Barclays Center ( ) is a multi-purpose indoor arena in Brooklyn, New York City, US. The arena is home to the New York Liberty of the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) and the Brooklyn Nets of the National Basketball Association (NBA). The arena also hosts concerts, conventions and other sporting and entertainment events. It is part of the Pacific Park complex at Atlantic Avenue, next to the Atlantic Avenue–Barclays Center subway station and directly above the LIRR's Atlantic Terminal.
The arena opened on September 28, 2012 and its naming rights are held by Barclays. It is owned by the State of New York's Empire State Development authority through a public entity named the Brooklyn Arena Local Development Corporation. It is leased and managed by entities controlled by Brooklyn Nets owner Joseph Tsai.
The arena, proposed in 2004 when real estate developer Bruce Ratner purchased the Nets for $300 million as the first step of the process to build a new home for the team, experienced significant hurdles during its development. Its use of eminent domain and its potential environmental impact brought massive community resistance, especially as residential buildings and businesses such as the Ward Bakery and Freddy's bar were to be demolished and large amounts of public subsidies were used, which led to multiple lawsuits. The Great Recession also caused financing for the project to dry up. As a result, construction was delayed until 2010, with no secure funding for the project having been allotted. Groundbreaking for construction occurred on March 11, 2010, and the arena opened on September 21, 2012, which some 200 protesters also attended. The first event held at the Barclays Center was a sold-out Jay-Z concert on September 28, 2012.
History The arena was conceived by Bruce Ratner via his company, Forest City Realty Trust. He acquired the New Jersey Nets basketball team in 2004 for $300 million (he has since sold most of his shares to continue funding the project) for the purpose of moving them to the Pacific Park development on Brooklyn's Prospect Heights play in the arena that would be the centerpiece of the Pacific Park commercial and residential redevelopment project. 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 Pacific Park Brooklyn site, where the Atlantic Terminal Mall, also owned by Forest City, is located.
The arena was initially projected to open in 2006, with the rest of the Pacific Park Brooklyn complex to follow. However, controversies involving local residents, the use of eminent domain, potential environmental impact, lack of continued public financing, as well as a major economic downturn delayed the project. Due to these legal and financial troubles, the development deal seemed headed towards failure or collapse. Frank Gehry, an architect involved in the project's initial designs said, in March 2009, "I don't think it is going to happen," and Ratner at one point explored selling the team. On May 12, 2009, the New York State Supreme Court Appellate Division ruled unanimously in favor Bruce Ratner's firm in Matter of Goldstein v. New York State Urban Development Corp., upholding the use of eminent domain for the project. Opponents appealed the court decision but the decision was affirmed.
Russian businessman Mikhail Prokhorov agreed to a $200 million deal on September 23, 2009, to become a principal owner of the Nets and a key investor in the Brooklyn arena.
The Nets played two preseason games at Prudential Center in October 2009. The two preseason games were successful, and a deal that would have the Nets play at the Prudential Center for the 2010–11 and 2011–12 NBA seasons became more likely. Negotiations nearly fell apart, when the New Jersey Sports and Exhibition Authority refused to release the Nets from their lease at Izod. Negotiations resumed, and on February 18, 2010, the Nets finalized a deal that would move them to the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey until Barclays Center opened.
Another potential roadblock to this development resulted from the Appellate Court's negative decision regarding a similar eminent domain case, brought against Columbia University; opponents unsuccessfully tried to use Columbia's temporary victory to overturn their own eminent domain rulings regarding the Barclays Center.
However, on March 1, 2010, Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice Abraham Gerges struck down a challenge by property owners, regarding the state's use of eminent domain, which allowed the private property to be condemned. Groundbreaking for the project occurred on March 11, 2010.
The first concrete was poured into Barclays Center's foundation in June 2010. Vertical construction began on November 23, 2010, with the erection of the first steel piece. The arena topped out on January 12, 2012, and was opened to the public on September 21, 2012.
Barclays Bank agreed to a 20-year naming rights agreement for $400 million in 2007. However, two years later, due to the slump in the economy the deal was renegotiated to $200 million.
The New York Islanders of the National Hockey League (NHL) announced on October 24, 2012, that the franchise would move to Barclays Center in 2015 after the expiration of their lease at the Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum, which the team had called home since its inception in 1972. The deal did not require the involvement of the New York Rangers, as the Islanders' agreement with the Rangers to share the New York area allows them to play their home games anywhere on Long Island, including the two city boroughs on the island, Brooklyn and Queens.
While Barclays Center was conceived as a multipurpose arena that could accommodate the Nets and an NHL team, it was built mainly for basketball. While it can accommodate an NHL-size rink, the scoreboard was off-centered above the blue line that is closer to the arena's southeast end. 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. There are only three rows of permanent seating on the northwest end of the arena, and at least 416 seats were not sold at all due to poor sight lines. As a result of the signing of the lease, the two KHL games scheduled to be played in the arena on January 20 and 21, 2013 between Dynamo Moscow and SKA St. Petersburg were moved back to their teams' home venues. As part of the deal, the management of the Barclays Center took over the business operations of the Islanders when the team moved to Brooklyn, though Charles Wang remained principal owner and continued to oversee hockey operations. This arrangement continued after Wang sold controlling interest in the Islanders to Jon Ledecky and Scott D. Malkin. Business operations were returned to the Islanders following the 2018–19 season.
According to Billboard magazine, Barclays Center passed Madison Square Garden as the highest-grossing venue in the US for concerts and family shows, not counting sports events. That statistic was based on ticket sales between November 1, 2012, and May 31, 2013. On February 24, 2015, an ironworker was killed when four joists fell on him as he was helping to install the arena's green roof.
Poor reception of the arena's quality as a hockey venue affected the Islanders' average attendance in comparison to Nassau Coliseum, which fell to an NHL low of 12,059 (the arena itself is also the second-smallest in the league). The team began to seek an exit from Barclays, although NHL officials judged that the Coliseum (even with its recent renovations) would not be suitable as a full-time venue, as it lacked amenities common in new facilities. On June 21, 2018, the Islanders announced that they would begin to play a portion of their home schedule at Nassau Coliseum until the completion of UBS Arena.
On September 18, 2019, Joe Tsai completed the acquisition of full ownership of the Brooklyn Nets and Barclays Center. With the closing of the transaction, Tsai became NBA Governor of the Nets and its affiliates and Chairman of Barclays Center. Media and sports executive David Levy was named Chief Executive Officer of the Brooklyn Nets and Barclays Center by Joe Tsai. Tsai also purchased the WNBA's New York Liberty in 2019 and relocated the team to the Barclays Center in 2020. For Liberty games, ticket sales will initially be capped at about 8,000.
In July 2021, it was announced that as part of a deal with the Nets and BSE Global, SeatGeek would take over ticketing duties for Barclays Center events beginning with the 2021–22 Brooklyn Nets season, ending the arena's relationship with Ticketmaster and breaking Ticketmaster's monopoly over ticketing for New York's major arenas. In January 2023, it was announced that the deal would end earlier than expected and that Ticketmaster would return to handle ticketing for Barclays Center events starting with the 2023 New York Liberty season, as well for events whose tickets went on sale on or after January 14, 2023.
BSE Global ended the deal with SeatGeek after encountering multiple technical issues, which led to lower than expected ticket sales for concerts at the arena. SeatGeek's time as the ticketing provider for events at the arena was met with multiple technical issues, as well as lower than expected ticket sales for concerts that were partly caused by these issues. A 2021 New Year's Eve show by The Strokes (which was later delayed to April 2022 due to concerns over the SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant) experienced technical issues during a presale that cost the band hundreds of thousands of dollars according to their booking agents (the show ended up only selling 13,548 tickets and grossing $1,570,000 in total, which was 2,000 tickets and $400,000 less than the group's 2019 New Year's Eve show at the arena, which their booking agents blamed on SeatGeek's user interface and not the popularity of the band). In addition, a show by Genesis as part of their The Last Domino? Tour that was booked for the arena due to high demand for the tour's other shows in New York also experienced technical issues after tickets went on sale and saw lower than expected ticket sales, which led to the show later being canceled.
A renovation of Barclays Center was announced in 2024, and Populous and Shawmut Design & Construction were hired to design the project. The renovation was estimated to cost $150 million by 2026. The project included replacing 30 suites with club spaces called the Row and the Key, along with new art, a new atrium, and a separate entrance for American Express cardholders.
Financing The arena is owned by the Brooklyn Arena Local Development Corporation, a public entity and is leased to affiliates of Joe Tsai. Being publicly owned, the financing of the stadium was eligible for tax-exempt bonds, which were issued in 2009 for a total of $510,999,996.50.
Design
Barclays Center was designed by the architect firm SHoP Architects. Ellerbe Becket/AECOM served as the project Architect of record.