NJ Gov Says She Wants Nets Back 14 Years After Move to Brooklyn

Amid her ongoing battle with FIFA, Mikie Sherrill has another bold sports play on her mind: Bring the Nets back across the Hudson River. 

The Nets played in New Jersey from 1977 to 2012, before moving to Brooklyn. The team struggled to draw attendance while in the Garden State and played in multiple arenas, including Rutgers Athletic Center, the since-closed Izod Center, Prudential Center, and even the Teaneck Armory. 

Since moving to Brooklyn the Nets have undergone a complete rebrand, switching its colors from red and blue to black and white. The team has not played a game in New Jersey, but did maintain a practice facility in East Rutherford until 2016 while a new one was built in Brooklyn. 

But a team source told Front Office Sports that there’s been no conversations between Sherrill’s administration and team ownership at all, let alone about a move. “They’re perfectly happy in Brooklyn,” the source said. 

The comments come after Sherrill, at a late April live chat about her first 100 days in office as governor, was asked if she was interested in bringing the Nets back to New Jersey. It turns out, the idea was already on her radar. 

“I mean, would I support it? I ask about it all the time,” Sherrill said. “I love the idea. So, I have been pressing for that. I haven’t made a lot of headway yet; you know, maybe in my second 100 days.

“But I do think there is some work being done for some — I don’t know if I’m allowed to say too much about it — but some people are working on some different sports coming into the Rock.”

Sherrill grew up in Virginia and launched her political career in New Jersey in 2017, years after the team had already moved. The Devils are the state’s lone professional sports team amid the major sports leagues and have been the primary tenant at the Prudential Center since the Nets left after the 2012 season. 

The Nets were owned by Russian billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov amid their move to Brooklyn, but were sold to Alibaba co-founder Joe Tsai in 2019 for $2.3 billion in a deal that included Barclays Center, the team’s arena. Brooklyn Sports and Entertainment, which is Tsai’s umbrella company for the Nets and their Long Island G-League affiliate, the Liberty, and Barclays Center, is in the middle of a five-year, $140 million renovation to the arena.