Brooklyn has a professional sports team again — but this ain’t baseball.
And the new, intentionally-rusted looking Barclays Center is not going to be confused with Ebbets Field.
Still, this could be something good for Brooklyn. It certainly will be good for the Nets (much better than their Jersey homes).
Friday was the official ribbon cutting at the Barclays Center, which will first host a series of Jay-Z concerts before the Brooklyn Nets (which Jay-Z owns a sliver of) bring NBA basketball to the building next month. (By the way, ask any reporter his/her least favorite event to cover and ribbon cuttings will be near the top of the list. They are dreadful.)
But those that have seen the building, like John Schuhmann of NBA.com, are impressed. It’s supposed to be a state-of-the-art inside — with Jay-Z designing some of the touches — and have all the luxury suites that drive the finances of NBA teams these days. Schuhmann said the building is very vertical and very intimate.
Remember this — the Barclays Center is really just an anchor to a larger Brooklyn Yards real estate project. A new arena with an NBA team is the kind of glitzy part developers need to get the massive residential and retail complex near it approved. But make no mistake, former Nets owner Bruce Ratner and current one Mikhail Prokhorov will make a lot more off the real estate than they will the Barclays Center and Nets.
It’s not unlike the model AEG used in Los Angeles — Staples Center was a building needed to change the image of the area to Los Angeles residents, but the real money was in the hotel/residential/restaurant/retail complex called LA Live around it.
The Barclays Center is open now, officially — ribbons were cut, speeches made and hands shaken. This will be good for the Nets. And it will probably be good for Brooklyn.
Now lets get to the games.
