Barclays Center looked different when Brooklyn Nets fans arrived for Opening Night Wednesday, their first game since look on April 9. On one level, it’s part of yet another upgrade at the arena but on another level, it’s different. It’s not just brick-and-mortar improvement at entrances, better ingress and egress or a new club (or two.) It’s about art and cloud technology and an immersive in-house experience to pull fans away from the comfort of their own home and into the Nets own space.
Some of
it is temporary, some is permanent but all of it was quite visible … and visual.
The most noteworthy addition is temporary, but will make appearances throughout the season, but it certainly qualifies as art. The Nets 60th anniversary court, dressed up in ABA colors, was striking and it included a feature that blew a lot of minds. Around the edges of the court were the names of all 575 players who ever donned one of the Nets many uniforms going back to the New Jersey Americans. There was Brook Lopez who holds the career record for points as well as Wenyen Gabriel who played one game as a COVID replacement.
It has become a point of franchise pride…
…and a point of nostalgia for some of the players who are seeing their names as part of history…
The art doesn’t end at the edges of the court. There was other more — and more high-end — art from well-known New York artists, like Sarah Sze’s commissioned “WAVE” an airborne sculpture featuring 550 LED panels. Each custom made panel holds images of birds in flight, rushing water, trees, shifting skies and passing Brooklyn cityscapes moving across the ceiling at the main arena entrance like a wave…
(Sze is most famous for an earlier airborne sculpture, “Shorter than the Day,” at LaGuardia Airport.)
There are also pieces as well from New York artists Rashid Johnson and Mark Bradford at the American Express Card Member Entrance, all part of Barclays Center’s Brooklyn Art Encounters, a Clara Wu Tsai initiative.
All of that art, whether on the court, airborne above the atrium or hanging on the walls around the building is just one part of the latest upgrade at the arena, the third year of the five year, $150 million renovation process that’s focused on everything from the artwork to new club spaces. The brick-and-mortar aspect includes a reimagined main entrance and box office, an enhanced event level club, a new American Express Card Member Entrance and Amex Lounge, and the first major upgrade to Barclays Center’s control room since the arena opened in 2012.
The redesigned atrium, through which 70% of Barclays customers enter the venue, is typical of what’s been driving the process. A bank of ticket windows is less needed in the era of digital tickets. Better flow gets people to their seats quicker (and gives them more time to eat or shop for merchandise.) The renovated area still has separate ticket-resolution and guest-services counters and will maintain traditional ticketing windows out on Flatbush Avenue.
There are also new, or as Brooklyn Sports & Entertainment calls it — “reimagined,” clubs at both the entrance and suite levels. What had been the Calvin Klein and Qatar Airways space is now a 9,000-square foot “hospitality experience” whose theme is the history of DUMBO, the once industrial but now residential area not far from Barclays.
At the suite level where the 40/40 club was once found is the new Amex Lounge is a private lounge space for American Express Platinum Card and Centurion card holders. Eligible card members with event tickets may enter the lounge with a guest (up to three guests for Centurion members.) The club offers views of both Flatbush Avenue and Sze’s WAVE from above.
“At Barclays Center, we are shaping the future of arena hospitality. From street to seat, our focus is on making every moment feel intentional and memorable,” said Shanon Ferguson, Chief Hospitality Officer at Brooklyn Sports & Entertainment. “Whether fans are arriving through the Main Atrium, enjoying a premium space or experiencing a game or event from the upper concourse, our investments create more elevated and connected journeys.”
Indeed, it’s no secret among arena managers their buildings have to distinguish themselves whether it’s with art, food and wine, even personalized collectibles. Fans have access to big screen TVs, studio-level audio, top of the line production techniques, not to mention well-stocked refrigerators at home, places like Barclays are going to have to distinguish themselves,
Then there’s the next level and maybe the most fascinating change, the introduction of AI/Cloud technology which also made its debut Wednesday at Barclays. Alibaba, which is headed by principal owner Joe Tsai, was named the official “cloud/technology” partnerof Brooklyn Sports & Entertainment a month ago. (There’s no mention of A.I. in the press release, for whatever reason, but artificial intelligence plays a big part in things.)
Alibaba’s vast sports technology experience , which includes being the Olympics A.I. Cloud partner, is powering a Real-Time 360º Replay system at Barclays Center, bringing faster and more innovative replays to live jumbotrons, social and broadcast media. We got a hint of what it could look like last year at the NBA China Games where the technology was unveiled.
Then. a real time look this week at Barclays when it was used to offer a look at Mikel Brown Jr.’s passing skills…
This apparently is just the beginning of how cloud technology is going to effect the fan experience at Nets and Liberty games. Alizila, Alibaba’s news site wrote this weekend about about something called the “Nets Figure Lab” which can be found on the concourse at Barclays. It offers personalized momentos, etc, for fans.
Fans can create a personalized collectible featuring themselves dressed in a full Nets uniform, presented as a holographic card. The experience highlights different eras of Nets basketball, along with cultural celebrations and other themed moments throughout the team’s 60th anniversary season, giving fans a new way to engage with the franchise’s history and create a personalized memento of their time at Barclays Center.
Sam Zussman, the CEO of Brooklyn Sports & Entertainment, has said he expects the partnership with Alibaba will become a testbed for immersive fan experience in the coming months. Across the season, Alibaba and the Nets will use the partnership to test and scale innovative technology as well as marketing applications on and beyond game day, “enhancing fan experiences.” No details yet.
The cost of all of it — the renovation, the court and fine art, the cloud technology — hasn’t been revealed and although the arena also hosts the New York Liberty, concerts, community events, etc. it is primarily the home of the Brooklyn Nets and if ownership and management really want to give it a truly new look, it’ll have to make sure the NBA team provides the final attraction: WINS!
Nothing please fans more than them.
