This past weekend, I had the chance to shoot down from Boston to NYC. In between MegaBus rides and hipster bros feeling the live bar music a little too much, I was able to catch Friday night's Rockets-Nets game at Brooklyn's brand new Barclays Center. If you're an arena nerd like me, after the jump are the random thoughts I jotted in my mental notebook...
Barclays Center
Positives
- Barclays Center definitely has a wow factor when you take the escalator out of the subway station and are met with the main entrance's huge awning and unique video board that circles inside of it. It's a really cool atmosphere and definitely adds a layer of excitement as you approach the main doors.
- Once inside you realize just how seriously owner Mikhail Prokhorov took the Nets new black and white color scheme. Everything is shades of grey in this place, except for the stark blue Barclays Center signage. It's a color scheme we're obviously fond of here at The Bottom Up.
- The arena uses a cool-looking theater lighting system, so only the court is illuminated during the Nets games. It puts the focus on the basketball and further compliments the color-scheme and "this event is bigger than your life" feel to the arena.
- There were a number of little touches I appreciated that sent a clear message to fans: Hey, this is a big time event, but don't forget that we're here to watch basketball and not just stare at Jay-Z. Chief among these details was the importance placed on not leaving your seat/returning to your seat during play. Sometimes I worry that the NBA fan experience will shift so far to the ADHD entertainment end of the spectrum that we'll forget why we even bought tickets in the first place. I'm glad Brooklyn isn't forgetting.
- The amenities are also top notch--good eats to be had at every turn, and a multitude of really cool in-arena bars. One of these bars even opens up to the giant HD scoreboard, which makes it an excellent spot to spend a few minutes grabbing a drink with friends, but not miss out on the crowd noise and the game.
Negatives
- While the theater lighting looks really cool, I'm not exactly sold on it in practice for the fans or the players.
- First, good god it's annoying to sit in pitch blackness for three hours. An usher handed me a free program when I entered the arena--this is apparently part of some cruel charade designed to slap mother nature in the face. I have the eyes of a bionic man and it was still way too dark in the stands for me to pour through the program. Also, the rows in the upper bowl are extremely narrow (think Pittsburgh's old Igloo). It's annoying enough to have to tightrope my way out of a row without accidentally performing a lap dance--to have to do it in pitch black was all the more precarious.
- Second, the Nets claim the lighting is designed to produce an added home court advantage. In theory, their players will adjust to the lighting but the opposing players will be in Dallas by the time they wrap their brains around how a spotlight functions. This is dumb. The actual effect it has is minimizing crowd noise and participation in the game. The players can't see us...hell, we can't see us! The opposing team gets to play in front of a faceless blob, visible only by the faintly glowing screens of their iPhones. I felt disconnected from the game, as if I was watching it on a life-sized TV, rather than experiencing it in unison with 17,732 other fans. In my head, this is one of those ideas that seems cool on paper and definitely *looks* cool, but beneath that initial reaction I think it's a detriment to the experience. We're not at a theater, we're at a basketball game. Don't throw up barriers to fan participation, Prokhorov. (Example: I'm sure Illyasova is super intimidated by the hordes of fans he can't actually see or hear.)
Overall
- I had a really great time at Barclays Center. It's definitely something to see, and it's honestly one of the coolest sporting events I've ever been to. For a single game experience, it's probably up there with any in American professional sports. But, I worry that as a season ticket holder I'd grow tired of the darkness. I guess at least there'd always be a Cuban sangwich waiting for me in the concourse.
A-
Note: The Rockets won. I have a man crush on their whole roster right now, and their selflessness as a team was apparent all night. Make sure you check them out if they're on national TV, or if you have NBA League Pass.
No comments:
Post a Comment