Pacific Park, Brooklyn
The Barclays Center is the new home arena of the National Basketball Association's Brooklyn Nets, and the NHL's New York Islanders which was purchased by a group led by principal developer Bruce Ratner with the intention of making it and the arena the centerpiece of the whole project. This brought major league professional sports to Brooklyn for the first time since the Brooklyn Dodgers moved to Los Angeles, California after the 1957 season. The arena’s design once included an ice skating rink and a green roof. An NBA basketball team now owned primarily by Russia's second richest man Mikhail Prokhorov, the Nets began playing at the Barclays Center arena in 2012. Formerly the New Jersey Nets, the Nets re-branded themselves when they moved to the Barclays Center. Prokhorov is an avid basketball fan, and, with 80 percent ownership in the Nets, he has become the first Russian owner of a major U.S. professional sports franchise. The deal was necessary for Ratner, who was risking losing tax-exempt financing and the Barclays naming-rights deal if he did not break ground within three months' time.
1968–69 New York Nets season
The 1968–69 New York Nets season was the first season of the Nets in New York and second overall season in the American Basketball Association (ABA). After one year in New Jersey, the team elected to play their games at Commack Arena in New York, the same place that they had tried to use for their one game playoff against the Kentucky Colonels that they forfeited due to unplayable conditions. Low attendance plagued the team at times, with the October 29 game drawing only 384 people to see the Nets play the Denver Rockets. Only 249 attended the game played on December 25, 1968 against the Rockets. The December 27 game was notable for a collision between Ken Wilburn and Rick Barry that cost Barry the rest of his season due to injury. Factors for the low attendance ranged from a lack of star power to the condition of the court, which was over the rink due to the Arena doubling as a hockey arena.