Barclays Center Opens, Brings People, $, To Brooklyn

Brooklyn, NY has been transformed forever by the opening of the $1 Billion Barclays Center, home of the newly relocated New Jersey Nets, now called The Brooklyn Nets.

In the video below, New York Times Video Journalist (as opposed to video bloggers like me) Zena Barakat teamed with Anna Belle Peevey and Samantha Stark to produce this very cool, and fun-to-watch video of how the new neighbor is impacting the area of Brooklyn known as Atlantic Av – Pacific Av on its opening night, Friday, Sep 29, 2012.

I present the video first because I’m interested in stadium and arena development, and second because it’s a good model for how a new arena will impact either San Francisco’s South Beach Area, or Oakland’s Downtown, given where a Warriors Arena eventually winds up.
(For those of you who say the Warriors are headed to Pier 30-32 in San Francisco, I’m telling you that deal’s not going to work.)

The only problem with the New York Times video is that Zena and her peeps forget that because the arena is new, it’s attracting a new set of people to it who are not familiar with the area around Barclays Center. Thus, they’re not likely to venture off and go to the businesses around it, unless they’re compelled to do so via marketing and time. In other words, give the arena a year to settle in, and then we can properly evaluate its economic impact.

Another video, by Charles Ray on YouTube, gives you a good idea of what Barclays Center looks like on the inside, on the same night that Zena and her team were outside of it, talking with people around the area. That video comes after the NY Times video.

Here’s the NY Times video:

Here’s the Charles Ray video:

Stay tuned.