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The New Jersey Nets are committed to moving to a yet-to-be-built Brooklyn arena for the 2011-12 National Basketball Association season, overcoming economic concerns and legal opposition, team Chief Executive Officer Brett Yormark said.

“It will happen,” Yormark said in an interview for Bloomberg Television’s “For the Record,” which will air tonight. “We’ll be there for the ‘11-’12 season. We’ve pre-sold 20 percent of our suites. We’ve got eight of our 14 founding partnerships already completely signed. Next week, we’ll announce our ninth.”

Yormark said the Bruce Ratner-owned team is awaiting resolution of an eminent-domain lawsuit before breaking ground on the Barclays Center. That may come in late spring or early summer, Ratner spokesman Barry Baum said in an e-mail. He declined to be more specific.

“The table has been set,” Yormark said. “We feel very confident about the financing. We feel very confident about just the project in general, and once we get through this final piece of litigation, we’ll be in the accelerated mode to break ground and get ready to open.”

In January, Ratner said he may scale back some of the costlier designs for the arena, a $1 billion project designed by architect Frank Gehry. The arena is part of a proposed $4 billion development that includes residential and commercial buildings and would be located near a rail yard.

Naming Rights

Barclays Plc, the U.K.’s third-biggest bank, bought the right to name the arena in January 2007. In November 2008, Barclays said it was “unwavering in its commitment” to the project.

With the Prudential Center opening in 2007 in Newark, New Jersey, as home to the National Hockey League’s New Jersey Devils, Mayor Cory Booker has said it makes sense for the Nets to also move from East Rutherford, New Jersey’s Izod Center.

“Would it make sense for another tenant to share that venue with the Devils? Maybe, but it won’t be the Nets,” Yormark said. “As much as we respect Cory and everything he’s done for the city of Newark, we will not be there.”

In February, a New York appeals court upheld a lower court’s dismissal of a lawsuit over the state’s environmental review of potential problems, including traffic, crowds and terrorism, according to Newsday. The project still faces a lawsuit over New York’s right to use eminent domain to demolish more than a dozen properties, the newspaper said.

Brooklyn hasn’t had a major professional sports team since baseball’s Dodgers moved to Los Angeles in 1957.

(Source: Bloomberg)