After a series of delays caused by the economic recession, the Nets still maintain that their plan is to move to Brooklyn the season after next, during the 2011-2012 season.

Forest City, the firm headed by Nets' owner Bruce Ratner, has previously stated that construction of the new arena in Brooklyn would begin before the end of the year.  There is no word yet if this goal will be met, and even if it is, the team could be hard-pressed to play its first game in Brooklyn before the 2011-2012 season comes to a close.

AECOM Ellerbe Becket, the developer of the Barclays Center, expects construction to take 28 months.  If ground is broken later this month as scheduled, construction would not be completed until late April of 2012.  But the 2011-2012 regular season will end in mid-April of 2012.

It is not clear if the team intends to play its first game in Brooklyn before all work on the site has been finished -- perhaps moving in as non-essential areas of the arena complex are still under construction -- or would wait to open the Barclays Center until the start of the 2012-2013 season.

The timetable for the Nets' move to their new home could be a major factor next summer.  The team will hold a large amount of salary cap room and the allure of playing in Brooklyn is considered a key selling point to the all-star free-agents whom the team will attempt to sign.

Amid continuing lawsuits in opposition to the project, and the pending sale of the team to Russian billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov, Ratner is rushing to complete financing for the project before the end of the year.