cheapness are due to his inability to make money here, the same reason the previous owners sold out to him….and again for three years in the middle of this decade, the Nets had one of the top five payrolls. The owners of the team borrowed $210 million over the past six years because there was no appreciable revenue stream. They borrowed $60 million in 2006 just to have enough operating funds to continue. That’s fact. Prokhorov has agreed to pay 80% of the team’s debt and again, Forbes magazine has noted no team in professional sports has as high a percentage of debt to team value as the Nets.

He bares a lot of the blame, but he is not alone.

I look at it a different way. I’m glad people stuck by the Knicks when we were the dominant team around here. We’re free of fair weather, and a lot of that should go to the season ticket holders going through the 80’s and 90’s.

@ Net Income

Put it like this, if he bought the team with the purpose of moving to Newark most of this debt would have even existed. He didn’t want to invest certain amount of money because he was saving as much as possible to move to Brooklyn. However it is noted that he did spend money to keep RJ at a very reasonable rate, and VC in 2007, beyond that nothing much.

@Robert

He spent up to the luxury tax each year. That’s not unusual in the NBA as a whole, and it is unusual for a team that’s bleeding money. The team has spent money and no one has shown up.

Net Income, the Nets made back-to-back NBA Finals appearences before Ratner bought the team. I can still remember even before he bought the team, it was mentioned in the media that he had the intentions of moving them to Brooklyn, so it was always there in plain sight unless you didn’t know how to read a newspaper or online news article. Saying that is pretty much what lead to the decline in the fanbase. Ever since he took over as owner, their record not only went down, but they got knocked out earlier in the playoffs in the first couple of seasons each year until they started getting eliminated from it just recently. He even went against Thorn’s wishes of touching the players he didn’t want him to touch even though he was using them to promote the move to Brooklyn in the past. It’s really ashame that we don’t have any others like Mark Cuban, who actually sits with the fans at the games rather than in the owner’s box that is isolated from everything else.

Why no one mentions the fact that Ratner and Co. had every trace of “New Jersey” removed from the team as a leading cost for losing the fanbase is beyond me. Imagine if the Yankees got rid of their NY logo and NY in their name. Now imagine if they were supposed to be moving, and even though it might take half a dozen years to get their, they STILL get rid of all signs NY. Its spitting in the face of the fans, and blatantly says “You don’t mean anything to us”. Not to mention the fact that the Nets are being moved into their biggest rivals territory. So now all the proud New Jerseyans that can’t stand the Knicks fans in the arena when the two teams play have to settle for those same annoying fans getting OUR team. Thats why people stopped rooting for this team. NJ was tossed to the curb, regardless of the fact that WE’LL HAVE PLAYED IN NJ FOR 8 YEARS AFTER THE MOVE WAS PROPOSED.

leading cause*. whoops

i dont attack , neither i am disloyal

i harass!!!

Nets suck!!!

Same old story, same old song and dance my friends

BK cannot come soon enough

can the Nets steal the “WHO DAT” phrase ?

I dont care what anyone writes. I love the Nets!!! – Knicks suck!!!

It’s interesting how many Brooklyn supporters keep saying that the Nets current fan base is next to nothing when that is completely false. The majority of their fan base has always been in northern NJ as it was for the last 30 years. Also, fan bases for teams are mostly concentrated in the immediate areas around them. For those that try to deny it, the first half the 2000’s had an increase of fans for the Nets especially when they made the NBA Finals in both 2002 and 2003. The claim on trying to say that they will have a new fan base out of scratch is very similar to when Gehry mentioned about “Building a neighborhood from scratch” when he was originally going to be the main architect of Ratner’s complex.

at NJ4Life:

“Not to mention the fact that the Nets are being moved into their biggest rivals territory. So now all the proud New Jerseyans that can’t stand the Knicks fans in the arena when the two teams play have to settle for those same annoying fans getting OUR team. "

You could not have put this any better. it is still astonishing to me when the bunch of people on here that are pro-Brooklyn but call themselves Nets fans anyway can’t comprehend this.