THE BALLOON MAN

A whole new arena
Brooklyn's O'Malley curse begins to end in 60 days

 

Debbie Egan-Chin/New York Daily News
Real estate developer Bruce Ratner stands outside the under-construction Barclays Center which will open in September and be home to the Brooklyn Nets.
www.nydailynews
August 1, 2012
Sixty.
 “That’s how many days till the curse of Walter O'Malley starts to lift from Brooklyn,” says Bruce Ratner, the tenacious builder and CEO of Forest City Ratner.
 He was standing on Monday under the swooping oculus of the under-construction entrance to his 90% complete Barclays Center sports arena.
This intersection where Atlantic meets Flatbush will be the borough’s Hollywood and Vine in the 21st century.
“Sixty days and we have a sports arena again in Brooklyn,” Ratner says, as steelworkers weld the canopy behind him in a shower of blue sparks. “It'll be 60 days till Jay-Z’s opening night of eight sold-out shows at the arena. And 93 days until the Brooklyn Nets become the first professional sports team to play in Brooklyn since O’Malley took the Brooklyn Dodgers west in 1957.”
Some 1,200 construction workers are still on the job to assure that on Nov. 1 the Brooklyn Nets will battle the Knicks from “the city” across the Brooklyn Bridge.
“That night, the last of O'Malley’s curse will disappear forever,” Ratner says with a smile.

Six years ago, I pressed Ratner when he told me a portion of the 18,000 seats would be “affordable” to working Brooklynites. “How much?” I said. “Gimme a dollar amount.”
“Okay, $15," he said.
I printed it.
Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/a-new-arena-article-1.1126292#ixzz22I3PtXnb