The Brooklyn Trolley Blogger: Atlantic Yards

Showing posts with label Atlantic Yards. Show all posts

Friday, January 14, 2011

NJ/BKN NETS ~ Barclays Center Construction, January 2011

(click on all images to enlarge)

The last peek back on December, 23, 2010.

Construction of

BARCLAYS CENTER

BROOKLYN

January 14, 2011

Mike.BTB

Friday, December 03, 2010

An Arena Grows In Brooklyn ~ December 2010

This latest look at the BARCLAYS CENTER construction site is as-of December 2, 2010.
The arena is finally taking form.

Looking west along Atlantic Avenue and 6th Avenue.

The building in the far right of this picture, with the store front over-hangs and flag poles fixed above, is the Atlantic Center Mall. The exterior was designed to subtly mimic a ball park. That is the location where Walter O'Malley wanted to build a new Ebbets Field for the Dodgers. The street behind the wooded fence on the right is Atlantic Avenue. Flatbush Avenue intersects Atlantic Avenue from this picture's left-to-right.

Along Atlantic Avenue.

Future home of Professional Basketball in Brooklyn.

Here's an ASSIST from http://www.netsdaily.com/

http://www.netsdaily.com/2010/12/4/1854345/yormark-says-barclays-done-well-before-nba-opening-night-2012#comments

...and another FOUL by http://www.nolandgrab.org/

http://www.nolandgrab.org/archives/2010/12/an_arena_grows_1.html

Brooklyn Nets go to the line for two!

Mike.BTB

Thursday, November 11, 2010

Latest Peek at Atlantic Yards Construction Site

As of November 10, 2010

Here's the latest look into the Atlantic Yards construction site.

Since Ground Breaking Day back in March, the project has evolved from just pushing dirt around. A massive circular foundation is taking form that will one day, in the not too distant future, support the Barclays Center which will house Brooklyn's member team in the National Basketball Association. The goal is for the Nets to open the 2012-2013 season in Kings County.

Click to enlarge.

The progress is a welcome sight. Visually at least, future supporters of the club have something tangible to work with now. It seems like a millennium has passed since the original plan to bring the Nets to Brooklyn was announced back in 2004. It was a long, rough and tumble, hard fought struggle for Bruce Ratner, and still, his problems have not subsided. There was a time when Brooklynites, to include myself, thought this project and the eventual relocation of the Nets would never happen. And while much of the greater Atlantic Yards project is still in questionable status, the Barclays Center site is buzzing with activity. Mikhail Prokhorov has since been added to the equation as the team's new principal owner and the appreciable progress being made in construction have excited this Brooklynite. It is with great anticipation I await the Nets arrival into the Borough and by that, reinstating our Professional status; stripped from us in 1957. Two years is still a long ways away and anything can happen between now and then. But this giant concrete circle in the ground at the corner of Atlantic Avenue and Flatbush is a signal that our day is coming.

Click to enlarge.

Before any ribbon cutting ceremonies, there's a brewing matter regard how to brand this team and promote it. Branding the team after New York is an unwelcome consideration by some and me. It's said the Knicks are also meeting this with resistance and for that I'm thankful. For my part branding the team under the auspices of NEW YORK and not BROOKLYN would be a huge mistake. I do not say that because I live here.

In this new and still young century, branding this team as a Brooklyn enterprise could, and I believe will become, one of the most powerful Brand names in the NBA, and with a competitive team, one of the most powerful Brand names in all of sports. I truly believe that. A jersey sporting Brooklyn across the front would be an instant best seller. This is my humble belief.

(Brooklyn Nets jersey graciously provided by Junior's Restaurant. Thank You.)

A name change for the team is also being considered. The first name I heard under consideration came to me via NetsDaily.com on Twitter. Please check out the details in a possible name change on NetsDaily's web site HERE.

The original comments came from Sam Amico who writes for http://msn.foxsports.com/nba. On November 9th, Sam Amico made these comments on Twitter:

"Nets will no longer be called Nets when they move to Brooklyn in two seasons, by the way. One name being floated is "Ballers", says insider." 2:57p.m.

"Team in Brooklyn will also have to be called "Brooklyn". Knicks don't want another "New York", and word is, they made a stink about it." 2:57pm

"I vote for Brooklyn Dodgers. Sure don't think you can call them the Brooklyn Americans like the old NHL team, since their owner is Russian." 3:00pm

Find Sam Amico on Twitter:

http://twitter.com/SamAmicoNBA

On PBS-Channel 13, I once learned one out of every seven people in America can trace their family history back to and through Brooklyn. That is National reach my friend. They didn't put a guy from Brooklyn in every war flick for nuthin' ya know..! I was careful to say "this century" because for many of us "older people", the Establishment is still represented by Boston and Los Angeles. But moving forward, is it dealing in hyperbole to say an NBA franchise in Brooklyn will, within short time and positive competitive progression, become one of the elite Power Brokers of the NBA?

I honestly don't think it is.

If The Billboard Wars are any indication of the coming times and is indicative of a new burgeoning inner-city rivalry, winters will be getting awfully hot in New York City in the near future. But because the Atlantic Yards project is still in it's construction infancy, many still may not be grasping the enormity of the coming situation. I have every confidence in saying this will become the preeminent in-season rivalry in the NBA. Once the move is realized and things settle down, TV networks will salivate to feature this match-up as best it can. Expect this game on your flat-screens during Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Years, MLK Day and everywhere else the League and the Networks can figure out scheduling.

Pffff!

G'head; say it. It's OK. It's not too early to start practicing.

"Live...! from the Barclays Center in Downtown Brooklyn...."

Sounds sweet doesn't it?

*..and a special Thank You to "NoLandGrab" for correcting

my principle/principal error; duly noted and corrected.

That's what having neighbors is all about ; )

Mike.BTB

Wednesday, October 27, 2010

On the Barclays Center ~ An article by Stephen Brown

This article is from today's pullout section of the New York Post detailing how the Barclays Center project almost slipped through Brooklyn's fingers.

To read, click an enlarge articles.

This project has been through so many obstacles and faced so much opposition.

It's been a hard road and there's still a ways to go.

We'll persevere because that's what we do here.

It's the Brooklyn way; the only way we know.

Mike.BTB

Monday, October 25, 2010

NYK ~ Knicks Invade Nets' Turf This Time

This will one day be a good ol' schoolyard fight; just a little while longer Brooklyn - Just a little while longer. Our day will come!

Earlier this year, Mikhail Prokhorov, new wave owner of the NJ/BKN Nets, paid for a giant ad, splashed high above 8th Avenue, just two short blocks from Madison Square Garden, home of the Knicks. Considered brilliant at the time, the ad was all the rage. I think everyone found humor with it; everyone except Jim Dolan that is.

The ad was designed as a lead-up to the LeBron James Sweepstakes and coming on the heals of the Draft Lottery, where Mr. Prokhorov offered quite a few provocative lines regarding the future of the Nets franchise. The finished peice would have featured Prokhorov, Jay-Z and LeBron James....(if only). The Lottery Draft didn't turn out the way the Nets would have liked, but the ad was still a stroke of genius although not landing LeBron, again, provided a minor disappointment for the franchise.

pic ~ Yahoo.com article above.

This afternoon I found The Garden's response. While not as large as the ad the Nets had painted on 8th Avenue by any stretch; without any notice except by those driving down Atlantic Avenue (and not even then) the Knicks took a different tact and bought space directly inside the footprint of Atlantic Yards; site of the Barclays Center, future home of the Brooklyn Nets.

Let this thing build up some steam. This rivalry will go where it has never been before.

Fuhgeddaboudit!

INSIDE THE ATLANTIC YARDS FOOTPRINT:

What's left of the Carlton Avenue overpass.

Mike.BTB

Tuesday, October 19, 2010

Barclays Center Construction Site; Nets vs Knicks

Atlantic Avenue at Flatbush Avenue

One day in the near future this site will play host to the newest inner-city rivalry.

I believe in a short span of time once the move is completed, the Brooklyn brand will be one of, if not the hottest brand in the NBA. I do not say that because I live here.

I say that because I DO live here (No, I didn't repeat myself. There's a difference.)

I'm not being a "homer". I just know how this Borough will respond.

The rivalry between the Knicks and the Nets will be brought to levels not scene around here since the days Otis Birdsong, Buck Williams and Chocolate Thunder played for the Nets and Bernard King for the Knicks. Admittedly, the rivalry never has been as heated or adversarial as say, the NY Rangers and the NY Islanders was, or like the contentious relationship Met Fans and Yankee fans maintain living amongst each other. This rivalry has for the most part bordered on the mild side. All that will change; I assure you.

Brooklyn will change everything; for the Knicks too.

The Nets and the Knicks face each other tonight in a pre-season match-up at

Madison Square Garden; said to be The World's Most Famous Arena.

When references are made to the Knicks' home court it's usually MSG this, and MSG that.

This is where things start to change. I have a feeling once the move to the Barclays Center is completed, and the time comes for these teams to square off in the future..., when the match gets played here, the talk will be of Brooklyn; not the arena.

The vernacular changes to, "When the Knicks come to Brooklyn" or

"the Nets return back home to Brooklyn"....etc etc. There in lies the rub.

Coming here means talking on the whole Borough of Kings.

Just in case you needed reminding, "Manhattan's Bedroom" has a name.

(MSG at right; 33rd Street and 8th Avenue)

Change; Thy Name is Brooklyn.

Continuing Construction of the Barclays Center at Atlantic Yards:

FUTURE HOME OF THE "BROOKLYN" NETS

BTB

Tuesday, September 28, 2010

Bruce Ratner's Latest Plan for Barclays Center/Atlantic Yards

Stephen Brown of The Brooklyn Paper wrote this article regarding Bruce Ratner's latest plan for the Atlantic Yards ~ Barclays Center project; (or as some would argue, his lack of a plan).

SHoP Architects/Bruce Ratner

The New Jersey Nets page on NBA.com

released THESE

renditions also.

Mike.BTB

Sunday, March 14, 2010

BROOKLYN Goes PRO...AGAIN!!

Let it be known throughout the land, BROOKLYN is a professional sports city AGAIN! On March 11th, 2010 the NBA Nets, currently owned by the Borough's own Bruce Ratner, broke ground in downtown to begin construction in earnest, on the Atlantic Yards project and Barclays Center where the Brooklyn Nets will call home. Yes Brooklyn! - We're going Pro....Again!

Brooklyn has not been home to a major professional sports team since the last out was recorded on that fateful day in September 1957 when the Dodgers played their last game at Ebbets Field. Walter O'Malley crushed the hearts of Brooklynites taking the team west. The Borough was never the same again. On the very site Mr. O'Malley lobbied the city to acquire in order to build a new home for the Bums stands a stark and rather insulting reminder to the narrow minded, shortsighted, aristocratic aloofness that was Robert Moses and this city administration's impotence in the face of Moses' centralized power. There is a shopping mall at that particular sight today. It is not my intention to minimize or mock the complex itself. No, rather, the mall is a welcome and necessary addition to the neighborhood. I have no issues with what exists there today in the absence of a Dodger park and the Bums playing in it. My only matter of discontent is the subtle exterior design of the mall which hints and suggests baseball type architecture and design. For those who suffer from "awareness", it is a little insulting. Maybe that's just me.

But hear me now! While all is NOT forgiven for loosing the Dodgers to the Left Coast, bringing the NBA's New Jersey Nets to Brooklyn is perhaps the single most best way to correct that horrible mistake born of arrogance 52 years ago, outside of bringing an MLB team back here to play. Across the street from the parcel the Dodgers desperately wanted, the mistake is corrected more than five decades later.

The birth of the Brooklyn Cyclones was a very special day to me and that team is now inter-woven into the fabric of my life. However minor those boys may be, they will always be treated like family. I believe, from one Brooklynite to another, we'll agree the Cyclones have enriched our lives. Not just by giving us all a common rooting interest again, but by bringing us all together as Brooklynites, family, friends, neighbors and lovers of our Borough in a manner not experienced around here since the Dodgers left. Indeed, the Cyclones have not only brought baseball back to Brooklyn, they gave us all a little pride back too.

Now Brooklyn, we get out Respect back. We're in the National mix. We are part of the conversation. We may officially begin counting down days till OUR CLOUT makes it's way over the Bayonne Bridge into Staten Island, over the Verrazano Bridge into Brooklyn, and parks in front of Barclays Center at Atlantic Avenue and Flatbush. Yes Brooklyn, we are PRO, again! Say it again and again.

WE DO'D IT BOYZ!! Fugheddaboudit!!

Head up, back straight, eyes wide with smiles gleaming - Walk tall and be proud Brooklyn.
There's a way for us Bums to represent ourselves.

From Canarsie to Cobble Hill; Bed-Stuy to Bensonhurst; Marine Park to Myrtle Avenue;

from Fulton to Flatlands or Bushwick to Bay Ridge...

Denizens of the Borough of Kings - WE are NETS!

Very soon there will be 5 players on a basketball court, be it here or on the road, representing US, wearing jerseys with the name of our hometown, BROOKLYN, across the front, for ALL across TV's landscape and arenas across America to witness and recognize.

This is an event which, beyond the conventional and obvious good it will bring to the community, brings along with it, Gravitas, Sizzle, National Identity (not that a Brooklynite has ever suffered from lack of such a thing), Cachet.... Name It!

In spite of the team's current record, what I am about to say is not
an exercise in stupidity nor is it dealing in hyperbole;

The Brooklyn Nets Brand

could become the most recognizable, marketable and powerful brand in the NBA and challenge for such title in the Four Big Sports moving forward in this still young new century.
I stress, in THIS century. I know my history. I'm no fool.

There isn't a guy from Brooklyn in every old war movie for nuthin!

Brooklyn is on the precipice of taking it's rightful place, again, as a capital of this Nation;
beckoning a day from a century ago. It may not be a field of green but Brooklyn, we're getting our
Court of Dreams!

To my neighbors in New Jersey. I'm not really sure what to say. The Nets have ping-ponged between us before. By "US" the truth would be to say Long Island, and all due respect to youz guyz out there. But here we are none-the-less. Long Island cheered Dr. J and some great ABA Championships! You New Jersey, more home to them than anyone thus far, should remain proud despite the move. As a matter of fact, I applaud the efforts of N.J.. I hope we continue to build upon your efforts.

C'Mon! Darryl Dawkins, Otis Birdsong, Buck Williams, Drazen Petrovic, Kenyon Martin, J-Kidd,

Back-to-back NBA FINALS appearances, - everyone I didn't mention and too many great games against the New York Knicks...PFFF! Long Island? New Jersey? Consider us the middle. We aren't stealing anything our neighbors in Long Island started, nor anything you in New Jersey did caring for them while they grew up. They will just be living here as adults. My sentiment is, Commack, Teaneck, the Armory or the Meadowlands, they our still OURS; Brooklyn, Long Island and New Jersey.

I am a Knicks fan; - Have been since 1975. I do not yet understand what the implications of being a Knicks fan and the Nets move to Brooklyn represents for me. In the city of bridges, I'll cross that one when I get to it. My personal conflict is a dilemma for another day. March 11, 2010 represents so much more for me though. Today is for my hometown of BROOKLYN and for anyone from here who wanted to root for a hometown team....again.

Ground-Breaking Day

Atlantic Yards and Barclays Center

Early morning views of the sight on Ground-Breaking Day

Ceremonies will take place in the white tent.

Beyonce recieved her usual camera time upon arrival.

We waited this long, so a few more moments didn't hurt.

Things finally got underway and Bruce Ratner stood at the podium triumphantly

after a six year Odyssey through..., well, what developers go through; Hell.

Nets' CEO Brett Yormark and part owner of the Nets, Jay-Z,

look on as developer and Nets majority owner Bruce Ratner thanks the list of people and efforts by them to make this day possible.

Then, it was time to shovel some dirt.

Here it is...the Big Photo Op!!

Bruce Ratner

Mayor Bloomberg

Gov. Paterson

B'klyn Borough President Markowitz

and Jay-Z

While this post is more of a celebration and less about details, I want to inform you the idea is to sell 80% of the team and arena to Mikhail Prokhorov (pending League approval). In turn, Ratner can afford to build the Atlantic Yards Complex. Jay-Z will retain his interest in the team. The Nets get a passionate basketball minded billionare owner, Ratner gets his project and financing and Brooklyn gets it's team. I love it when a plan comes together.