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Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park infographics: what's built/what's coming/what's missing, who's responsible, + project FAQ/timeline (pinned post)

So, where would they put the practice facility? And would the team bond with Brooklyn?

SportsBusiness Journal (via NetsDaily and NoLandGrab) reports that New Jersey Nets CEO Brett Yormark, who once had to help promote a Frank Gehry project that promised to look like Brooklyn (sort of), now is pitching an arena that is "going to evoke Brooklyn like never before.”

Except, as NLG's Eric McClure reminded us, "nothing evokes Brooklyn like a knock-off of an Indianapolis design knocked off from another Indianapolis design." 

As for suite levels called the Brownstones and the Lofts, NLG suggests, "In memory of the brownstones and lofts Ratner is tearing down?"

The practice facility

With some lack of precision, the newspaper reports:
In addition, the Nets are building a practice facility next to Barclays Center, on the corner of Flatbush and Atlantic streets, something that was not part of Gehry’s design. The add-on ties in with the team’s effort to form a close bond with Brooklyn’s 2.5 million residents by having the players spend more time on-site, Yormark said.

Well, Flatbush and Atlantic are avenues, not streets. If the practice facility does occupy that wedge area, then it could block any plans for the once-promised Urban Room. (Maybe they could call it the Urban Room.)

Attached practice courts are nothing new in NBA arenas. They're included in the Conseco Fieldhouse in Indianapolis (model for Brooklyn), the TimeWarner Center in Charlotte, and the Verizon Center in DC, among others.

The bonding effect

But would it really help the team bond with Brooklynites when players are so fungible? Remember, State Senator Marty Golden declared, according to a 4/14/06 Courier-Life article:
“It is the chance of a lifetime to have stars such as Jason Kidd, Vince Carter, Richard Jefferson and all the others have their home court based in Brooklyn.”

When Kidd got traded, Jefferson was put in the spotlight. When Jefferson was traded, Devin Harris and Vince Carter moved up. Should the Nets move, many more roster changes will have occurred.

Comments

  1. Pure speculation that it would replace the Urban Room. Lots of possibilities inside and outside the footprint.

    You know that.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Duh. That's why I said there was a lack of precision.

    Bobbo aka NetIncome is the guy who claimed, "The city is interested in doing this–and continues to support this–because it believes it needs a new central business district."
    http://www.netsdaily.com/?p=8137#comment-54339

    AY doesn't promise to become a CBD. It would have one office tower. It's on hold.

    No wonder Bobbo/Net Income is afraid to sign his name to his work.

    ReplyDelete

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