No Sleep Till Brooklyn

Barclays Center is Set to Open This Friday with Both Optimism and Criticism.

By Alexandria Jezina

Photo Credit: Kathy Willens/AP

After years of construction and financial ownership uncertainty, Barclays Center is scheduled to open its door to the public this upcoming Friday on Sept. 28. While many are excited for the center that will be home to the NBA's Brooklyn Nets and location of many upcoming musical concerts, locals of the neighborhood are still singing another tune. Locals fear that drunken event-goers especially basketball fans will drunkenly fill the streets and cause property damage. They also dread the promise of worsened traffic and lack of already cramped parking spaces. 

However, as a non-Brooklyn resident but rather Long Island college student, I am excited over the opening of the center and the potential it is offering customers. The center will sell a wide selection of local Brooklyn- specialty food such as Blue Marble Ice cream, Brooklyn Cupcakes, and Nathan's Hot Dogs. It will also offer high-rollers choices of refined food made in Brooklyn such as caviar and lobster rolls. As I read the article describing the variety food choices the center is set to sell, my mouth have or may have not been watering. The food selection in addition to the beautifully new constructed building is a fit reason to celebrate the opening of Barclays Center.

The center is set to open on Friday to a series of sold-out Jay-Z concerts who is also a partial owner of the stadium and Nets Franchise. A Nets game will not take place in the center until November with the team's first game in the stadium versus the NY Knicks. Local residents may be angry about the noise and traffic it will cause them, but the center is going to bring the borough of Brooklyn a big economic boost. Barclays Center will provide approximately 1,900 part-time jobs to residents and are supporting Brooklyn restaurants with its wide selection of local food. With its negatives come positives, and one may hope its benefits will overpower the few irritable consequences that Barclays Center will bring.