The Nets are about to embark on a season where the lottery is the goal and draft picks are the endgame. It’s a wise move, but a tough sell.
No less than for today.
That’s a part of why they’re playing the long game, with young rookies on the ground and young fans off it.
The Nets are aiming to cultivate generational fandom.
And the most recent example of that got here this week with the long-awaited opening of the Brooklyn Basketball Training Center, right across from Barclays Center.
For BSE Global — the parent company of the Nets, Liberty and Barclays Center — this constructing is essential to constructing a young fan base.
“It’s huge,” BSE Global CEO Sam Zussman told The Post. “You then’re a fan. Yeah, I mean, take into consideration what made you a fan. Sometimes it’s the parents coming home, bringing a ball to someone, and rapidly they’re a fan of that team. It’s the smallest things. And that is super, super organic. It also pulls the parents in.”
The cold, hard fact is the tanking Nets are going to lose games this season, with winning the lottery a successful result. They’re not converting adult fans from the established Knicks, so that they’re targeting a special younger demographic.
The Nets wish to keep putting down roots in the neighborhood after moving from Latest Jersey, and the Brooklyn Basketball Training Center is an example. Positioned on Flatbush Ave. on the previous site of Modell’s, it’ll serve kids aged 6-17 and be the hub of the larger Brooklyn youth program that features free training at local schools and paid training at the middle.
And naturally, it’ll introduce kids to the Nets.
“Your kid comes, says, ‘I need to observe a Nets game’. Good luck telling her or him the rest, right?” Zussman said. “So, I feel it’s a method to engage the whole family. It’s essentially the most organic method to do it. Because that is what we do, right?”
Through their partnership with the Department of Education, the Nets provided clinics to 40,000 kids last yr in Brooklyn. The brand new center will probably be an 18,600-square-foot chunk of outreach, with Nets owner Joe Tsai, wife Clara, minority owner David Koch Jr. and others readily available for Thursday’s ribbon cutting.
“One in every of the best barriers to success is access,” Brooklyn Deputy Borough President Kim Council said on the ribbon cutting. “Our youngsters have to see they usually have to have the option to visualise themselves in certain spaces. So I’m incredibly thankful to Joe and Clara Tsai for his or her investment, not only on this facility but in Brooklyn and the larger community.”
BSE Global has further development plans for the world. Even when the Brooklyn Basketball Training Center moves to an even bigger location, say, three years from now, the plan is it’ll grow the best way the Nets hope the young fan base grows.
In a way, they hope the rebuilding team mirrors that.
The Nets made an NBA-record five first-round picks in June. While it was tough for fans to really buy into last season’s 26-56 roster stuffed with players who were mere placeholders, this season they will spend money on a bunch of young rookies who will grow up before their eyes over the subsequent few years in Brooklyn.
“We began this dream years ago. We had Kyrie (Irving) and Kevin Durant,” Zussman told the Post. “What I’d say is, you’re right within the indisputable fact that the team now could be probably more relatable to someone young, right? Because they see ‘Oh my God, they’ve 18-, 19-year-old players they usually’ll grow up here.’ ”
After the Nets had contact five-on-five on the primary two days of camp, Friday was a non-contact recovery day.
The Nets are about to embark on a season where the lottery is the goal and draft picks are the endgame. It’s a wise move, but a tough sell.
No less than for today.
That’s a part of why they’re playing the long game, with young rookies on the ground and young fans off it.
The Nets are aiming to cultivate generational fandom.
And the most recent example of that got here this week with the long-awaited opening of the Brooklyn Basketball Training Center, right across from Barclays Center.
For BSE Global — the parent company of the Nets, Liberty and Barclays Center — this constructing is essential to constructing a young fan base.
“It’s huge,” BSE Global CEO Sam Zussman told The Post. “You then’re a fan. Yeah, I mean, take into consideration what made you a fan. Sometimes it’s the parents coming home, bringing a ball to someone, and rapidly they’re a fan of that team. It’s the smallest things. And that is super, super organic. It also pulls the parents in.”
The cold, hard fact is the tanking Nets are going to lose games this season, with winning the lottery a successful result. They’re not converting adult fans from the established Knicks, so that they’re targeting a special younger demographic.
The Nets wish to keep putting down roots in the neighborhood after moving from Latest Jersey, and the Brooklyn Basketball Training Center is an example. Positioned on Flatbush Ave. on the previous site of Modell’s, it’ll serve kids aged 6-17 and be the hub of the larger Brooklyn youth program that features free training at local schools and paid training at the middle.
And naturally, it’ll introduce kids to the Nets.
“Your kid comes, says, ‘I need to observe a Nets game’. Good luck telling her or him the rest, right?” Zussman said. “So, I feel it’s a method to engage the whole family. It’s essentially the most organic method to do it. Because that is what we do, right?”
Through their partnership with the Department of Education, the Nets provided clinics to 40,000 kids last yr in Brooklyn. The brand new center will probably be an 18,600-square-foot chunk of outreach, with Nets owner Joe Tsai, wife Clara, minority owner David Koch Jr. and others readily available for Thursday’s ribbon cutting.
“One in every of the best barriers to success is access,” Brooklyn Deputy Borough President Kim Council said on the ribbon cutting. “Our youngsters have to see they usually have to have the option to visualise themselves in certain spaces. So I’m incredibly thankful to Joe and Clara Tsai for his or her investment, not only on this facility but in Brooklyn and the larger community.”
BSE Global has further development plans for the world. Even when the Brooklyn Basketball Training Center moves to an even bigger location, say, three years from now, the plan is it’ll grow the best way the Nets hope the young fan base grows.
In a way, they hope the rebuilding team mirrors that.
The Nets made an NBA-record five first-round picks in June. While it was tough for fans to really buy into last season’s 26-56 roster stuffed with players who were mere placeholders, this season they will spend money on a bunch of young rookies who will grow up before their eyes over the subsequent few years in Brooklyn.
“We began this dream years ago. We had Kyrie (Irving) and Kevin Durant,” Zussman told the Post. “What I’d say is, you’re right within the indisputable fact that the team now could be probably more relatable to someone young, right? Because they see ‘Oh my God, they’ve 18-, 19-year-old players they usually’ll grow up here.’ ”
After the Nets had contact five-on-five on the primary two days of camp, Friday was a non-contact recovery day.
