Sportswriter Jake Appleman has inked a deal with Scribner to cover the Brooklyn Nets debut season. Mr. Appleman has written about basketball for The New York Times, NBA.com, Vibe and NBC Sport and is a senior writer at SLAM magazine. Mr. Appleman tweeted the news this afternoon.
Other sportswriters throughout Brooklyn are surely kicking themselves Read More
We know a lot of things about the exterior of the new Barclay’s Arena: that it was designed by SHoP Architects, that its rusty shell is no accident, but the result of a labor-intensive process to produce what is known as “weathering steel,” and that no matter what it looks like, the arena’s very existence will invariably cause some Brooklynites’ faces to contort with pain.
But what do New Yorkers—aside from the question of eminent domain and the as-yet unbuilt affordable housing component and the hordes of drunken tourists expected to start puking behind parked cars any day now, and all the other things that can cloud one’s vision—think about the aesthetics of the place? The New York Times, in one of its charming, “ask the readers” segments, Read More
So Barclays’s Bruce Ratner told Charles Bagli today. “We’ve kept every single promise we’ve ever made,” he insists. So be it. In typical fashion, the Times scribe cut the Brooklyn developer down to size without so much as uttering a nasty word against him, as he has done to so many big builders and outsized egos over the years. Read More
The new Barclays Center in downtown Brooklyn has become a reality after nearly a decade of discussion, debate, compromise—and hard work. The neighborhood, the borough and indeed the entire city will reap the project’s benefits for decades to come. Developer Bruce Ratner deserves congratulations for his determination and his vision, now realized.
The centerpiece of Mr. Ratner’s arena is, of course, the Brooklyn Nets, which will become the borough’s first major-league sports team since the Dodgers left after the 1957 baseball season. But the Barclays Center is more than just another state-of-the-art playground for great athletes. It’s also a world-class concert venue, as Jay-Z will demonstrate with a week of concerts to celebrate the opening, beginning Sept. 28. And it will play host to the work of local artists who will celebrate and commemorate the borough’s history and culture. Three commissioned works are in the final stages of installation, with more to come. Read More
Welcome to the grand opening of the Barlcays Center—through the Calvin Klein VIP entrance, past the American Express box office and into the Geico atrium—the sometimes home of the Brooklyn Nets. Because in truth, this is the bank’s home and everybody else are its guests. Today it is the press corps’ turn, and we have been welcomed in the grandest of style. Fresh orange juice, hot quiche and chocolate-covered strawberries abound, though none of the twee Brooklyn food that will soon be sold at the very Brooklyn concession stands.
As one reporter mentioned to another, “Remember the good ol’ days?” Would that be when Brooklyn had a team or when journalists could afford their own meals, or even a few sweet years ago, when this was still a hole in the ground, neighbor fought neighbor and the banks were booming?
Barclays and its backers are certainly aiming for a fond nostalgia at the corner of Flatbush and Atlantic. Read More
It may have some big signs, but the Barclays Center will not have big sodas. Following the approval of the Big Sugary Beverage Ban today, Bruce Ratner announced that his new Brooklyn arena would be voluntary complying with the rule. Read More
We were actually expecting a lot worse, really. Preliminary renderings showed a giant blue crest and the Barclays name emblazoned beside it, not unlike the huge logos atop the Staples Center in L.A. (and the neighboring Nokia Theater). Instead, the photos revealed yesterday by the WCBS chopper show a small, even diminutive logo that barely dominates the large white roof atop the new SHoP-designed arena. Read More
It was bound to happen: Jay-Z’s comments about Occupy Wall Street in the recent T Magazine profile of the rapper/entrepreneur (written by novelist Zadie Smith), found their way to the Occupy movement itself. And as they were no doubt going to do, they’ve stirred up a bit of a media tempest. Read More
A lot of bombast has been spread on both sides of the great Barclays Center battle of the past decade, but Andrea Peyser manages to take the cake as she always does, along with the amazing “photo composite” the Post put together of Bruce Ratner as ring leader. Cue Ms. (or is it Madame?) Peyser: Read More
Jay-Z might be from Brooklyn—and may season his songs with references to the borough liberally, not including his memorable Reasonable Doubt duet with The Notorious B.I.G., “Brooklyn’s Finest”—but does anybody remember the last time he played a proper concert there? Odds are, unless you’re an obsessive who tracks his every movement—or a Phish fan—you may not.
Fear not, though. The modest opening of the Barclays Center (the new home of the NBA’s Nets, of which, Jay-Z is an investor) will now shove this seemingly arbitrary but actually earth-shatteringly important query into irrelevance, as Jay-Z will not be playing one, or two, but three shows to open the new stadium, this September. Read More
