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.
2012–13 Brooklyn Nets season
The 2012–13 Brooklyn Nets season was the franchise's 46th season, its 37th in the National Basketball Association (NBA), and its first season following its relocation from New Jersey to Brooklyn, New York, after the 2011–12 season. The Nets finished with a record of 49–33, their first winning season since 2005–06, the 2nd best record in the Atlantic Division and the 4th best in the Eastern Conference. When considering the Nets' time in the NBA only, the 49–33 record is also tied for the second best in franchise history at the time, and the 23–18 record on the road was the first winning record on the road in franchise history.