Interior Of Planned Brooklyn Nets Arena Revealed

Two days before the official ground-breaking for the long-delayed Atlantic Yards megaproject, developer Bruce Ratner and the New Jersey Nets unveiled renderings of the interior of their planned Brooklyn basketball arena. After scrapping an original design by Frank Gehry over financial concerns and nixing a second design by the firm Ellerbe Becket after it was derided for being too dull, Ratner tapped Ellerbe Becket and SHoP Architects to draft up a new plan for the arena, which is dubbed the Barclays Center.

Though it's about 200,000 square feet smaller than Gehry's original arena, the Post reports that the new space will offer about 18,000 seats for basketball games and 19,000 seats for concerts, as well as 104 luxury suites going for as much as $540,000 per year. The arena's general manager says the space will boast sight lines "closer to the court and a more intimate fan experience," though NYU sports management professor Robert Boland claims the sight lines will be "no better" than the Izod Center in New Jersey where the Nets currently play. "The positive here is that there's a lot of lower-bowl seating, which makes this is a great place to see a concert and should help the Nets sell more tickets, but it appears there's too many seats behind the baskets that obstruct courtside views," said Boland, who gave the arena a grade of B-. NoLandGrab notes that the courtside seats appear to be built-in, meaning the arena couldn't be used for hockey.

After a judge gave state officials clearance to use eminent domain to evict Brooklynites who live in the project's footprint, Ratner announced that the groundbreaking for his $4.9 billion development will take place on Thursday. Opponents of the project—which also calls for 16 proposed skyscrapers on the border of Fort Greene and Prospect Heights—have promised to protest with their own "Groundbreaking to Bury the Soul of Brooklyn," which will feature three-foot tall bobbleheads figures depicting Ratner, Mayor Bloomberg, Borough President Marty Markowitz, Gov. Paterson, Russian oligarch Mikhail Prokhorov, and others. The demonstration will take place on Thursday at 12:30 p.m. at Freddy's Bar, which is planned to be demolished to make way for the Atlantic Yards development.

Contact the author of this article or email tips@gothamist.com with further questions, comments or tips.

By Ben Muessig in News on March 9, 2010 1:17 PM

Comments [rss]

Teddie Boy Eddie

Just look at all those Nets fans enjoying the game!

Gotham Extremist

LeBron, Jay-Z, da billionaire Russian and da Jew will put Flatbush on da map son!

ab1080

I live 3 blocks from those bright lights soaring into the sky. Think I might be moving. Sigh.

MEDICNYC

Wow you are a complete fucking loser. How old are you, 80? There are residential buildings within the three block radius of MSG and I don't hear them whining like a bitch. If you are going to be such a dumb ass then just move to fucking Connecticut or upstate NY and spare us your whining.

Think2wice

Rendering #6:

Todd and Cheryl were busily filing expense reports on their blackberries while Bryan prefers watching the Finals on a plasma-screen as opposed to actually watching the Finals as they're happening.

#7:

Andrew's hitting on Beth, Michael and Jim are talking about golfing, Martin also prefers the All-star Game on a plasma-screen.

Just another day in the luxe box.

ASSTACKLER

Holy shit the traffic nightmares that are gonna happen on event days is gonna be unbelievable. Flatbush sucks as it is, just wait until gameday when Flatbush, the BQE and Canal Street become a nightmarish parking lot gridlocked knot.

MEDICNYC

Yeah I mean all those areas are a traffic shit grid already but it will be much worse, I agree with you.

Gabriel

Oh - dear comments trolls - stop being ridiculous. As arenas go this one looks pretty good and 18,000 seems just about the right amount of seats if you ask me. Anything more or less would be difficult. Personally, I also feel Atlantic Yards needs something special to replace the dead zone that is there - though it would be nice if we didn't have to move any families.

My one problem is this - why couldn't the Nets ownership have moved the team to Trenton? New Jersey is the most densely populated state in the Union and I'm sure putting the team in a large civic center would have created a huge surge in their fanbase and they never would have had to compete with the Knicks for sales. I fucking hate New Jersey - but they do produce some true diehard fans and deserve their own basketball team.

longacre

Trenton would compete with Philly's team for fans, and there are less people down there.

MEDICNYC

I agree with you. I mean they could either put an arena and million dollar condos up, or just million-dollar condos. It's either one or the other nowadays. Might as well get an arena there. It will be a huge venue for concerts, too, I'm sure.

Dirk

The view from that first rendering sucks. The players would be nothing more than a speck, and the video screens won't help at all.

MEDICNYC

The arena actually doesn't look that bad. What will look bad (or worse) is the traffic on Flatbush and Atlantic. Wait until all those Park Slope fuckers start complaining about how long it takes to get down 7/6/5 Aves because people can't even make a turn onto Flatbush.

bobchadwick

When a company's design is scrapped, do they still get paid?

MEDICNYC

I would assume they get paid their consult fee.

ed_Extinct

being built for a team that can't win a fucking game.

Eric

in a league that is on the verge of bankruptcy.

whitecastlerock

The league is in huge trouble. The NBA recently had to borrow $200 million as a lifeline for some ailing teams. Some teams are shedding payroll just to remain solvent.

MEDICNYC

Maybe some TEAMS are on the verge of bankruptcy but the league itself isn't. Source an article that says that the WHOLE NBA is on the verge of bankruptcy or it will be assumed you think you know what you are talking about when you in reality don't know shit. If you find me one that proves me wrong, I will accept your answer and immediately apologize.