Barclays Center

Barclays Center
Location	620 Atlantic Avenue Brooklyn, New York 11217 United States
Coordinates	40°40′57.54″N 73°58′28.88″W
Broke ground	March 11, 2010
Owner	Forest City Enterprises (majority) Onexim Sports & Entertainment (minority)
Operator	Brooklyn Sports & Entertainment
Construction cost	$1 billion
Architect	Ellerbe Becket SHoP Architects
Capacity	Basketball: 18,103 Ice hockey: 14,500 Concert: 19,000
Tenants
Brooklyn Nets (NBA) (2012–beyond) New York Islanders (NHL) (2012) One Game

The Barclays Center is a sports arena currently under construction in Brooklyn, New York. The arena is being built partly on a platform over the Metropolitan Transportation Authority-owned Vanderbilt Yards at Atlantic Avenue. It is part of a proposed $4.9 billion sports arena, business and residential complex. The arena is intended to serve as a new home for the National Basketball Association's New Jersey Nets, currently based at Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey. The team will be renamed the Brooklyn Nets starting with the arena's expected opening season of 2012–13.

The project is being developed by developer Forest City Ratner, who acquired the Nets in 2004, with the purpose of moving them from New Jersey to this site near the Atlantic Avenue – Pacific Street subway station (2 3 4 5 B D N Q R trains) and the Long Island Rail Road's Atlantic Terminal in Brooklyn, one of the most transit-accessible locations in the city. The move would mark the return of major league sports to Brooklyn, which has been absent since the departure of the Dodgers to Los Angeles in 1957 (their proposal for the world's first domed stadium just north of the Atlantic Yards site (currently the Atlantic Terminal Mall, owned by Forest City Ratner) to replace the unprofitable Ebbets Field had been turned down by the city in the past). Controversies involving local residents and the use of eminent domain, multiple lawsuits, as well as a lack of financing, have delayed the project.

On March 1, 2010, Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice Abraham Gerges struck down a challenge by property owners regarding the state's use of eminent domain, which allowed the private properties to be condemned. Groundbreaking for the project occurred on March 11, 2010, with the arena scheduled to open on September 28, 2012.

Design

Designed by the architect firm Ellerbe Becket (who has also designed the arenas used by the Boston Celtics, Charlotte Bobcats, Cleveland Cavaliers, Indiana Pacers, Memphis Grizzlies, and San Antonio Spurs), and New York City firm SHoP Architects, the proposed arena would host the Nets -- along with concerts, conventions and other sporting events, competing with Madison Square Garden and the Prudential Center, among other facilities in the New York metropolitan area.

Externally, the arena's shape is that of three articulated bands, and features a glass curtain wall covered by a 'latticework' made up of 12,000 preweathered steel panels, which are meant to invoke the image of Brooklyn's brownstones. A 117-by-56-foot (36 by 17 m) "Oculus" extends over a 5,660-square-foot (526 m²) section of the plaza outside of the main arena entrance, and contains a display screen that loops around on the inside of the structure.

The 38,885-square-foot (3,613 m²) entrance plaza contains 74 percent open space and 26 percent soft landscape and seating, primarily around the "Transit Connection" to the Atlantic Avenue subway station that will serve as the centerpiece of the Plaza. As the basketball court is situated below ground level, the scoreboard is visible from the plaza.

The arena is pursuing LEED Silver certification.

The original design of the arena, by renowned architect Frank Gehry, would have the arena's roof feature a park open only to residents of the Atlantic Yards complex, ringed by an open-air running track that doubled as a skating rink in winter with panoramic vistas facing Manhattan year-round; but those roof plans were scrapped due to Gehry's design being projected to put the cost of the arena at $1 billion, which was seen as being too expensive. Gehry's design was eventually replaced in September 2009 by the current Becket/SHoP design, which puts the arena costs at $800 million, though the final cost of the entire project is currently projected to be $1 billion.

Hockey

It has been suggested that the New York Islanders could play games at the Barclays Center once their lease at the Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum expires in 2015. Brooklyn is geographically the western end of Long Island, and many on other parts of the island have roots there. Also, the Nets and Islanders had previously shared Nassau Coliseum from 1972 to 1977. Financing documents for the arena released in December 2009 indicate that “The New York Islanders could potentially become a tenant” at the Barclays Center. The Islanders' agreement with the New York Rangers allows them to relocate anywhere on Long Island, including Brooklyn and Queens. Whereas the original Gehry design would have featured a hockey configuration with capacity typical of the arenas used in the National Hockey League, the final design for the Barclays Center is designed mainly for basketball use. It can nevertheless accommodate an NHL-size rink, though the arena will only be able to seat 14,500 fans in its hockey configuration, which would give it the lowest seating capacity in the NHL. The Islanders are scheduled to play a preseason game against the New Jersey Devils at the Barclays Center on October 2, 2012.

Other events

The first basketball game played in the new arena will be a college tilt between the Maryland Terrapins and Kentucky Wildcats.

Rapper and Nets minority owner Jay-Z plans to open the Barclays Center by performing in a series of concerts.

Oscar De La Hoya's Golden Boy Promotions will bring boxing to the Barclays Center on October 20. Brooklyn native Paulie Malignaggi is expected to be on the card.

The Atlantic 10 Conference has announced that the Barclays Center will be the new home of the conference's mens basketball tournament beginning in 2013.

After nearly a decade of performing annual concerts in Manhattan's Madison Square Garden, Italian tenor Andrea Bocelli has chosen to make his Brooklyn debut at the venue, December 5, 2012, making it his only New York City performance in 2012.

Naming rights

On January 18, 2007 it was announced that the arena would be called Barclays Center, after London-based Barclays plc. It was reported that Barclays has agreed to pay the team $400 million over the next 20 years for the naming rights of their future Brooklyn home.

The naming rights to the arena were purchased by Barclays, the British bank, for what was reported as the record-setting price of nearly $400 million over 20 years. This eclipsed the previous record for naming rights to an American indoor arena, set by Royal Philips Electronics in 1999, for $185 million over 20 years paid to name Philips Arena in Atlanta. However, the naming rights were renegotiated, and are somewhat more than $200 million.^{[citation needed]} The proceeds of the naming rights will go to the developer, not to the state of New York, which owns the land.

Developments

Barclays Center as of June 19, 2011.

The arena was first announced to open in 2006, with the rest of the Atlantic Yards complex to follow; however, controversies involving local residents and the use of eminent domain as well as a lack of financing delayed the project. Due to the legal and financial troubles, the development deal was headed towards failing or falling apart, and Ratner at one point explored selling the team.

On May 16, 2009, the arena's developers received good news as opponents trying to halt the project on claims that eminent domain could not take place, were thwarted when the Supreme Court ruled in favor of Ratner. However, groundbreaking was still no sure thing. Ratner claimed to have the financing in place but it was reported that he has gone to the MTA and asked them to lower the amount he owes them up front. Ratner successfully bid on the land for $100 million but now was asking to lower the down payment to as little as $25 million, leading the public to believe that his "in place financing" wasn't so "in place" after all.

Also, the opponents planned to appeal the Supreme Court decision. A hearing for the appeal was scheduled for October 14, 2009, with a decision to be issued likely no sooner than November 25. Ratner needed to break ground by the end of the year. If the case were heard and held up in court beyond December 31, 2009, Ratner would lose the right to tax free bonds that would be issued in order to help make financing of the project more feasible. If he had lost those bonds, it would be the dollar equivalent to roughly $150 million.

On September 23, 2009, Russian businessman Mikhail Prokhorov agreed to a $200 million deal to become a principal owner of the Nets and a key investor in the Brooklyn arena.

In October 2009, the Nets played two preseason games at the Prudential Center. The two preseason games were successful, and a deal that would have the Nets play at the Prudential Center for the 2010–12 NBA seasons became more likely. After nearly falling apart, after the New Jersey Sports and Exhibition Authority refused to release the Nets from their lease at Izod, negotiations resumed, and on February 18, 2010, the Nets finalized a deal that would move them to the Prudential Center in Newark, until Barclays Center opens.

On November 24, 2009, the New York Court of Appeals ruled in favor of the state using eminent domain for the project. Empire State Development Corporation Vice President Warner Johnston indicated that the agency is committed to seeing the project completed and said "we can now move forward with development."

Another potential roadblock to this development was put up by the Appellate Courts negative decision regarding a similar eminent domain case brought against Columbia University. This landmark case could have given new life to the case being brought by the community group Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn (DDDB).

However, on March 1, 2010, Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice Abraham Gerges struck down a challenge by property owners regarding the state's use of eminent domain, which allowed the private property to be condemned. Groundbreaking for the project occurred on March 11, 2010.

On June 29, 2010, the first concrete was poured into the foundation of the Barclays Center construction. The arena began vertical construction on November 23, 2010, with the erection of the first steel piece. The arena topped out on January 12, 2012.

External links

• Barclays Center, official website of the Barclays Center
• Construction Cam

Preceded by Prudential Center (2010-2012)

Home of the Brooklyn Nets 2012-beyond

Succeeded by Future