Critics Win Right to Re-Argue Case; Arena Construction Will Continue

This sucks…

I can’t even root for the team for two years. Everything is on hold. The move, the Melo trade, the Nets, there is so much uncertainty

Some may use the famous phrase “Better late than never” for this ruling. I am glad to hear that the fight is still on afterall. So much for saying that it’s over. This almost reminds me of those naysayers aka Freedom Tower Fanatics who mentioned to pro-Towers supporters like myself who tried to use that statement, “They already made their decision and there is nothing you can do about it.” Just like this, new findings put them right back in the playing field. If they come back in actually stop the construction and even kill the project, it will something like a Red Sox-esque comeback, which was based on when the Red Sox came back to win playoff series when pushed to the brink, and that happened three times in franchise history. Maybe now some of you want to see the play In the Footprint afterall. We might as well start calling DDDB the comeback kids. It looks as if miracles do exist afterall, so this sort of Jane Jacob-esque as well, who was known for still standing up to the system when most just stopped.

This will have NO impact on the Nets moving to Brooklyn. Let’s put it this way, the original case the was the basis for today’s court decision was argued in December 2009….a year ago! By the time, the “re-argument” goes on the schedule…briefs are submitted…oral arguments are heard….and a decision on the re-argument is rendered it will certain be a year from now…at which point the arena will be substantially complete.

Even if the critics win the re-argument case, you can rest assured that ESDC will appeal to the New York State Court of Appeals, which will add ANOTHER year to the case.

Anything is possible (in terms of the ultimate outcome), but the courts are supposed to defer to the judgment of the State Agency….so the best the critics can really hope for is a determination by the Court of Appeals that the ESDC has to go back and do a supplemental environmental impact survey of the effect of a 25 year construction timeline as opposed to a 10 year construction timeline.

By the time all of that is adjudicated, the Nets (or Brooklyn Ballers) will already be playing games at Barclays.

As title has already been passed (to Forest City Ratner) and most of the structures in “Phase I” of the footprint have already been demolished, there’s really no way for the courts to “undo” what’s already been done.

I don’t think this will stall Barclays Center, not with Proky’s money involved in the project. Brooklyn Nets will happen, they lose this case somehow, then they’ll get a payout and eventually Van Der Beek will buy a struggling NBA team (Kings or Bucks) with a shoddy arena to move them to Newark which may take anywhere from 2 to 4 years to happen. New York/New Jersey metro area can handle a 3rd team due to the fact that you have 3 sports channels competing for teams to put on their networks in MSG, YES and SNY (who would love to have programming between the Mets baseball season and an NBA team would fit that criteria).