Faux Flashback: How to Go to a New Jersey Devils Game at the Meadowlands

Tomorrow night, the New Jersey Devils will begin their 35th season, their 10th at the Prudential Center in Newark.

Previously, they played at an arena at the Meadowlands Sports Complex in East Rutherford, New Jersey.

The following reflects the facts, as best as I can recall and/or determine them, as of the final season at the Meadowlands: 2006-07 -- the season before I started this blog.

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Before You Go. East Rutherford's weather is practically identical to New York's. However, I should warn you that the Meadowlands Sports Complex is just off the Hackensack River, which is very wide, and when the winter wind comes blasting in off it, it can make the walk into and out of the arena very cold. That shouldn't be a problem in October, but, later in the season, it will be. So check your local weather before you go, and dress accordingly.

Of course, crossing the Hudson, Hackensack and Passaic Rivers does not mean you cross a time zone. You can leave your watch, your phone, whatever else you have that tells time, alone.

Tickets. The hockey capacity of the Arena is 19,040 seats. The fact that it looks so much like "1940" was totally unplanned. The Devils have, sometimes comically, had trouble filling the place. The average attendance in the 2005-06 season was 14,230 -- under 75 percent of capacity.

Seats in the lower bowl, the 100 sections, are $65 between the goals and $32 behind them. Seats in the upper tier, the 200 sections, are $52 between the goals and just $20 behind them. Expect those prices to go way up in the new arena. (UPDATE: They sure did.)

Getting There. Despite the fact that the Meadowlands Sports Complex is just 8 miles from Times Square, if you're in the City, getting to there by public transportation has never been easy. The only way to do it is to get to the Port Authority Bus Terminal at 41st Street & 8th Avenue (A, C or E train to 42nd Street), and then take the New Jersey Transit 320 bus in. Theoretically, you can get from bus station to stadium gate in 20 minutes. Round-trip fare is $8.00.

If you were hoping to take New Jersey Transit rail there, forget it. There's a plan in place to have a rail spur built by the time the new football stadium opens in 2010, but that doesn't help the Devils. This is a big reason why the new arena is being built in downtown Newark, just 3 blocks from that city's version of Penn Station.

If you're driving in from New York City, take the Lincoln Tunnel, which will empty out onto New Jersey Route 3, which will take you directly to the Sports Complex. From pretty much anywhere in New Jersey, take any road that will get you to the New Jersey Turnpike, and then get off at Exit 16W.

Once In the City. New Jersey is named for Jersey, one of the United Kingdom's Channel Islands, birthplace of Sir George Carteret, who in 1664 was granted the part of the former New Netherland across the Hudson River from what became New York. He gave the Colony of New Jersey freedom of religion. (The Borough of Carteret is named for him, the City of Elizabeth for his wife.) While the name was written as Caesarea in Latin, it is apparently not named for Julius Caesar: "Jers" comes from a word meaning "earl," and the -ey suffix denotes an Island, as with the other of the large Channel Islands, Guernsey.

East Rutherford, formerly named Boiling Springs, in Bergen County, is named for adjoining Rutherford, which was named for John Rutherfurd (note the different spelling), who represented New Jersey in the U.S. Senate in the 1790s, and later created New York City's famed 1811 street grid plan. East Rutherford is home to only 8,716 people (Giants Stadium can singlehandedly increase that tenfold), but pretty much the only famous person actually from the town is sportscaster Dick Vitale. (Noted Jets fan Edwin "Fireman Ed" Anzalone lives there, but is actually from Queens.)

New Jersey's State sales tax is 6 percent. (UPDATE: Now 7.) The major newspapers in North Jersey include The Star-Ledger (based in Newark), the Jersey Journal (Hudson County), The Record (Bergen County), the completely separate Daily Record (Morris County), and The Herald News (Passaic County). In addition, Central Jersey has the Home News Tribune (Middlesex County), the Asbury Park Press (Monmouth and Ocean Counties), the Courier-News (Somerset County), and The Times and The Trentonian (Mercer County).

Going In. The Arena opened on July 2, 1981, with a Springsteen concert. Like the rest of the Meadowlands Sports Complex, it is owned and operated by the New Jersey Sports & Exposition Authority. It was named the Brendan Byrne Arena, for the Governor who got it built (and successor of William T. Cahill, who got the rest of the Complex built).

In 1996, when the naming rights ran out, the Republican-controlled legislature, rather than renew the name for the former Governor (who served from 1974 to 1982), took revenue on him for instituting the State's 1st income tax, and sold naming rights to the highest bidder, which turned out to be Newark Airport-based Continental Airlines. Byrne wasn't bugged about it, saying, "I was immortal for 15 years." And no Devils fan will ever forget that the 1st Cup was won at a building with Byrne's name on it. He is still alive, at the age of 82. (UPDATE: Still alive, and active, at 92.)

Brendan Byrne, the Governor who couldn't be bought

The New Jersey Nets moved in shortly after it opened, and stayed until 2010, when they spent 2 years in the Prudential Center before moving to Brooklyn in 2012. The Devils arrived in 1982, and stayed until 2007 when the Prudential Center opened. Capacity for basketball is 20,089; for hockey, 19,040.

The Arena under its original name.

The official address is 50 State Route 120. If you drive in, parking is $5.00. If you take the NJT 320 bus in, it will drop you off at the northeast gate of the arena.

Unfortunately, this is one of those arenas, so common in the 1960s, '70s and '80s, that has 1 level of concourse for 2 levels of seats. It doesn't work when the attendance gets over 12,000 (and, as bad as Devils' and Nets' attendance is, it is usually over that).

The rink is aligned north-to-south. The Devils attack twice toward the north end, the end with the Stanley Cup and retired number banners. The press box is on the east side, so the Devils logo at center ice is seen right-side-up from the east stands. The south end is the stage end when the building hosts concerts. (UPDATE: All of these facts held true after the move to the Prudential Center.)

The arena is also the main home of the basketball team at Seton Hall University in nearby South Orange, and has hosted boxing. As I said, it opened with a Springsteen run, 6 shows. He also sold it out for 10 nights in 1984, 11 in 1992 and 15 in 1999. The Rolling Stones played here in 1981, Queen in 1982, The Grateful Dead 16 times from 1983 to 1989, Frank Sinatra in 1986, Michael Jackson in 1988, and Simon & Garfunkel, with the Everly Brothers, opening in 2003. Two nights before the 1992 Presidential election, Bill Clinton hosted a rally here.

Bill Clinton at the Meadowlands Arena, November 1, 1992.

The arena saw the Devils clinch the Stanley Cup on home ice on June 24, 1995, and again on June 9, 2003. (They also clinched the Cup away to Dallas on June 10, 2000.) It has hosted many NCAA Basketball Tournament games, including the 1996 NCAA Final Four, won by Kentucky over Syracuse.

Food. It's all over the place, but it's not particularly interesting. There are no cutesy names for stands based on local flavor or local sports legends. And between periods, the lines can get really long.

There are Carvel ice cream carts, serving in cones or cups designed to look like little black Devils hockey helmets, but that's as far as it goes with specialty stands. Hopefully, the move to Newark will be a wakeup call. (UPDATE: It was.)

Team History Displays. The Devils' banners are at the north end, the Nets' banners at the sound end. The Devils put both entire years on them, not "2003" or even "2002-03." They're flanked by their sub-Cup banners: 1988 Patrick Division Playoff Champions; 1995, 2000, 2001 and 2003 Eastern Conference Champions; and 1997, 1998, 1999, 2001, 2003 and 2004 Atlantic Division Champions. (UPDATE: They have since won, and added banners for, the Division titles of 2007, 2008 and 2010; and the Conference title of 2012.)

The north end also has their 2 retired numbers so far, both for defensemen: 3, Ken Danyeko, 1983-2003; and 4, Scott Stevens, 1991-2004 (although it's listed as 1991 to 2005). The Devils do not yet have a team Hall of Fame, nor have they announced a 25th Anniversary All-Time Team, nor did they do so for their 10th, 15th or 20th Anniversary. (UPDATE: They have since retired Number 27, defenseman Scott Niedermayer, 1991-2004; and 30, goaltender Martin Brodeur, 1992-2014, although it's listed as 1990 to 2014).

Scott Stevens Night, February 3, 2006

The south end also has banners for the other team that calls The Rock home, the basketball edition of the Seton Hall Pirates. One is for their 1989 NCAA Final Four berth. Another is for the Pirates' 1953 NIT win. Others mark their 1991 Big East Tournament title, their 1992 Big East regular-season crown, and taking both in 1993. Another banner shows their 8 retired numbers: 3, Frank "Pep" Saul, guard, Class of 1949; 5, Walter Dukes, center, '53; 8, Bobby Wanzer, guard, '46; 11, Bob Davies, forward, '42; 12, Richie Regan, guard, '55; 24, Terry Dehere, guard, '93; 34, Glenn Mosley, forward, '77; and 44, Nick Werkman, forward, '64.

Saul, Wanzer and Davies were teammates on the 1951 NBA Champion Rochester Royals, the franchise now known as the Sacramento Kings, who also retired 11 for Davies. Regan played for the Royals later, and later still coached the Pirates. Saul also played on the Minneapolis Lakers titlists of 1952, '53 and '54. Dukes played for the Harlem Globetrotters, and in the 1955-56 season for the Knicks.

In 1998, The Hockey News celebrated its 50th Anniversary by naming its selections for the 100 Greatest Hockey Players. Since Brodeur was still active, they didn't choose players whose best years were outside North America and thus excluded Russian Hall-of-Famer Viacheslav Fetisov, and, for whatever reason, they didn't choose Stevens, either, the only former Devil they selected was Stastny.

Mark Johnson, Neal Broten and Jack O'Callahan of the 1980 U.S. Olympic hockey team went on to play for the Devils. So did Bill Baker and Steve Janaszak when the team was still the Colorado Rockies. Broten and Ken Morrow were the only members of that team to go on to win a Stanley Cup: Morrow did so immediately, becoming a part of the Islander dynasty; Broten, whose brothers Aaron and Paul also played for the Devils (Aaron was the last original 1982-83 Devil still with the team, in 1989), took 15 years to do it, but scored 2 goals, including the game-winner, in Game 4 of the 1995 Finals to clinch the Devils' 1st Cup.

Stuff. There are several souvenir stands throughout the Arena, but there is no main team store. This is planned on being rectified in the new arena. The stands do sell a lot of devil-themed merchandise, including plastic horns, plastic pitchforks, and devil masks, looking a lot more like interpretations of the Devil than the mythical Jersey Devil for which the team was named, or like N.J. Devil, the somewhat mischievous creature used as a representation of the team and as its mascot.

If you're looking for team videos, you're out of luck. The 3 Stanley Cup wins are available in highlight packages, but the titles aren't all that imaginative: Heaven: The New Jersey Devils' 1994-95 Champion Season; Second Heaven: New Jersey Devils 2000 Stanley Cup Champions; and New Jersey Devils Stanley Cup 2002-2003 Champions. There was no official team history video to commemorate their 10th, 20th, 25th or 30th Anniversary (1992, 2002, 2007 and 2012).

Despite having now played for a quarter of a century, the Devils don't have very many books written about them. Probably the best is Martin Brodeur's memoir Brodeur: Beyond the Crease.

During the Game. Devils fans hate the New York Rangers and their fans. (Can you blame them?) And the Philadelphia Flyers and their fans. (Ditto?) And since a lot more Devils fans are Yankee Fans than Met fans, they also tend to hate the Boston Bruins and their fans. But we are not Ranger, Flyer or Bruin fans. And while New Jersey has a rough reputation, not helped by Mob stories, both real and imagined, you do not need to fear for your safety, inside the Arena or out on the streets: It's not in a bad neighborhood, or any neighborhood, and the East Rutherford Police are very thorough.

When the Devils are introduced, a natural song is played: "Hell's Bells" by AC/DC. (But no one has suggested renaming the Turnpike "the Highway to Hell.") The National Anthem is (or, if a Canadian team is the opponent, the National Anthems are) usually sung by Arlette Roxborgh, who uses only her first name professionally. She's been the Devils' anthem singer since 1999. (In other words, she predates the 2nd and 3rd Cups, if not the 1st, and she did sing at the Meadowlands.) She's from the Caribbean island nation of Trinidad, but has lived in Brooklyn and Staten Island as an adult.

With the arena in Newark, and staffed by people living nearby, it's not so strange to see black people at a Devils game. She wears a Devils jersey when she sings, with the name ARLETTE and the Number 1, which has rarely worn by a Devils goalie since the arrival of Brodeur, although Keith Kinkaid wears it now.

It was another black female singer, Irvington native Queen Latifah, who was the 1st person, other than a Devils player, to wear a Devils jersey on television, on her sitcom Living Single. On the back, she wore the Number 1, and the name was the name of the magazine her character, Khadijah James, owned and published: FLAVOR.

The mascot is N.J. Devil, a guy in a foam costume, with a stereotypical thin mustache and a goatee, but also a big, un-fanged smile, as if that makes "the Devil" look more kid-friendly.

You devil, you.

Indeed, the team name doesn't make sense: Aside from offending people of faith by making them think of Satan, the legend of the Jersey Devil comes from the Pine Barrens of South Jersey. That's Flyer territory.

Like many other hockey teams, the Devils' goal song is "Rock and Roll Part II" (a.k.a. "The Hey Song") by Gary Glitter. (UPDATE: Since his convictions on what would once have been quaintly called "morals charges," they've dropped it.) Devils fans point at the goalie who let the goal in, and yell, "Hey -- you suck!"

Like Islander fans before us, Devils fans will start a whistle, and punctuate it with the entire crowd (except for those rooting for the visiting team -- and, depending on the team, sometimes even them, as the Rangers are not admired around the NHL) yelling, "Rangers suck!" What we add to the old Islander chant is a reminder that "suck" used to mean not, "They are very bad," but, "They perform perverted sex acts," is, "Flyers swallow!" A lot of people bring children to the games, and I don't want to have to be the one to explain that chant.

This chant will usually start from the east side balcony, from Section 228, home of the 228 Crazies. They used to be the 228 Crazies at the Meadowlands. They're rowdy, but they're not that crazy -- unless you're a Ranger or Flyer fan who wants to start something. (UPDATE: With the move, they bought seats in Section 232 at the Prudential Center, and they're now the 232 Crazies.

After the Game. As I said, the police have a significant presence outside. Your walk back to your car, or to the bus stop, will be completely safe. If anyone does try to hassle you, a cop to complain to will not be far away. The 320 buses will leave for Port Authority for up to an hour after the game.

If you're driving, with easy access to Route 3, that's probably your best bet for a postgame meal, as there are plenty of chain restaurants. It's a typically tacky and commercial Jersey highway. Probably the most famous eatery/drinkery connected to New Jersey sports is Manny's Cocktail Lounge, a.k.a. "Manny's of Moonachie" (that's pronounced Moo-NAH-key), made famous as a watering hole by fans of the 1980s Giants. 110 Moonachie Aveue. (UPDATE: It has long since gone out of business. Its location has been replaced by a Cuban-themed restaurant and banquet hall, La Havana 59.)

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With no pro teams still calling it home starting in 2010, the Izod Center (that name took hold in 2007 after the Devils left) mainly hosted concerts, circuses, and various family-friendly shows like Sesame Street Live, until this past January 15, when the NJSEA shut it down. The current plan is to demolish the Devils' 1st home in 2018.

Hard to Justify "What Ifs" with the Nets

Man, the Spurs suck. They suck so much, they can't even beat the New Jersey Nets anymore!

I hope I have some English fans reading this, so that they think that, by "Spurs," I mean Tottenham Hotspur Football Club, a.k.a. "Spurs," or, as they're known to my fellow Arsenal fans, "The Fucking Spurs," "The Scum" or "The Spuds."

(They're also known, due to an alleged Jewish fan base, by some anti-Semitic nicknames that I won't print here. Though they have no moral high ground, as they have some of the most notorious hooligans in the world. Ask fans of Rotterdam-based Feyenoord, along with Ajax Amsterdam and PSV Eindhoven one of the big three of Dutch soccer: They've got a pretty nasty firm as well, and from European competition dating back to the 1970s, they think Spurs fans go too far.)

No, I mean the San Antonio Spurs, winners of 4 NBA Championships since 1999, and, like the Nets, one of the four teams absorbed from the American Basketball Assocation in the 1976 merger. (The other two are the Indiana Pacers and the Denver Nuggets.)

The last NBA game I saw live was on March 2, 2008, when the Nets hosted the Spurs, and, despite holding tough much of the way, lost 93-83. To make matters worse, the Nets have rapper-business mogul Jay-Z as a co-owner, and the Spurs have Tony Parker as a player, and neither Mrs. -Z, singer-actress Beyonce Knowles, nor Mrs. Parker, the non-singing actress Eva Longoria, appeared to be sitting courtside. (Scott Clark's sports report on that night's Channel 7 Eyewitness News did show Eva, but not Beyonce.) That night, the Spurs, led by Tim Duncan, Manu Ginobili and Parker, pretty much did as they pleased against the Nets.

Not last night: The Nets beat the Spurs, 90-84, to reach a record of 10-64 on the season. Pathetic, yes, but that 10th win means they will not finish with the worst, or tied for the worst, single-season won-lost record in NBA history. In the 1972-73 season, the Philadelphia 76ers, not that long before and not that long until they were again one of the league's top teams, finished 9-73.

The Nets have now won 3 of their last 4, and have looked better lately. They have 8 games left in the regular season: Tomorrow night, home to the Phoenix Suns (almost certainly a loss); this Saturday night, home to the New Orleans Hornets (probably a loss); Sunday night, at the Washington Bullets, I mean Washington Wizards (could be a win, the Wizards have injury issues); a week from tomorrow night, in Milwaukee against the Bucks (probably a loss); the following Friday night, home to the Chicago Bulls (probably a loss); the next night, at the Indiana Pacers (probably a loss); the following Monday, against the Charlotte Bobcats (should be a win, as they've beaten the 6th-season-expansion Cats twice this season, although the Cats have clinched their first-ever Playoff berth); and they close it out on Wednesday night, April 14, at the Miami Heat (probably a loss).

If those predictions come to pass, the Nets will finish 12-70, the 4th-worst record since the NBA went to an 82-game schedule. The 1993 Dallas Mavericks and the 1998 Denver Nuggets went 11-71.

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Monday night, April 12 against Charlotte, will be the last regular-season NBA game, and probably the last-ever regular-season major league sporting event, that will ever be held at the Meadowlands Arena/Brendan Byrne Arena/Continental Airlines Arena/IZOD Center/Swamp/Drafty Old Barn at Exit 16W.

Like a lot of facilities built in the 1960s, '70s and '80s, the 20,089-seat (19,040 seats for hockey) arena at the Meadowlands Sports Complex in East Rutherford was designed to bring one or more major league sports teams into a city/state/region -- or keep it there, to stop it from moving to another place with a new stadium or arena -- and served its purpose. But it is time for the place to go.

That dreary night against San Antonio, when I looked at and heard and felt the Meadowlands Arena for what will almost certainly be the last time, I realized just how much of a gem its replacement, the Prudential Center in downtown Newark, is.

The Nets will play the 2010-11 and 2011-12 seasons at the Prudential, and then, assuming the Barclays Center in downtown Brooklyn is ready, move in there for the 2012-13 season and thereafter, bringing New Jersey's original major league sports team to an end after 35 seasons (1977-2012, and, remember, as long as the Giants and Jets continued to call themselves "New York," they are not "New Jersey teams," no matter where they play their games, practice for their games, or have their corporate offices).

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My last 3 blog items have been what-ifs about the Mets. Well, I'm not going to do those for the Nets. What could I do?

* What if they'd stayed in Long Island, at the Nassau Coliseum? Staying there, instead of moving to New Jersey -- first to the even more inadequate 9,000-seat Rutgers Athletic Center in 1977 and then to the Meadowlands in 1981 -- wouldn't have helped. They still would've become overshadowed by a great hockey team in their own building. It just would've been the New York Islanders instead of the New Jersey Devils.

* What if they hadn't sold Julius Erving to the Philadelphia 76ers just prior to their entry into the NBA for the 1976-77 season? They would have had to go out of business. They needed that money just to pay the NBA's entry free and a territorial indemnification fee to the Knicks. There was no way around it: It was either the Nets without Dr. J, or no Nets at all. Come to think of it, that might have been a better option.

* What if Micheal Ray Richardson had stayed drug-free? Guess what: He wasn't that good even when he was clean.

* What if they hadn't made some truly awful first-round draft picks over the years? In 1986, it was Dwyane Washington, the Syracuse star who went on to prove that the nickname "the Pearl" should have been retired for Knicks legend Earl Monroe; Dell Curry and Scott Skiles were still available, but with the Nets' luck, they probably would have underachieved in East Rutherford, too.

In 1987, it was Dennis Hopson of Ohio State, when they could have drafted Scottie Pippen, Reggie Miller, Horace Grant, Kevin Johnson or Mark Jackson; but with the Nets' luck, anyone they drafted would have gotten hurt.

In 1989, it was Mookie Blaylock, who helped Oklahoma get to the previous season's National Championship game, and did turn into a good player... after the Nets traded him to the Atlanta Hawks; others available included Tim Hardaway, Dana Barros, Shawn Kemp, B.J. Armstrong, Blue Edwards, Vlade Divac; except for Armstrong (who was very good but only for a short time) and Divac (who played a long time but was frequently injured), all of those guys would eventually, to put it politely, have issues.

In 1993, it was Rex Walters, a sharpshooter who got Kansas into the Final Four, but did next to nothing in New Jersey; the next-best pro career in that draft, after Walters was chosen, was Sam Cassell, whom the Nets briefly got anyway, but didn't get much out of.

In 1994, it was Yinka Dare, the 7-foot-2 Nigerian from George Washington University, who played 3 minutes his first season and became known as the Three-Minute Egg, and eventually set an NBA record for most minutes logged without an assist; but it wasn't a very deep draft, as the best player drafted after Dare was Temple star Aaron McKie, who went on to a servicable career with his hometown 76ers. Actually, the biggest name in that draft was Charlie Ward, the Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback who led Florida State to the National Championship, but went undrafted by the NFL.

In 1995, it was Ed O'Bannon, who'd just led UCLA to the only National Championship it's won under a coach other than John Wooden (Jim Harrick Sr.); it wasn't an especially deep draft, as the guys taken after O'Bannon weren't a whole lot better, though Greg Ostertag was the starting center on two Utah Jazz teams that reached the NBA Finals.

In 1996, it was Kerry Kittles, a very good player from Villanova, but, to paraphrase Nelly Furtado, his game was not MVP like Steve Nash (like Furtado, from Victoria, British Columbia, Canada), whom the Nets passed on, along with Peja Stojakovic, Jermaine O'Neal, Zydrunas Ilgauskas, Derek Fisher, Malik Rose, and, oh yeah, Kobe Bryant. Except, if they'd drafted any of those guys, they might not have been able to draft Kenyon Martin or Richard Jefferson, or later trade for Jason Kidd. And, let's face it, if Kobe could have that much of an ego in Los Angeles (and get into that much trouble in Colorado), what could he have done in, for all intents and purposes, New York (with all its accompanying trouble spots, from Times Square all the way down to Atlantic City)?

No, fixing any of those draft picks still might not have helped the Nets; fixing all of them might not have helped. Let's move on:

* What if Kenny Anderson hadn't gotten mugged by that fucking little coward John Starks? I never hated the Knicks before Starks clotheslined Anderson in the nationally-televised (NBC) game at the Meadowlands on February 28, 1993. The Nets destroyed the Knicks, 102-76, at a time when the Knicks were probably at their highest level since their last title in 1973, and also at a time when the Nets being on national TV was a very big deal. But Starks effectively destroyed Anderson's career, knocking him to the floor, breaking his wrist. Before that, Anderson was a nice kid and a very good player; afterward, he was a moody jerk who poisoned the atmosphere of every team crazy enough to acquire him.

* What if Drazen Petrovic hadn't been killed in a car crash after that season? The Nets still made the Playoffs the next season, but got beat 3 games to 1 in the first round. By the Knicks. Then it all fell apart, leading to Derrick Coleman's "Whoop-de-damn-do" remark and his "Waaaaaah!" cover of Sports Illustrated. (The Dreaded SI Cover Jinx? As if the Nets didn't have enough problems! http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/cover/featured/9468/index.htm) Then again, maybe, with Anderson having been turned to the Dark Side, and Coleman following him, maybe a living Petro would've wanted out, too, and the Nets would still have become what they became until the Marbury-for-Kidd trade in 2001.

* What if Bruce Ratner hadn't bought the team and held a fire sale in anticipation of building the Brooklyn arena? Maybe the Nets would have stayed competitive. Maybe they'd still have Jason Kidd, Vince Carter and Richard Jefferson, if not Kenyon Martin. Then again, Kidd has been one of the moodier pro athletes of his generation, so maybe he would have forced a trade anyway. He brought the Nets to 2 NBA Finals and within 2 wins of an NBA Championship (getting swept by the Lakers in the '02 Finals and losing the '03 Finals to the Spurs in 6), but he's never led any team he's been with any closer than that. Still better for the team, any team, than Stephon Marbury, the man we traded away to get him, has ever been.

That was pretty much it for the Nets. They became a lame-duck team in 2005, when Ratner bought them and announced his plans for the Atlantic Yards project, including the Barclays Center. They have now been a lame-duck team for 5 years; even the Montreal Expos were only one for 4, and it will eventually be 7 years before the move is actually made, unless new owner Mikhail Prokhorov decides he likes the 18,000 fans who will come out every night to the Prudential Center, realizes that Newark is a great basketball city (as proven by the 2 sellouts crowds at The Rock that these same awful Nets got in the preseason), and tells Ratner to get another team or else go fucksky himself.

It'll all be over in 2 years, whether "it" turns out to be the cloud over this seemingly cursed franchise (the Curse of Doctor J? The Curse of the Secaucus Seven?), or the franchise itself as we have known it. One thing is for sure: I will never, ever root for the New York Nets, or the Brooklyn Nets, or whatever the Ratner Team ends up calling themselves.

It's not like there will still be anybody I currently like on the team by November 2012. Maybe President Obama, as he is re-elected that month, will still be saying, "Yes we can," but the Nets? If they're not the New Jersey Nets, then, as Atlanta Hawks fan Margaret Mitchell would have said, "My dear, I don't give a damn." (The "frankly" was written into the movie's script, but it wasn't in the original novel.)

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Days until Opening Day of the 2010 baseball season: 5, the Yankees playing the Red Sox at Fenway this Sunday night on ESPN. It's so close, I can smell the Sox... and boy, do they smell! (Old joke, almost as old as the Sox' last legitimate World Series win, 91 1/2 years.)

Days until the Devils play another local rival: 11, Saturday night, at home against the Islanders, wrapping up the regular season the next day at home against the Buffalo Sabres. There's still a chance they could play the Rangers, or, more likely, the Flyers in the Playoffs.

Days until the last Nets game at the Meadowlands: 13, against the Charlotte Bobcats as previously said.

Days until the Yankees' 2010 home opener: 14. Just 2 weeks!

Days until the next North London Derby between Arsenal and Tottenham: 15, as it was moved back to Wednesday, April 14, due to Spurs' having advanced to the FA Cup Semifinals the preceding Saturday -- it was supposed to be Arsenal that did that, not the fucking Spurs! Come on, Portsmouth, do something good in your last month in the Premier League (for a while, anyway)! Play up, Pompey, Pompey, play up!

Days until the 2010 World Cup begins: 72. A shade over 10 weeks.

Days until the World Cup Final: 103.

Days until Rutgers plays football again: 158.

Days until East Brunswick plays football again: 164.

Days until the new Meadowlands Stadium (still unnamed) opens: 166, with the Giants playing first, and the Jets playing the next night on Monday Night Football.

Days until the next East Brunswick-Old Bridge Thanksgiving clash: 240.

Days until Derek Jeter collects his 3,000th career hit: 428 (estimated).

Days until the Rutgers-Army football game at Yankee Stadium: 592.

Days until the last Nets game in New Jersey: 740 (estimated).

Days until the 2012 Olympics begin in London: 860.

10 Things I Hate About the Meadowlands

I bought some milk this morning. On the carton was a picture of the Giants' offense, saying, "Have you seen me?"

Nope.

The NFC Championship Game will be between the Philadelphia Eagles (who looked dead just three weeks ago) and the Arizona Cardinals (who have looked dead, in Arizona, St. Louis and Chicago, for the better part of 60 years). The only two NFL Championship Games in Cardinal history were against the Eagles: 1947, a 28-21 Card win at Comiskey Park on the South Side of Chicago, and 1948, a 7-0 Eagle win in a blizzard at Shibe Park in North Philly. From 1949 to 2007, the Cards played in a grand total of 4 Playoff games. The Eagles at least won another Championship in 1960, but haven't won one since; and have reached the NFC Championship Game in 1980, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004 and now 2008, reaching the Super Bowl in the 1980 and 2004 seasons, but losing both times.

The AFC Championship Game will be between the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Baltimore Ravens. I knew the Ravens were going to beat the Tennessee Titans. You know how I knew? Because the Titans' quarterback is Kerry Collins, and Kerry Collins is what he has always been: A bum.

Could it be an All-Pennsylvania Super Bowl? If so, I hope they don't "compromise" and let Ratface Joe Paterno flip the coin to start the game.

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Speaking of the Super Bowl, today is the 40th Anniversary of Super Bowl III. January 12, 1969, at the Orange Bowl in Miami. New York Jets 16, Baltimore Colts 7.

The Jets have gone to two AFC Championship Games since (1982-83 and 1998-99), but haven't returned to the Super Bowl. Forty years in the wilderness.

Fast fact with which you can amaze your friends, and I'll bet more than half of all Jet fans don't know it... or maybe they know it, but they've never really thought about it: How many touchdown passes did Joe Namath throw in Super Bowl III? The answer is... zero.

And yet an entire generation of New York and New Jersey football fans grew up thinking Broadway Joe invented the position of quarterback. As much as anything else, these kids were the reason I didn't become a Jet fan.

I have never properly thanked them.

Frankly, I'm not sure the Jets even have a reason to exist anymore. That 40-years-ago Super Bowl is beginning to seem more and more like a movie, one that didn't really happen. Namath is still alive to tell us about it, but how often does he do so anymore?

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The new Meadowlands Stadium is coming along quite nicely. But I never thought the Giants needed a new stadium. The Jets, sure, because they were sharing with the Giants -- and will still be sharing with the Giants, even if the lease will be more favorable to them than at Wellington Mara's tin can on Route 3.

I just hope the place doesn't have the same wind problems. In fact, I'd like to present to you...

10 Things I Hate About the Meadowlands Sports Complex.

10. Horse Racing in the Winter. Isn't that considered cruelty to animals?

9. The Corporatism. "I was immortal for 15 years," said former Governor Brendan Byrne, an original investor in the Devils who got the Arena built and had his name put on it by a Democratic legislature in 1981. In 1996, a vengeful Republican legislature took his name off it. Why? Because Continental Airlines was offering a truckload of money for naming rights? That was a bonus. The GOP took Byrne's name off it as soon as legalities allowed because Byrne established the State's first income tax. The man had to balance the budget, something New Jersey's Republicans never seem to understand.

And while the Devils won their 2nd Stanley Cup while playing at the Continental Airlines Arena, and actually clinched their 3rd at the Continental Airlines Arena, and the Nets continue to play at the IZOD Center (a.k.a. "the I," a terribly doofy name), the Devils' 1st Stanley Cup was won at the Brendan Byrne Arena. And no shameless politician can ever change that fact.

8. Giants Stadium. Football player turned broadcaster and mystery novelist Tim Green called it "football in a tin can. Curse the Giants for ever leaving Yankee Stadium."

The stadium is big, but it's hardly an architectural marvel. It's not Soldier Field. It's not the Los Angeles Coliseum. You don't sense greatness in there, even if you know it's been home to Bill Parcells, Lawrence Taylor, or the 2007-08 miracle. It's ordinary. In fact, just about the only truly distinctive thing about Giants Stadium is...

7. The Wind. Also known as "The Hawk." Inside Giants Stadium, it turns field-goal attempts into pinball shooting, and it takes napkins, plastic cups and hot dog wrappers and sends them swirling around in a total mess.

In the parking lot, the wind blasts off the Hackensack River and sweeps through the parking lot with no trees to block it. It's terrible. (Yes, the wind can blast off the Passaic River and make coming out of a Devils game at the Prudential Center pretty bad in the winter as well, but it's not as bad as the wind at the Meadowlands.)

6. The Bus Service. It stinks. To get there by bus, you first have to get to Port Authority Bus Terminal in New York. Now, this isn't too bad if you're a fan of the New York Giants or the New York Jets. But suppose you're a fan of the New Jersey Nets? Or, from 1982 to 2007, you were a fan of the New Jersey Devils? Why should you have to change in New York? Especially when you're so close to Penn Station and Madison Square Garden? Home of the Knicks! And... oy... the Rangers? (Did I ever mention that the RANGERS SUCK? Well, they do!) And most of the people in Port Authority -- upstairs from the basement where Greyhound passengers go -- are fans of either the Knicks, or the Rangers, or both. Do you really want to mix with these people if you're a Nets or Devils fan? No, you do not!

And they don't even let you off within a short walk of either the Stadium or the Arena. You've got a ways to walk! Through that windswept parking lot! Oh, well, at least New Jersey Transit also provides rail service to the Meadowlands, right? Right?

5. The Train Service. Actually, there isn't any! Not yet, anyway! NJT is planning a spur of the Pascack Valley Line to the Complex, to open in time for the new stadium to open in 2010. Why couldn't they do that in time for Giants Stadium and the Racetrack to open in 1976? Or for the Arena to open in 1981? Or at any time in the last 35 years, from construction to today (which involves more construction)?

At least we can now get from just about anywhere in New Jersey to Newark's Penn Station and walk the 3 blocks to the Prudential Center to see the Devils, or Seton Hall basketball. And if Nets management has any sense, they'll abandon that might-never-happen Brooklyn boondoggle and move in at 165 Mulberry Street with the Devils and Pirates. Newark is a basketball city, and they'd love to have the Nets there.

Brooklyn is a basketball place, too, sure. But don't take our team! Have you forgotten what it's like to have someone else steal your team? (See "Dodgers")

4. The Parking Lot. The Meadowlands Complex was built for drivers. But the parking situation stinks. Not to mention that, when there's a Giants or Jets game, it's always sold out, 78,741 fans, and it turns Route 3, Route 120, Paterson Plank Road, Route 17 and the Western Spur of the New Jersey Turnpike into parking lots. So it's not so good for drivers, after all.

3. The Arena's banners, post-Devils. It looks a lot emptier without the Devils' banners. And the Seton Hall basketball team took its banners to the Prudential Center as well. When all that's left is the Nets' banners -- and they have as many title banners (ABA, NBA Eastern Conference and NBA Atlantic Division) as retired number banners, 6, which is a little off-putting -- and a banner honoring Bon Jovi, it's, it's, it's, how can I put this... lame. Almost as lame as Bon Jovi's music.

2. The Arena's Design. The seating area is bad enough, with the sound not carrying down to the court/rink, and the fact that it gets kind of drafty near the top. (Open windows? Not that I can see.) But they apparently designed the place after the Nassau Coliseum, 38 miles to the east. Two levels of seating, one level of concourse. You can't do that!

Even when the seating area is only half-full, it's like the concourse is jammed. It's bad enough when there's 16,234 fans, which would be a sellout on The Island. But when a full house of 20,049 is on hand at the Byrne Arena (it was 19,040 for hockey), forget it!

When the Prudential Center was built, they copied the new arenas in Philadelphia and Montreal: Three levels of seating, three levels of concourse. It works so much better. And while the wait for the food can be a little frustrating at The Rock, the wait for the bathroom isn't so bad. Contrast that with at the Meadowlands (or the Nassau Coliseum). It's interminable. (It's not quite as bad at Madison Square Garden, though. How come nobody ever copied that design?)

And the Number 1 thing I hate about the Meadowlands Sports Complex:

1. The Pedestrian Bridge. That creepy overpass over Route 120, connecting the parking lots of the Stadium and the Arena. It's now part of the Xanadu project, which might make it less creepy. But I wonder how many people got mugged there. It could also have been a shooting location for a horror film.

Well, I don't ever have to worry about that bridge again. Let's go Devils! And... please stay Nets?