With the clock counting down to its official opening, Barclays Center is casting a wide net to lure sports and entertainment seekers to Brooklyn.
Beyond basketball, a new ad blitz for the 18,000-seat arena, which will bring the New Jersey Nets to downtown Brooklyn, will give equal billing to the arena’s other attractions.
The first ad in the “In Brooklyn” campaign will tout college basketball, boxing, concerts and family-friendly shows like the circus, in addition to the arrival of the Nets, when it kicks off today.
The “seven-figure” marketing push is part of a plan to sell Brooklyn as much as basketball. The owners, including Russian billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov and developer Bruce Ratner, want to position Barclays Center as an all-purpose sports and entertainment venue that will hold more than 200 events in its first year.
The ad push will continue through Sept. 28, when the arena will finally open its doors to visitors with a concert headlined by Jay-Z, who is also a co-owner of the Nets.
“Fifty million people visit New York every year and we want Barclays Center to resonate with them,” said Brett Yormark, the CEO of Barclays Center and The Nets.
The black-and-white campaign heralds the return of sports and entertainment to the borough, which hasn’t had a pro sports team since the Dodgers left for LA in 1957.
The campaign, created by former music boss Steve Stoute’s ad agency Translation, will blanket Brooklyn, Manhattan and parts of Queens with ads appearing on billboards and in the subways, as well as newspapers and radio.
Some 4,400 premium Nets tickets are already on sale. What’s more, 50 percent of Nets tickets will be $55 or less, while 2,000 tickets will be $15.