Ultra-famous architect Frank Gehry couldn't get his version of Brooklyn's future NBA arena built due to an incredible pricetag, but Bruce Ratner didn't give up. He just got cheaper. The result -- a new, more modest design for the planned Barclays Center -- is what you see above. (See more at Curbed.)
Artist renderings always spread eyes wide, but there's a particularly dark backdrop here: within the next few months, courts will decide whether Barclays can be built, and financiers will decide whether to fund the project. All the while, the Nets may be losing $30 million a year, with every season in East Rutherford sucking the life out of the franchise's ledger.
Nets Daily had a simply incredible investigation of the Nets' finances last week -- it's must-read material if you're interested in the state of one of the league's most troubled teams. There's a lot of grist, which in this situation provides a lot of uncertainty, which in this climate provides a lot of doom. For his part, Ratner (the team's owner and the developer of Atlantic Yards) has never wavered from his plan to take the Nets to Brooklyn, forcibly rejecting cries from Newark (which has a new arena of its own) and insisting the Nets are not for sale.
No one knows when or if Barclays will be built. It's been a real war of attrition. While you'd think the unveiling of an arena design would mark a milestone, the reality that every passing day in New Jersey damages the team a little more has to remain worrisome for Brooklyn Nets boosters. In that sense, today isn't as much a call for celebration as another occasion for worry. For the opponents, of course, the opposite is true: the renderings aren't so worrisome, unless you were banking on Ratner's egotism disallowing a cheaper (but still damn expensive) design.
