Barclays Center

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Current event marker This article or section is about a planned or proposed arena.
It may contain information of a speculative nature and the content may change dramatically as the construction and/or completion of the arena approaches.
Barclays Center
Location Brooklyn, New York, USA
Opened 2008 (scheduled)
Owner Bruce Ratner
Surface 22 acres (entire complex)
Construction cost $3.5 billion (entire project)
Architect Frank Gehry
Former names
Nets Arena (unoffical)
Tenants
New Jersey Nets [1] (NBA)
Capacity
25,000 (estimated, depending on configuration)

The Barclays Center is a proposed sports arena to be built partly on a platform over the Metropolitan Transportation Authority-owned Atlantic Yards at Atlantic Avenue in the New York City borough of Brooklyn. It is part of a proposed $3.5 billion sports arena, business and residential complex. The site is intended to serve as a new home for the New Jersey Nets, currently based at Continental Airlines Arena in East Rutherford, New Jersey. The MTA site is 8.3 acres (34,000 m²); the Atlantic Yards project site would be 22 acres (89,000 m²).

The arena, along with the rest of the complex, is a project of Brooklyn developer Bruce Ratner, who acquired the Nets in 2004, with the purpose of moving them from New Jersey to this site near the New York City Subway 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 a new stadium at the Atlantic Yards to replace the unprofitable Ebbets Field had been turned down by the city in the past). Ratner's group hopes to have the arena open for the 2009-10 season.

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[edit] Design

Designed by architect Frank Gehry, the arena would host the Nets, along with concerts, conventions and other sporting events, competing with Madison Square Garden and the Prudential Center, which is currently under construction, among other facilities. The arena's roof would feature a park open only to residents of the Atlantic Yards complex, ringed by an open-air running track that doubles as a skating rink in winter with panoramic vistas facing Manhattan year-round.

[edit] Naming rights

It has been reported that London-based Barclays Bank has agreed to pay the team $400 million dollars over the next 20 years for the naming rights of their future Brooklyn home. On January 18, 2007 it was announced that the arena would be called Barclays Center, becoming the second major league sports venue to be called a center in the NYC metro area. Recently, the future home to the New Jersey Devils hockey team in Newark, New Jersey was named the Prudential Center. [1]

[edit] Development controversy

Main article: Atlantic Yards

Along with most stadium and arena proposals that utilize public money and / or property, the Atlantic Yards project is not without controversy. The development of the project, which is endorsed by the MTA and mayor Michael Bloomberg, has been strongly supported by Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz and is popular among some Brooklynites. But, it has also been opposed by a number of community groups in the area, and New York City Council member Letitia James, who points to the mixed successes of Ratner's previous projects, increased traffic congestion, and what she and her constituents see as the unfair exercise of eminent domain to remove residents for a commercial interest. Advocates of the project have claimed that the area is blighted in defense of using eminent domain, yet the area is in one of the hottest real estate markets in the United States. Roger Green, an early supporter of the project, stated unequivocally that the site is not blighted. The site of the arena was also privately negotiated to be sold to Ratner below the market value. Two opinion polls have shown that most New Yorkers oppose a publicly subsidized arena. The project, as of September 16, 2005, has grown to include 7,300 residential units (4,500 rental apartments, half "affordable," plus 2800 market-rate condos).

Opposition groups look to the successful cancellation of the similar (but larger in scale) West Side Stadium project that was to be constructed above the Hudson Yards in Manhattan. This stadium would have become the home for the New York Jets, who instead opted to share a New Meadowlands Stadium in New Jersey with the New York Giants. The cancellation of West Side Stadium is considered largely responsible for the scuttling of the New York City 2012 Olympic bid, as it would have been the main Olympic stadium had New York City won the bid. Two other stadiums are currently being constructed in New York City: the Mets' Citi Field and the New Yankee Stadium, which has caused a mild public outcry with the public parkland being used for it.

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

[edit] References

  1. ^ The team name will be changed to either the New York Nets or the Brooklyn Nets when they begin playing here
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