History of Brooklyn’s Barclays Center: Why It Was Built and Who Owns It Today

Barclays Center opened to the public on September 28, 2012, at Atlantic and Flatbush avenues in Brooklyn. It was built as the arena centerpiece of the Atlantic Yards redevelopment project and as the new home of the Nets, returning major-league professional sports to Brooklyn for the first time since the Dodgers left for Los Angeles after the 1957 baseball season. Today, Barclays Center is home to the NBA’s Brooklyn Nets and the WNBA’s New York Liberty.

The arena’s history is much more complicated than simply building a basketball court in Brooklyn. The project took years of lawsuits, eminent-domain battles, financing changes, architectural redesigns, a recession, changing ownership, and intense neighborhood opposition before the doors finally opened. More than a decade later, Barclays Center has become a permanent part of Brooklyn’s sports and entertainment landscape, even as the larger development around it continues to evolve.

Feature Photo: Leonard Zhukovsky / Shutterstock.com

Why Was Barclays Center Built?

Real estate developer Bruce Ratner wanted to move the New Jersey Nets to Brooklyn and make a new arena the centerpiece of a much larger mixed-use development. Forest City Ratner publicly announced the Atlantic Yards redevelopment proposal in December 2003. Ratner and his partners then reached a deal to buy the Nets for approximately $300 million in 2004, and the NBA approved the sale that August.

The plan was ambitious. It called for an arena, residential and commercial buildings, improved transit facilities, a rebuilt Long Island Rail Road yard, and public open space on a roughly 22-acre site near the intersection of Atlantic and Flatbush avenues.

The arena also carried enormous symbolic importance. Brooklyn had not been home to a team in one of the major professional sports leagues since the Brooklyn Dodgers departed for Los Angeles after the 1957 season. Bringing the Nets to Brooklyn would restore that part of the borough’s identity.

What Was on the Barclays Center Site Before the Arena?

A large portion of the Atlantic Yards project involved the Vanderbilt Yard, an active Long Island Rail Road rail yard. The surrounding project area also included privately owned homes, businesses, industrial properties, and other parcels.

That mix of public rail infrastructure and private property became one of the central issues in the long fight over Atlantic Yards. The project could not be constructed as proposed without assembling property across the site, and New York State ultimately used eminent domain to acquire privately owned parcels.

Why Was Atlantic Yards So Controversial?

Opposition to Atlantic Yards focused on several issues, including eminent domain, public subsidies, the size and density of the planned development, traffic, environmental impacts, neighborhood displacement, and the role of a private developer in a state-backed redevelopment project.

Residents and business owners challenged the use of eminent domain in court. In November 2009, the New York Court of Appeals upheld the state’s condemnation authority for the project, concluding that the planned redevelopment satisfied the public-use requirements of the New York State Constitution.

The legal decision did not end the controversy. For many opponents, Barclays Center became a symbol of the power large development projects can exercise over existing neighborhoods. For supporters, it represented a major investment in Brooklyn, a new arena, housing, jobs, and improvements to an important transportation hub.

How the Great Recession Changed the Arena

The financial crisis of 2008 and the Great Recession arrived while the project was already struggling through delays and legal challenges. Financing became more difficult, the timetable stretched out, and the original development plans were scaled back and revised.

Architect Frank Gehry had produced the early master plan and arena concepts for Atlantic Yards, but the arena that was ultimately constructed was different. The completed Barclays Center was designed by AECOM, formerly Ellerbe Becket, together with SHoP Architects.

The final building became known for its sweeping weathered-steel exterior and large entrance canopy at the corner of Atlantic and Flatbush avenues. The architecture gave the arena a distinctive identity while reducing the cost and complexity of the earlier concept.

When Did Construction of Barclays Center Begin?

Groundbreaking for Barclays Center took place on March 11, 2010. By then, years had passed since the original Brooklyn arena proposal, and the project had survived multiple legal and financial obstacles.

The financing structure was also unusual. The arena property became part of a public ownership arrangement involving Empire State Development and the Brooklyn Arena Local Development Corporation. Tax-exempt PILOT revenue bonds helped finance construction, while Brooklyn Events Center LLC held the arena lease and private operators controlled the event business.

Mikhail Prokhorov Buys Control of the Nets

The original article stated that Mikhail Prokhorov bought the Nets for $200 million in September 2009. The transaction was more complicated than that.

Prokhorov reached an agreement with the Ratner ownership group in 2009, but the NBA did not approve his controlling interest until May 11, 2010. The transaction closed the following day. Entities controlled by Prokhorov invested approximately $223 million and received an 80 percent interest in the Nets, a 45 percent interest in the arena company, and certain rights connected with the larger Atlantic Yards development.

Prokhorov therefore became the controlling owner of the basketball team while Bruce Ratner and Forest City continued to play central roles in developing the arena.

When Did Barclays Center Open?

Barclays Center was formally unveiled during a ribbon-cutting ceremony on September 21, 2012. It opened to the public on September 28, 2012, with the first of eight sold-out concerts by Brooklyn-born rapper Jay-Z.

The Jay-Z concerts were an appropriate opening for a building that was trying to identify itself immediately with Brooklyn rather than function as a generic sports arena.

Photo: Dariusz Gryczka / Shutterstock.com

The Nets’ originally scheduled regular-season home opener against the New York Knicks on November 1, 2012, was postponed because of the transportation and safety problems caused by Hurricane Sandy. The Brooklyn Nets instead played their first regular-season home game at Barclays Center on November 3, defeating the Toronto Raptors 107-100.

Brooklyn Gets a Major Professional Sports Team Again

The arrival of the Nets mattered beyond basketball. The Brooklyn Dodgers had played their final season at Ebbets Field in 1957 before moving to Los Angeles. For more than half a century afterward, Brooklyn had no team in Major League Baseball, the National Football League, the National Basketball Association, or the National Hockey League.

When the Nets became the Brooklyn Nets for the 2012-13 NBA season, the borough once again had a major-league professional team carrying the Brooklyn name.

Barclays Center even incorporated a physical connection to the Dodgers era. An original flagpole from Ebbets Field was installed outside the arena and commemorated in 2012, linking Brooklyn’s new sports home with its most famous lost ballpark.

How Many People Does Barclays Center Hold?

Barclays Center’s current official capacity is 17,553 seats for basketball and up to approximately 19,000 for concerts and other events, depending on the event configuration.

The capacity has changed slightly over the years as seating layouts and premium areas have been renovated. That is why older sources can show different basketball-capacity figures.

Who Owns Barclays Center?

The ownership structure is more complicated than simply naming one person. The arena premises are held through a public structure involving New York State’s Empire State Development and the Brooklyn Arena Local Development Corporation, which serves as landlord under the arena lease.

Private operating rights are held through Brooklyn Events Center LLC and Brooklyn Sports & Entertainment, the organization formerly known as BSE Global. Joe Tsai completed his acquisition of full ownership of the Nets and the Barclays Center operating interests from Mikhail Prokhorov in September 2019 and became chairman of Barclays Center.

In 2024, Joe Tsai, Clara Wu Tsai, and their family agreed to sell a 15 percent minority stake in BSE Global, now Brooklyn Sports & Entertainment, to Julia Koch and her family. The Tsai family retained control, while the Koch family became a minority investor. As of 2026, Joe Tsai remains chairman and the controlling sports executive associated with the arena and the Nets.

Why Is It Called Barclays Center?

The arena is named for Barclays, the British banking and financial-services company. The naming-rights agreement was reached in January 2007, years before construction of the final arena was complete.

The agreement gave Barclays naming, branding, sponsorship, promotional, hospitality, and other rights connected with the arena. The financial terms were renegotiated as the project changed during the recession, but the Barclays name remained when the building opened in 2012 and continues to identify the arena today.

Barclays Center and the Atlantic Avenue Transportation Hub

One of the great advantages of Barclays Center is its location. The arena sits beside the Atlantic Avenue-Barclays Center subway complex and across from the Long Island Rail Road’s Atlantic Terminal, giving visitors access to numerous subway lines, commuter rail, and bus routes.

Unlike many suburban arenas surrounded by enormous parking fields, Barclays Center was designed around mass transit. That decision reflects both the physical limits of the site and the extraordinary level of public transportation available at Atlantic and Flatbush avenues.

The New York Islanders at Barclays Center

The New York Islanders announced in 2012 that they would move from Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum to Barclays Center beginning with the 2015-16 NHL season. The move was not made because Barclays Center had greater hockey capacity. In fact, the arena’s hockey configuration was awkward from the beginning because the building had been designed primarily for basketball.

The hockey rink was offset within the seating bowl, creating obstructed and poor sightlines in some sections. The arrangement also reduced hockey capacity and never felt like a natural long-term home for the Islanders.

The Islanders began splitting games between Barclays Center and Nassau Coliseum during the 2018-19 season. By the 2020-21 season, they were back at Nassau Coliseum full time before moving into the purpose-built UBS Arena at Belmont Park in 2021.

The New York Liberty Make Barclays Center Home

Joe Tsai acquired the WNBA’s New York Liberty in 2019, and the team announced that Barclays Center would become its home venue beginning with the 2020 season.

The COVID-19 pandemic changed that plan because the 2020 WNBA season was played in a league bubble in Florida. The Liberty therefore played their first full season at Barclays Center in 2021.

The move eventually became one of the great success stories in the building’s history. The Liberty developed a large Brooklyn fan base and won the franchise’s first WNBA championship in 2024, bringing a professional basketball championship to a team based at Barclays Center.

Basketball, Boxing, Wrestling, and Concerts

Basketball remains at the heart of Barclays Center, but the arena has always been designed as a year-round entertainment venue. It has hosted NBA Drafts, college basketball tournaments, NBA All-Star Weekend events, boxing, mixed martial arts, professional wrestling, award shows, family entertainment, and major concerts.

Barclays Center quickly established itself as one of the busiest concert arenas in the country. The building’s location, transit access, and Brooklyn identity helped it compete for events that previously might have been associated almost automatically with Manhattan.

Art Inside Barclays Center

Barclays Center has also made contemporary art part of the building’s identity. One of the original commissions was Brooklyn artist José Parlá’s Diary of Brooklyn, a 70-foot-long mural created for the Dean Street entrance and unveiled in January 2013.

The work incorporates names, phrases, lyrics, and references drawn from Brooklyn’s cultural life. Rather than treating art as an afterthought, the arena has continued commissioning work for its public spaces.

That effort has expanded into the Brooklyn Art Encounters program, which brings contemporary art into the arena, its digital displays, and the public plaza.

What Happened to Atlantic Yards and Pacific Park?

Barclays Center was only the first major completed piece of the much larger Atlantic Yards project. The development was rebranded as Pacific Park Brooklyn in 2014 after Greenland USA entered a partnership with Forest City.

The original vision called for 16 residential and commercial buildings, thousands of apartments, affordable housing, major rail-yard work, and eight acres of publicly accessible open space in addition to the arena.

The arena was completed, along with several residential buildings and transportation improvements, but the larger development has proceeded much more slowly than originally promised. Empire State Development continues to refer to the public project as Atlantic Yards while Pacific Park remains the commercial development name.

Barclays Center Is Being Remade Again

Barclays Center is no longer a new building, and its operators are investing heavily in keeping it competitive. Brooklyn Sports & Entertainment has announced a multi-year program of renovations and upgrades to premium spaces, public areas, technology, hospitality, and the main entrance experience.

In April 2026, the organization described the work as part of a $150 million, five-year investment in the arena. New improvements scheduled for the fall of 2026 include a redesigned main atrium and box office, additional hospitality areas, and new contemporary art installations.

That ongoing investment is an important part of the current Barclays Center story. The building that helped transform Atlantic and Flatbush avenues in 2012 is now being redesigned for its second decade.

The Barclays Center Legacy in Brooklyn

Barclays Center changed Brooklyn. Whether someone views Atlantic Yards as an extraordinary redevelopment achievement or as a warning about eminent domain, public subsidies, displacement, and megaproject promises, the arena became a major turning point in the borough’s modern history.

It returned a major professional sports team to Brooklyn, created a new national entertainment destination outside Manhattan, and became one of the most recognizable landmarks along Atlantic Avenue.

At the same time, the unfinished history of the larger Atlantic Yards and Pacific Park development remains connected to the arena. Barclays Center cannot be separated from the legal battles, neighborhood opposition, political decisions, and real-estate ambitions that made it possible.

That complicated history is what makes Barclays Center more interesting than a simple story about basketball. It is a story about Brooklyn itself and how dramatically the borough changed during the first decades of the twenty-first century.

More Brooklyn Sports and New York Arena History

Readers interested in the teams and arenas connected to this story can continue with our complete history of the Brooklyn Nets, our history of Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum, and our history of Madison Square Garden.

Sources

Barclays Center, About Us

Empire State Development, Atlantic Yards Redevelopment Project

New York Court of Appeals, Matter of Goldstein v. New York State Urban Development Corporation

NBA Communications, Prokhorov Acquisition Approval

New York Liberty, 2021 Barclays Center Schedule

Barclays Center History at a Glance

Updated August 7, 2026.

History of Brooklyn’s Barclays Center: Why It Was Built and Who Owns It Today article published on ClassicNewYorkHistory.com © 2026