New Jersey Nets busy in the construction of new arena in Brooklyn: NBA Update
During this time of uncertainty, when the NBA lockout has stopped or affected most of the activities, there is one place where work has been going on round the clock. This place is the site of New Jersey Nets new arena, the Barclays
Centre in Brooklyn, which the dream project of the Russian billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov, who is the owner of the franchise.
The lockout certainly hasn’t slackened the pace of construction of the arena and huge machines are working day and night on the project, to meet the deadline of September 2012. The management has in fact already started promoting
the arena.
Barclays Centre chief executive officer Brett Yormark said, “People waited a long time not only for this venue, but also for sports entertainment to return. What we’ve been selling for years is, Brooklyn is volume and variety,
and that the building’s bigger than basketball. It’s not just one thing, a combination of all of them, so our story hasn’t changed.”
The Barclays Centre will soon be a new addition to the list of the sports stadiums in New York City. A part of the arena is being constructed over a platform of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority-owned Vanderbilt Yards.
The anticipated cost of the project is roughly $4.9 billion that includes sports arena, commercial and residential multipart. The arena will be the new home of the Nets, who used Prudential Centre in Newark, New Jersey as their base earlier.
Bruce Ratner, the previous major stake holder at the Nets, was the first person who took the initial steps for a new arena after he bought the franchise in 2004. However, due to litigation matters and recession, his plans failed
to become a reality. However, with the arrival of the Russian billionaire Prokhorov, who took over from Ratner by buying the major shares, the project that once looked dead and buried picked up pace.
Ratner, who is a chairman and CEO of Forest City Ratner Companies and creator of the arena, still holds a portion of the team and expressed his pleasure on the project, the concept of which, he floated,
“This is a sports town. This location, the subway location was extraordinary, and we felt that the name Brooklyn resonated throughout the world as its own brand.”
The completion of this arena will bring two NBA teams in the New York City, the first being the New York Knicks. The Nets know this and have already shown their intent to build a fan base by offering better and cheaper facilities.
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