Facility Notes

Hunt Construction has been awarded the contract to build the $800M Barclays Center in Brooklyn, Nets officials confirmed. The 675,000-square-foot arena will contain 18,000 seats, 104 suites, two public concourses and a premium restaurant. Construction has already started, with a temporary railyard completed and upgrades to sewer and water infrastructure underway. Hunt recently ordered $50M worth of steel to build the arena. The facility is scheduled to open in '12. Hunt has built more than 100 sports and entertainment facilities in the U.S., and the firm's current projects include Amway Center and Consol Energy Center. The firm also built Citi Field for the Mets (Don Muret, SportsBusiness Journal).

EXPENSIVE PALACE: SI.com's Frank Hughes cited sources as indicating that the "ultimate undoing" of the NBA Kings' land swap arena proposal that includes private investors may be that the Kings will be "required to pay" $300M as part of a 30-year lease. Hughes: "Ten million dollars a year in rent. That's about a quarter million dollars a game just to open the building." An NBA official said that amount would be "on the very high end of what other teams around the league are paying." The official: "I don't see how they would make that work" (SI.com, 2/1).

WSU's Proposed Remodeling Of Martin Stadium Likely Won't Be Completed Until At Least 2012

DELAY OF GAME: In Seattle, Bud Withers reports Washington State Univ. (WSU) "remains well short of its goal of committed new seats for its proposed Martin Stadium remodeling, with the likely result that the project won't be completed until at least 2012." WSU AD Jim Sterk, in an advisory to donors on the WSU renovation Web site, said he is "still optimistic we can begin construction of Phase 3 this year." Phase 3 would "add 2,200 seats to the stadium in the form of 18 luxury seats." But Sterk added that WSU needs to have 80% of premium seats "committed before seeking additional bank or bond funding and they are now at slightly more than" 50% (SEATTLE TIMES, 2/3).

OPEN CHECKBOOK: In San Jose, Howard Mintz reports the 49ers have "already pumped more than $350,000 in cash and manpower into the campaign to build a new stadium in Santa Clara, primarily just to put together the pieces to place the issue on the ballot in June." Campaign finance documents filed this week indicated that the 49ers and the team's affiliated stadium corporation "contributed $100,000 in cash to the political campaign in November and December, and the rest in staff work on the proposed measure" during '09. 49ers VP/Communications Lisa Lang said that the team "would continue to donate to the campaign 'as necessary,' with mailers and phone calls to voters among the campaign plans" (SAN JOSE MERCURY NEWS, 2/3).