Metro

Barclays fouls out on plan to provide MetroCards

There will be no free rides to the new Barclays Center arena in Brooklyn.

The arena’s developer, Forest City Ratner, has scrapped its plan to offer MetroCards to ticketholders for Nets games or other events at the 18,200-seat arena, which opens Sept. 28, in order to encourage people not to drive.

The arena transportation plan announced yesterday instead includes beefing up subway and bus service on game nights and relies on a massive marketing campaign to promote mass-transit use.

It left many residents and elected officials fuming that the plan potentially creates more headaches — including jacked-up parking-garage rates that could drive away shoppers in local business strips — while doing little to prevent traffic nightmares.

The Post reported last month that spaces in the arena’s main parking lot would be cut from 1,100 to 541 to avoid time-consuming stack-parking there.

But another 20 private lots operate within a half-mile of the arena, and officials estimate up to 2,500 vehicles could come to arena events. Most parking would be pre-paid online, with private operators setting rates.