Barclays Center signs deal with LIU to revive Brooklyn Paramount; seems to compete with revamped Kings Theatre

Billboard had some news yesterday, Exclusive: Barclays Inks Booking Deal at Brooklyn's Paramount

Barclays Center affiliate Brooklyn Sports & Entertainment has formed an alliance with Long Island University, in which BS&E will bring entertainment back to the historic Brooklyn Paramount Theatre.
"This collaboration will bring the LIU Brooklyn Paramount Theatre back to life," says LIU president Kimberly R. Cline, "creating endless opportunities for LIU and our neighbors."
Adds Barclays Center CEO Brett Yormark, "We felt that this would be the next step in the evolution of our partnership with LIU, that we should work collaboratively and start bringing some great content there, not only for the student body, but also for the public."
The move will resurrect the 1,500-capacity venue, which opened in 1928, as an active entertainment venue for the first time in more than half a century, with the BS&E team focusing on booking emerging talent in a variety of areas, including music, comedy, and boxing. Barclays Center CEO Brett Yormark tells Billboard that the Paramount represents an opportunity in the growing BS&E portfolio, and will begin hosting shows as soon as this quarter.

It's a heck of a space, and a well-located directly over the Manhattan Bridge at the DeKalb Avenue subway station. The former movie theater hosted jazz and rock shows, and was used as a gym by LIU from 1960-2005.

As Billboard points out, other venues that compete in the general space are the Brooklyn Academy of Music (though it's far less pop-oriented), Brooklyn Bowl, and the just-renovated 3,000-seat Kings Theatre (formerly Loew's Kings) in Flatbush.

The reopening of the Paramount seems to directly compete with the Kings--though it has far less space, it likely can capture some acts that can make more money from higher prices at a better located venue.

LIU says the Paramount can offer benefits to its students--the same thing they said about Barclays. Then again, the once promised "Barclays Center Community Platform" involving LIU never came to fruition.

Barclays goes country

Crain's reports:

Barclays Center has formed a three-year partnership with local country station Nash FM 94.7 to bring at least two concerts a year to the Brooklyn arena. The deal comes after the arena's first country-music show—a Luke Bryan concert in September—sold out.

Then again, Yormark is no longer apparently spewing nonsense like, "We have to educate [country artists] about the fact that there are 385 country bars in the borough."