Brooklyn Nets won’t play preseason game at Nassau Coliseum
Nets forward Rondae Hollis-Jefferson drives to the basket ahead of 76ers forward Dario Saric at Nassau Coliseum on Oct. 11, 2017. Credit: Kathleen Malone-Van Dyke
The Brooklyn Nets will not play a preseason game at NYCB Live’s Nassau Coliseum this year even though the arena operator is contractually obligated to host one annually.
A spokeswoman for BSE Global, which operates the Coliseum and Brooklyn’s Barclays Center, cited the NBA’s decision to reduce the required number of preseason games as the reason there will not be a Nets preseason game at the Coliseum.
“With the Nets playing three of four games on the road, there was only one remaining home game to schedule and that is taking place at Barclays Center,” said Mandy Gutmann, the spokeswoman for BSE Global.
The Nets played a preseason game against the Philadelphia 76ers at the Coliseum in 2017. That year the Nets also played only four preseason games, including two games in Brooklyn.
Mike Martino, a spokesman for Nassau County Executive Laura Curran, said, “We’re in conversation with BSE Global about alternative programming.”
The county’s 2013 lease with Nassau Events Center — a subsidiary of BSE Global — also calls for an open Nets practice and a clinic run by the Nets’ coach annually during the first 10 years after the arena’s renovation.
Neither of those has occurred since the Coliseum reopened in April 2017 following BSE Global’s $180-million, 18-month renovation. In response, Gutmann said, “We are in the planning stages of Nets programming for this fall.”
The Coliseum is home to the Brooklyn Nets’ NBA G League affiliate, the Long Island Nets.
