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August 4, 2011

Nets Pushing "Billion Dollar Arena"

NetsDaily

Few things could be more offensive in this time of high unemployment and an economy on the brink than touting how expensive your shiny new (heavily subsidized) arena is — especially when you're failing to live up to your promises for jobs.

Enter Bruce Ratner.

It may not be the "world's most famous arena" (it's really just a marketing slogan), but it will be the "world's most expensive arena" (although the Knicks might note its "transformation" costs almost as much as Barclays). It may not be the "Mecca" of basketball, but it will be the "Taj Mahal" (so says Avery Johnson). Get it?

The Nets are indeed promoting that Barclays will be the world's first billion dollar arena. In a city of big, bigger and biggest, that could catch on. "All together, interest, taxes, everything, it's a billion dollars," Bruce Ratner told an NY1 reporter earlier this month.

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Related coverage...

Construction Digital, The NBA Comes to Brooklyn

We stopped reading halfway through the seventh paragraph, where they ascribed the arena design to Frank Gehry.

Posted by eric at August 4, 2011 11:04 AM