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September 21, 2012
Officials Mark Completion Of Barclays Center At Ribbon-Cutting Ceremony
CBS New York
After much delay, officials marked the completion of the Barclays Center at a ribbon-cutting ceremony Friday morning.
Mayor Michael Bloomberg called it “a great day for Brooklyn and a great day for New York City,” while Nets owner Mikhail Prokhorov promised a top-notch product for Brooklyn’s new hard court.
I can assure you: we are bringing a team worthy of this great arena and worthy of Brooklyn,” Prokhorov said.
We've been assured of a lot of things, and we expect the same result from Prokhorov's assurances. Speaking of which...
Demonstrators from the group Develop, Don’t Destroy Brooklyn held a protest at Friday’s ceremony.
They claim Ratner has not followed through on promises to provide good jobs and cheap apartments to residents displaced by the mega-project.
"Claim?" It's not a "claim." It's fact.
 Mounted police delivering horse s**t to augment bulls**t being served up to media (Photo: Jonathan Barkey) |
Related coverage...
ESPN New York, Mikhail Prokhorov vows title sooner
Later, he added that "I still expect a championship within three years." When he bought the team in 2009, Prokhorov said the Nets would win a championship in five years.
AP via NorthJersey.com, Brooklyn has its own pro team again with opening of Barclays Center
Cue the Dodgers faux-nostalgia...
The Nets will be the borough's first big-time sports team since the Dodgers left for Los Angeles 55 years ago.
That departure is still a sore point for Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz, who was a boy at the time the Dodgers left town.
AP via Time, Decades Later, Brooklyn Has Its Own Pro Team
It was like a death in the family for Brooklyn baseball fans when their beloved Dodgers left the borough behind in 1957 for the California coast.
Times were grim for Brooklyn back then. Residents were leaving en masse for the suburbs. Crime was on the rise. And there was little hope that the borough’s plight would improve.
“When the Dodgers left, it was another punch in the face to the fact that Brooklyn’s best days may not be ahead, but may have been behind us,” said Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz, who was 12 years old at the time. “It was depressing.”
"Depressing?" Not nearly as depressing as Bruce Ratner getting away with a subsidy-stuffed land grab. Not by a long shot.
Bleacher Report, Exploring the Barclays Center and New Home of the Brooklyn Nets
The Barclays Center emerges from the corners of Flatbush and Atlantic Avenues like a hulking ship moored on an urban island, surrounded on all sides by steady flows of two-way traffic.
Like many New Yorkers, I was waiting for something more to be done with the building’s façade, but have since grown to embrace the Center’s off-color aesthetics.
CNBC, New Arena, New Brand: NBA's ‘Brooklyn’ Nets Are Cool
Brett Yormark know he can always count on CNBC...
"Jay and I collaborate on a lot of different things," said Brett Yormark, CEO of the Nets and the Barclays Center. Yormark admits, he actually has him on speed dial.
What's cooler than that?
Gothamist, Sneak Peek: Barclays Center Opens Today
Posted by eric at September 21, 2012 1:48 PM