History of the Brooklyn Nets
After the dismissal of major pending lawsuits, groundbreaking for Barclays Center occurred on March 11, 2010.
On September 26, 2011, Jay-Z, the Nets' minority owner, announced that the team's new name after the move to Brooklyn would be the Brooklyn Nets. The team officially became the Brooklyn Nets on April 30, 2012. The team's new colors were announced to be black and white, and two official logos designed by Timothy Morris were unveiled. The primary logo is a shield depicting the team name 'Nets', along with a basketball with an overlaid "B". The secondary logo is the same "B-ball" surrounded by a black circle with the text "Brooklyn" and "New York". The new logo's typeface and colors are meant to evoke New York City Subway rollsigns from the 1950s when Brooklyn last had a major league sports team. This rebranding of the team led to a dramatic increase in merchandise sales for the team. On the first two days that the new merchandise was available, total sales from the NBA Store were 10 times that of a typical year when the team was in New Jersey, and in the initial months of the 2012–13 season, the Nets led all NBA teams in apparel sales.
Island Garden
The 5,200 seat arena also hosted the New York Nets of the American Basketball Association from 1969 to 1972. Hall of Famer Rick Barry led the ABA in scoring during the 1970–71 season. The Nets were unable to play any home playoff games in 1971 because the arena was booked with other events. In 1971–72, the Nets posted their first winning season, advancing all the way to the ABA Finals, where they lost to the Indiana Pacers. The franchise stabilized. Late in the season, the team moved from the Garden (capacity 8,500) and moved into the new Nassau Coliseum (17,800 capacity). In 1976 the Nets franchise were admitted into the National Basketball Association, where they have remained, eventually becoming today's Brooklyn Nets.