While Jay will not hit the Barclays Center stage for its first concert series until next week, the doors opened Friday (September 21) for select media outlets.
After decades without a professional sports team, New York City’s ascendant borough hit the major leagues again on Friday with the opening of the Brooklyn Nets’ new arena. The state-of-the-art, 18,000-seat arena will be officially christened Sept. 28 with a rap concert by Nets co-owner and native Brooklynite Jay-Z. Supporters cheered Friday as the lights were turned on during a ribbon-cutting ceremony. “This is going to send a loud and clear message that Brooklyn has arrived as a center of exciting entertainment, thrilling big time sports and thriving commerce,” New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg told the crowd. (NBA)
Starting next Friday, Jay will kick-off a straight line-up of scheduled music acts ranging from Lady Gaga to Barbra Streisand.
Hip hop giant, Brooklyn native and arena investor Jay Z will start the festivities next Friday with the first of eight concerts. Barbra Streisand, also of Brooklyn, will perform in October. The Rolling Stones will mark the group’s 50th anniversary with concerts in just two locations — London and Brooklyn. Not your cup of tea? Lady Gaga, Andrea Bocelli, Bob Dylan, Justin Bieber, Neil Young and The Who are all coming soon. (New York Daily News)
The new sports areana is also expected to introduce people to Brooklyn’s local food scene.
The building will offer the products of 37 Brooklyn restaurateurs and food purveyors in its concession stands, suites and restaurants. There will be foie gras and hand-sliced ham for the big spenders, and even “caviar for Mr. Prokhorov,” said one chef, referring to Mikhail Prokhorov, the Russian billionaire and Nets majority owner. There will be pickles, pretzels and black-and-white cookies for non-billionaires. The food, branded “Brooklyn Taste,” is just one way the developer Bruce Ratner and his team plan to capitalize on the borough’s rich food culture. There is talk of offering “Brooklyn Taste” cooking classes and a cookbook. (New York Times)
Last month, a photo of the Nets’ home court surfaced online.
An intriguing image showed up Monday afternoon on Instagram. It was clearly the Nets new court, laid out at what appeared to be the IZOD Center. The poster reported that “the team was running a practice setup in the Izod center before they put it in Barclays Center. It’s a new type of wood flooring, no team has except Brooklyn.” He added that the set-up was supposed to be secret “we weren’t suppose to take pics… Lol but we’re able to sneak that one.” (Nets Daily)
