Brooklyn, we love you — but we don’t trust you.
In a stunning diss to the Borough of Kings, the head of security for Barclays Center last night said the Nets’ new home will feature walk-through metal detectors that all fans must pass before watching NBA games, concerts and other events when the arena opens Sept. 28.
“We’re taking security very seriously,” Robert Sena, director of security for the 18,200-seat arena, told community leaders at Borough Hall.
He also said there will be game-day bag inspections and that fans “triggering a light” at the metal detectors would be patted down.
No other sporting venue in the tristate area relies on metal detectors. Most – such as Madison Square Garden and MetLife Stadium — subject fans to pat-downs or “security wands” that pick up metal objects.
Sena said metal detectors are “less intrusive” than being patted down, but even some of the Nets’ biggest supporters aren’t on board with the arena security plan.
“I was considering getting season tickets, but I don’t want to feel like a criminal when I go to a game,” said longtime fan Robert Master, 34, of Brooklyn. “They don’t even have metal detectors at [the Nets former home] Prudential Center, and crime is much worse in Newark than Brooklyn.”
Borough President Marty Markowitz, who led the push to bring the Nets to Brooklyn, said he’d “vehemently oppose” use of metal detectors as standard operating procedure.
During the NBA playoffs last year, the league required all teams to use metal detectors as the country was on high-alert following the death of Osama bin Laden. But few sporting venues nationwide use metal detectors regularly, leaving those that do — like the Staples Center in Los Angeles — in the minority.
Sena said the metal detectors planned for Barclays Center will be similar to ones used at local courthouses.
“This is not going to be like the airport,” he said. “No one is going to ask to you to take off your shoes and belt.”