Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park Report

In a required document aimed at bondholders, the Barclays Center operating company, Brooklyn Events Center, recently reported, for the third quarter of this calendar year and the first quarter of the new fiscal year, $5.4 million in suite and sponsor installments, and $40.3 million in ticket sales. That's a total of $45.7 million in cash receipts. How does that compare to past results? Well, in Q1 of FY 2024, the period of July through September of 2023, ArenaCo reported $4.8 million in suite and sponsor installments, and nearly $51 million in ticket sales, for a total of  $55.8 million. That's an 18% drop. So suite and sponsor revenues are up, perhaps--and this is total speculation--because of the new clubs (The Row and The Key) that have been carved out of former suite space, and maybe also because the success of the New York Liberty has driven new sponsorships. Ticket sales down But ticket sales are down somewhat, though still nearly double the figure two years earlier. In ...

This is the fourth of five articles about the Sept. 26  meeting  of the advisory Atlantic Yards Community Development Corporation (AY CDC). The  first  concerned BSE Global's plans to use the closed Modell's store for a youth basketball program.  The  second  concerned the expected entry of Related Companies and the obligations for affordable housing.  The third concerned plans for a giant, two-tower project at Site 5.  The  fifth  concerned plans for a Quality of Life meeting. In my coverage of plans for Site 5, catercorner to the arena, I noted that the presentation to the AY CDC by Empire State Development (ESD), the state authority that oversees/shepherds the project, used loaded language to describe plans in a document called Exhibit K, part of the parcel's interim lease.  The giant two-tower project at Site 5 would involving transferring bulk from the flagship tower (B1, aka "Miss Brooklyn") once planned to loom over th...

Following up on my coverage yesterday ( link ) about a consultant's dubious report on the concert market, I took a look at Pollstar's 2023 ranking of ticket sales for the world's busiest arenas. Notably, the Barclays Center showed a significant drop, to 25th worldwide, with 726,548 tickets sold, even trailing the Prudential Center in Newark. Madison Square Garden sold 1,985,832 tickets. Barclays from 2013-18 had maintained a top-ten position in Pollstar's rankings (based on ticket sales) slipped to 11th in 2019, rose to 5th in the truncated 2020 calendar, and fell to 26th in the Covid-shortened 2021 calendar. Note that in 2019, when Pollstar reported on both ticket sales and gross revenue in the same chart, Barclays ranked 11th in volume but, by my count, third in revenue. In 2020, it was fifth in tickets and third in revenue. In 2021, it was 26th in tickets and 24th in revenue. Revenue is different That said, higher ticket prices meant both Prudential and Barclays ra...

OK, it wasn't on the Barclays Center's July community calendar circulated to residents ( link ), or otherwise publicly announced with any clarity. But on Friday July 26, part of Ticketmaster Plaza, as shown in the photos and video below, was truncated to accommodate a New York Liberty Summer Camp event, "presented by Ticketmaster," as part of the WNBA team's Summerpalooza . No, it didn't restrict people walking to the subway entrance on the plaza, but it did favor private use of quasi-public space. As posted on Twitter/X  by WNBA writer Sara Gamelli: The New York Liberty host an all-girls tournament Barclays Center Plaza on July 26. The camp will include a round robin style of basketball and will showcase skills learned throughout the week. Also- live music from DJ Ty Michelle and an awards ceremony,  #wnba Photos by Norman Oder Fox5NY sports reporter Jennifer X. Williams  posted : Caught up Liberty CEO Keia Clarke about SUMMERPALOOZA — community events the te...

A new federal lawsuit against Ticketmaster and concert promoter Live Nation could lead to lowered ticket costs for fans at venues like the Barclays Center, as well as increased revenues for those venues. Let's back up. In early 2023, the New York Times broke the news ( link ) that the Barclays Center, barely 15 months into a 7-year contract with ticketing partner SeatGeek, would return to its original one, Ticketmaster, the industry leader. Less than two weeks later, a Senate hearing  focused on the reputed ill effects of Ticketmaster's huge market share, given its shared ownership with the concert promoter Live Nation. At the hearing, SeatGeek CEO Jack Groetzinger revealed that Barclays had sought to keep SeatGeek--an upstart company that prides itself on innovations like 3-D views from seats and a mobile-first approach--to ticket Brooklyn Nets games while returning to Ticketmaster for concerts, a strong suggestion that they believed restoring the connection was needed to book...

A recent report from the Center for an Urban Future,  Paying for the Growing Needs of NYC’s Parks: 20 Fresh Ideas to Fund Parks and Open Spaces , offers some intriguing solutions "to pay for parks' growing maintenance and infrastructure needs, while investing in new parks and open spaces in the places they’re needed the most." The report, by John Surico and Eli Dvorkin, notes that the Department of Parks and Recreation’s headcount has fallen 38 percent since the mid-1970s, while budget cuts enacted in 2020 led parks conditions to deteriorate to the worst levels in 20 years. The cost of major maintenance needs last year exceeded $58.9 million, with just 16 percent of those needs being met. Now there's at least $685 million "in capital needs just to bring existing infrastructure up to a state of good repair, with just 30 percent of those needs either underway or planned over the next three years." Beyond that, "more than 16 percent of New York City reside...

According to the latest financial disclosures to bondholders from the Barclays Center operating company, the arena company still isn't earning enough profit to cover construction bonds--but a significant uptick in ticket sales may point to a better future. The arena company made an $12.5 million profit, according to unaudited (and thus unofficial) statements, in the first six months of calendar year 2023, according to financial documents recently disclosed to bondholders. See screenshot above right. That's well less than the $18 million reported during the first half of calendar year 2022. Then again, the Brooklyn Nets no longer had superstars. The fiscal year ends June 30. That first-half result, coupled with nearly $4 million in profit  (see below left) in the first half of the 2023 fiscal year, won't be enough to cover the arena's construction debt in FY 2023, which ended June 30. (In the similar period a year earlier, the arena barely broke even.)  So the combined ...

OK, add another event--a plaza event--to the August 2023 Barclays Center calendar : a party for Nets fans this Sunday, Aug. 20, from 11 am to 4 pm. From a Brooklyn Nets email:  In anticipation of the upcoming season, on August 20th, Ticketmaster and the Nets are hosting a party on Ticketmaster Plaza outside Barclays Center! The day will be filled with appearances by the Nets Rookie Class, free live performances by talent such as Lola Brooke and DJ Funk Flex, giveaways, and food that celebrates Brooklyn. Note that, as I've written, its "our plaza" when the arena doesn't want to highlight the sponsor; otherwise, since the arena opening in September 2012, it's been New York Daily News Plaza , Resorts World Casino NYC Plaza , SeatGeek Plaza , and now Ticketmaster Plaza.

New photos July 6 by Norman Oder When in January news emerged that the Barclays Center was dropping ticketing company SeatGeek for industry heavyweight Ticketmaster, that meant that, eventually, the signage designating SeatGeek Plaza would have to change. And it has. As shown in the image at right, the plaza is now branded Ticketmaster Plaza or, using the typeface preferred, ticketmaster PLAZA. (I'm not sure when the name appeared; I took the photos July 6.) Previous sponsor. Photo Oct. 12, 2021 Given the length of the name, it's a little longer than SeatGeek (at left), though the latter had the advantage of greater symmetry. Changing names Since the arena opened in September 2012, the plaza has been branded as, respectively, Daily News Plaza, Resorts World Casino NYC Plaza, SeatGeek Plaza, and now Ticketmaster Plaza. I'm not sure many locals notice or care much, but it does reinforce branding for ticketholders and others considering a visit to the arena. When the arena co...