West Caldwell Car Rental and the New Jersey Nets

The New Jersey Nets are a professional basketball team that play in the NBA. You can currently see them play in East Rutherford with your West Caldwell car rental at the Izod Center. They will be relocated to Brooklyn for the 2010-2011 season.

Play ball!

The franchise that is today the Nets was established in 1967 as part of the American Basketball Association. They were supposed to play at the 69th Regiment Armoury on Manhattan's east side, but pressure from the New York Knicks forced the Armoury to back out just before opening day. They had to find somewhere else to play, without angering the Knicks. They settled on the Armoury in Teaneck, New Jersey and were called the New Jersey Americans. When you visit with your West Caldwell car rental you will find a vastly different team from the original one.

Take two

In their first season, the New Jersey Americans made it all the way to the playoffs, but were forced to forfeit because the venue they were using for the game (The Long Island Arena) was in no condition to play basketball. In the second season, the team changed its name to the New York Nets. The name rhymed with two other teams in the area (the Mets and the Jets), as well as being a nickname for basketball. For the second season, they finished last. There was some improvement over the years, until the summer f 1976 when the ABA and NBA merged. But they had to pay $4.8 million for invading the Knicks territory when they joined the NBA. This was a terrible year since they had to sell their star rookie and their second-best guy broke his foot. By the 1980s, the team started improving and had winning records.

Future plans

In 2004, after failing to secure a real estate deal for the franchise the team was sold to developer Bruce Ratner, who planned to move the team to New York. In 2005, it was announced that the team would be relocated to Prospect Heights in Brooklyn. Ratner's company is working on a redevelopment project called the Atlantic Yards. The arena is in the final planning stages, but it is still unknown if the move will happen. If you visit with your West Caldwell car rental, you better come soon before the big move. It is likely that if this move doesn't happen, Ratner will sell the team since he bought it with the intention of them moving to New York.

Things to know

When you are here with your West Caldwell car rental, make sure that you are wearing navy blue, red, silver, and white, since those are the team colours. The team is part of the Eastern Conference in the Atlantic Division. You can also see what games are coming up by visiting their website.