Barclays Center
Real estate developer Bruce Ratner purchased the New Jersey Nets basketball team in 2004 for $300 million. This purchase marked the first step of a process to build a new home for the team in Brooklyn. The arena was conceived as the centerpiece of the Pacific Park commercial and residential redevelopment project on Prospect Heights. The move had marked the return of major league sports to Brooklyn, which had been absent since the departure of the Dodgers to Los Angeles in 1957. Coincidentally, the original proposal for a domed stadium for the Brooklyn Dodgers was just north of the current site. The arena opened its doors on the 28th of September 2012, but the path there was fraught with legal battles over eminent domain that delayed construction until 2010.
Initial concepts for the area were designed by Frank Gehry, whose design proposed a rooftop park ringed by an open-air running track. Gehry's plans carried a projected cost of $1 billion and included his tallest tower, called Miss Brooklyn at 620 feet. Forest City Ratner unveiled a scaled-back version of the project in February 2008 reducing Miss Brooklyn's size 40%. Another redesign unveiled just over two months later scrapped Miss Brooklyn entirely. In January 2009, the developer started value engineering the arena design, cutting its budget even more. The final structure features three articulated bands with a glass curtain wall covered by a latticework composed of 12,000 preweathered steel panels. A oculus extends over a section of the plaza outside of the main arena entrance with an irregularly shaped display screen looping the interior face of the oculus.
On the 18th of January 2007, it was announced that the arena would be called Barclays Center after London-based banking group Barclays. It was reported that the company agreed to pay the team $400 million over the next 20 years for the naming rights. This deal 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. However, the rights were renegotiated by the end of 2009 due to the economic slump and are somewhat more than $200 million. Barclays does not have any retail banks in the US nor does it have its own ATMs in the arena. The financing of the stadium was eligible for tax-exempt bonds which were issued in 2009 for a total of $510,999,996.50.
The New York Islanders moved from Nassau Coliseum to Barclays Center before the 2015, 16 NHL season. As the arena was not originally designed with hockey in mind, complaints arose about seats with obstructed views and the arena's ice quality. Business Insider has called sections 201 to 204 and 228 to 231 the worst seat in American professional sports. There have also been complaints over the quality of the ice during hockey games because the arena uses PVC piping instead of steel piping under the ice surface. Capacity for hockey is 15,795, the second-smallest in the league behind Winnipeg's Canada Life Centre. The seating arrangement for hockey is asymmetrical with at least 416 seats that were not sold at all due to poor sight lines.
Barclays Center passed Madison Square Garden as the highest-grossing venue in the US for concerts and family shows based on ticket sales between the 1st of November 2012, and the 31st of May 2013. The center hosted the 2013 MTV Video Music Awards on the 25th of August 2013, bringing the show to a New York City borough other than Manhattan for the first time. In August 2015, Barclays Center hosted SummerSlam along with NXT TakeOver: Brooklyn the night before and a post-SummerSlam Raw the next day resulting in three consecutive nights of sellouts. The arena held another weekend of events in April 2019 for WrestleMania 35 including NXT TakeOver: New York and the 2019 WWE Hall of Fame induction ceremony.
During its construction, the center was the source of controversies involving local residents and the use of eminent domain. Three employees of Ludwig's Pharmacy in Prospect Heights claimed in a lawsuit filed in October 2013 that they were singled out for bad treatment at the arena because they are black. A group of 120 part-time construction workers who work to convert the arena from a concert hall to a sports venue unsuccessfully tried to switch unions in February 2013. The pay for part-time work is structured differently than that of the same work at Madison Square Garden and workers have complained about not being able to make a living on one-day-a-month work at $14/hour.
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Common questions
When did Barclays Center open its doors?
Barclays Center opened its doors on the 28th of September 2012. The path to opening was delayed by legal battles over eminent domain that halted construction until 2010.
Who purchased the New Jersey Nets team in 2004 for $300 million?
Real estate developer Bruce Ratner purchased the New Jersey Nets basketball team in 2004 for $300 million. This purchase marked the first step of a process to build a new home for the team in Brooklyn.
How much money did Barclays pay for naming rights to the arena?
The company agreed to pay the team $400 million over the next 20 years for the naming rights before renegotiating the deal to slightly more than $200 million due to the economic slump. This agreement eclipsed the previous record set by Royal Philips Electronics in 1999 for $185 million over 20 years.
What is the seating capacity for hockey at Barclays Center?
Capacity for hockey is 15,795 which makes it the second-smallest venue in the league behind Winnipeg's Canada Life Centre. The seating arrangement for hockey is asymmetrical with at least 416 seats that were not sold at all due to poor sight lines.
When was the announcement made that the arena would be called Barclays Center?
On the 18th of January 2007 it was announced that the arena would be called Barclays Center after London-based banking group Barclays. The financing of the stadium was eligible for tax-exempt bonds which were issued in 2009 for a total of $510,999,996.50.