The NBA Board of Governors today unanimously approved the relocation of the Nets to Barclays Center in Brooklyn. The vote by the NBA teams was held at the NBA Board of Governors meeting in Manhattan.

The Brooklyn Nets will play in the new 18,200-seat Barclays Center on Atlantic and Flatbush avenues at the start of the 2012-13 NBA season.

Read a statement from the Nets owner on this news here.

BROOKLYN NETS NEWS FROM OCTOBER 24, 2011

Shawn “JAY-Z” Carter announced today that he will be the first performer to play the Barclays Center of Brooklyn when the venue opens in September 2012.

Speaking at a major press event on the plaza at Atlantic Terminal, overlooking the under-construction Barclays Center, JAY-Z also revealed that ownership of Brooklyn’s future NBA franchise has chosen Brooklyn Nets as the team’s name.

JAY-Z was joined on the dais by Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz, Forest City Ratner Companies Chairman and CEO Bruce Ratner, and Barclays Center and Nets CEO Brett Yormark.

“From the moment the Barclays Center became a reality, I knew this meant something significant for Brooklyn,” said JAY-Z. “This is where I’m from, I’ll always be Brooklyn, and opening this arena will mean more to me than anywhere else. I also look forward to opening night for the Brooklyn Nets. We’re going to create an atmosphere like only Brooklyn can.”

The New Jersey Nets will become the Brooklyn Nets and begin playing in the Brooklyn Barclays Center in the 2012-13 NBA season. Preseason games usually begin in early or mid October.

On October 24, 2011 we now have a picture of the Brooklyn Nets Barclays Center arena roof. Check out the photo:



BROOKLYN NETS INFO FROM JUNE, 2011

Scheduled to open on September 28, 2012, the Barclays Center will be a major sports and entertainment venue in the heart of Brooklyn, NY. Designed by architectural firms Ellerbe Becket and SHoP Architects, the Barclays Center aims to provide an extremely intimate seating configuration, especially a modern multi-purpose arena, with terrific sightlines and first-class amenities. The Barclays Center will offer approximately 18,000 seats for basketball and up to 19,000 seats for concerts, and will also have 100 luxury suites.

In addition to Barclays, the naming rights partner, Founding Partners for the Barclays Center includes ADT, Cushman & Wakefield, Emblem Health, MGM Grand @ Foxwoods, MetroPCS, and Stolichnaya. Other sponsors include: Willis, Haier America, Phillips-Van Heusen, Anheuser-Busch, High Point Solutions, and The Coca-Cola Company.

(Note that on this page, InsideHoops.com refers to the team as the Brooklyn Nets, but as of now there is no official word as to what the New Jersey Nets team name will be once they make the move. We think "Brooklyn Nets" is the most likely name, but "New York Nets" is also possible. There is also no guarantee the team remains the "Nets." But Brooklyn Nets both looks and sounds cool to is, so if anyone asks, that's our recommendation.)

The arena should be open and operational in time for the Brooklyn Nets to move in for the entire 2011-12 NBA season, including preseason.

BROOKLYN NETS INFO FROM MARCH 9, 2010

The New Jersey Nets hope to become the Brooklyn Nets in time for the 2012-13 NBA season. They faced countless lawsuits against them, mainly from people and groups affiliated with some of those living in buildings that will be cleared away via eminent domain, but with all legal issues cleared away, the project is good to go.

The Nets will play in Newark, New Jersey's Prudential Center arena for the 2010-11 and 2011-12 seasons, and then expect to be ready to move into their new Brooklyn, New York home, the Barclays Center, for the 2012-13 Nets basketball season.

The 675,000 square-foot Barclays Center, to be located at Atlantic and Flatbush Avenues, will hold 18,000 seats for basketball and up to 19,000 for concerts. Designed by award-winning architectural firms Ellerbe Becket and SHoP Architects, the arena will have 104 suites, including 63 suites on the lower suite level (located above the lower level seats), 30 suites on the upper suite level and 11 suites on the event level.

On March 8, the New York post reported: Although seat prices aren't set, 11 of the arena's 104 luxury suites run $540,000 a year — Nets part owner Jay-Z already bought one — and the rest cost an average of $264,550."

The Post continued: "Designed by the team of Ellerbe Becket and SHoP Architects, the sleek glass-and-steel, clamshell-like arena is about 200,000 square feet smaller than the original design by starchitect Frank Gehry, who was fired last year to cut costs. Alex Diaz, the arena's general manager, said the new 675,000-square-foot design offers "site lines closer to the court and a more intimate fan experience."

BROOKLYN NETS ARENA INTERIOR REVEALED

On March 8, 2010 a picture of what the Brooklyn Nets arena arena interior is expected to look like was revealed. Here it is:



MORE BROOKLYN NETS NEWS

Sept. 24, 2009: The Newark Star-Ledger reports: The New Jersey Nets appeared closer than ever to a move to Brooklyn Wednesday after Russian billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov agreed to purchase 80 percent of the team and 45 percent of a proposed arena by pouring $200 million into the cash-depleted venture spearheaded by Nets principal owner Bruce Ratner. Under the agreement, Ratner’s Forest City Enterprises group will retain controlling interest in the proposed Barclays Center in Brooklyn but relinquish authority over basketball operations. It also will give Prokhorov’s Onexim Group the right to purchase up to 20 percent of the Atlantic Yards Development Company, which will develop the area around the proposed $800 million arena. The deal is contingent upon the National Basketball Association’s approval of Prokhorov and the Nets’ move to Brooklyn, which still faces two major obstacles: an Oct. 14 hearing in the New York State Court of Appeals regarding eminent domain issues, and a December deadline to break ground or lose access to financing from tax-free bonds.

Sept. 9, 2009: Rich Calder of the New York Post reports: Developer Bruce Ratner today unveiled his latest vision for a controversial plan to build an NBA arena in Brooklyn – a new glass-and steel design he hopes will help the public forget the key loss of star architect Frank Gehry from the embattled project. The new renderings are a collaboration between the Kansas City-based firm Ellerbe Becket and Manhattan-based SHoP Architects. Ratner brought in SHoP to assist Ellerbe Becket, which was hired earlier this year to replace Gehry and design a thriftier version of the planned Barclays Center.

More from the New York Post: Opponents have also accused Ratner of trying to pull a bait-and-switch on the public by firing Gehry, whose magnificent glass-and steel arena design was approved by state officials in Dec. 2006. Gehry was let go to shave arena costs from $950 million to $772 million. The arena is the centerpiece of the developer’s $4.9 billion Atlantic Yards project for Prospect Heights that also includes 16 office and residential towers. It has been stalled by litigation and the national credit crunch.

More from the Post: Ratner is in a race against the clock to salvage a scaled-down version of a project he first proposed in Dec. 2003. He has to break ground on the arena by the end of the year to secure $650 million in tax-free financing for the arena; otherwise the cost could rise by hundreds of millions of dollars.

The Associated Press reports: In drawings and models, the woven steel bands give the building the appearance of being covered in wicker. People arriving for basketball games or concerts will enter the building beneath a huge overhang that cantilevers over a public plaza. Some glimpses of the interior stadium bowl and the scoreboard will be visible from the street.

The AP reports: Critics of the project include homeowners whose property is being seized by the government to make way for construction and many other city residents who think the development will be too disruptive for the residential neighborhood.

The new Brooklyn Nets arena design photos are here.

May 15, 2009: The New York Times reports: An hour after learning that a state appeals court had dismissed a major challenge to his long-delayed Atlantic Yards development project, the developer Bruce C. Ratner said he planned to break ground by October on an $800 million basketball arena for the New Jersey Nets in Brooklyn. The 20,000-seat arena is only one piece of a proposed 22-acre development at the intersection of Flatbush and Atlantic Avenues that would include an office tower and more than 6,000 apartments, including as many as 2,250 for low- and middle-income families. Given the anemic economy, the housing and the commercial building may have to wait for some time. But Mr. Ratner said he planned to complete the design for the arena, obtain final government approvals and issue the bonds for the project by fall.

OLDER BROOKLYN NETS NEWS FROM EARLIER IN 2009

The New Jersey Nets plan on eventually moving to Brooklyn, New York. There's no guarantee the team will be called the Brooklyn Nets once they do move, but we at InsideHoops.com like the sound of the Brooklyn Nets name and hope it gets used.

The move, which will bring the Nets to the Atlantic Yards area in Brooklyn, is taking a long time. There are still people living in homes where the eventual arena complex will be. They need to have their homes sold, get paid, move and clear out, so the entire land area can be torn down for the complex to be built.

As far as we've heard, the key political hurdles have already been handled, though lawsuits against the project still exist. We haven't recently looked into the details or how serious an obstacle they may be.

It'll be much easier for New Yorkers to get to Nets games once the team moves to Brooklyn. A big stack of subway lines will go right near the arena. People from all across Manhattan will get there with ease. But, it'll be very hard for people from New Jersey to attend the games, unless they live in the part of Jersey that's right near NYC.

We haven't timed the ride, but a general estimate is, if someone is in midtown Manhattan and takes the subway to where the arena will be, it'll probably be around 20 minutes. Maybe 30 at the most. From downtown Manhattan it'll be even quicker, like maybe 15 or 20 minutes.

If people come from Jersey and drive, they're probably better off parking in Manhattan and taking the subway to Brooklyn, instead of driving all the way to the arena.

As of early 2008, the earliest the Brooklyn Nets will exist will be sometime in 2010. Probably mid or late 2010. But that seems overly optimistic at this point since it's a giant project that isn't even close to starting yet. We're guessing it won't really happen until 2011 or even 2012.

The Atlantic Yards Brooklyn Nets development isn't just going to be a basketball arena. It'll have "middle-income and market-rate housing," commercial offices, shopping, a hotel, and wide open space on over 8 acres of land.

The developer, Forest City Ratner Companies, hired world-renowned architect Frank Gehry and landscape architect Laurie Olin to make it happen.

The cost of the project is apparently going to be in excess of $4 billion.

The eventual Brooklyn Nets arena does have a name. It'll be the Barclays Center, sponsored by the bank.

The Brooklyn Nets location will be at the intersection of Atlantic and Flatbush Avenues, and bounded by Pacific and Dean Streets and Vanderbilt Avenue. It'll span 22 acres. Including the arena, the entire complex will be 17 separate buildings.

There will be 336,000 square feet of office space, and 6.36 million square feet of residential space. The arena will be 850,000 square feet. There will be 247,000 square feet of retail space. And the hotel will be 165,000 square feet.