Renderings of the Barclays Center’s looming offseason renovation of Suite Level B included — high-five if you noticed — jade onyx bar counter tops in The Row, one of the new spaces being created from the demolition of roughly 30 of the building’s suites.
But on the mid-March day Populous architect Adam Stover spoke about the renovation, the design team involved with the project had convened with a stone purveyor to study 50 alternatives to jade onyx. Turns out its surface didn’t offer the reflectivity desired for the bar top. The group narrowed the 50 options down to six, though the final decision hasn’t been made. For Stover, the jade onyx replacement hunt was indicative of a partner, BSE Global, that was ultimately collaborative and that had put the story first. The details, the counter tops, could be sorted later.
“As designers, our goal is to be put in settings where there is true collaboration,” Stover said, “where no idea is a stupid idea, where everything wants to be explored. The goal is to navigate the story first, then tell that story. If we don’t know our paragraph, it’s really hard to design to something.”
That’s important for this project, which resulted from a master planning effort by Populous that began two years ago. Twelve-year-old Barclays Center is still the fifth-newest building in the NBA, with arguably its most unique exterior, but it’s well down the line in recent years in terms of major capital expenditures, whether on a new building or renovation. And new ones are in the pipeline, including the Clippers’ Intuit Dome, which opens this fall.
“When you’re outside the arena, a ton of people come by, they take photos of the exterior, it’s ranked one of the top venues in the 2010s globally,” said Shanon Ferguson, BSE Global chief hospitality officer, in his first sports job after more than a dozen years in the hospitality world. “The experience indoors, it’s still great. With a lot of different arenas doing remodels, with Intuit coming, we felt it was an appropriate time to reinvest for the experience of the fans, and we committed to it.”
The Row’s interior design is set to be reminiscent of what one might find in a Brooklyn brownstone rowhouse.Courtesy of Barclays Center
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The cost of the renovations remains undisclosed, but it will be the largest in Barclays Center’s history.
The work begins as soon as the Brooklyn Nets’ season concludes and will be finished before the 2024-25 NBA campaign commences in October. Along with Populous, Shawmut Design and Construction is involved again. Shawmut handled construction for most of the previous Barclays Center capital projects, including the addition of locker rooms and weight rooms for the New York Liberty, and the 2021 addition of the Crown Club, BSE Global’s luxury premium homage to Notorious B.I.G., featuring an entire room devoted to candy.
The 30 suites are making way — 15 on the north side of the building and 15 on the south side, running parallel to the court’s sideline — for The Row and The Key. The two spaces, facing each other from across the seating bowl, are very similar in size but possess their own vibe and personality. The Row is higher-end — luxury residential is what Stover called it — while The Key is more energetic and sportier. Naming rights will be available for both.
“It’s creating a level of premium for everyone in the building,” Stover said. “From upper concourse, down, when you walk into the building you have a premium experience no matter where you are.”
Losing the 30 suites leaves Barclays Center with 57; most NBA arenas have around 60. The two new clubs hold 436 guests total — 252 in The Key and 184 in The Row. Pricing for seats isn’t yet set.
Membership to The Row comes with access to Nets and Liberty games as well as Barclays Center events (with certain exceptions), a private VIP entrance, theater-style reserved seating, all-inclusive dining and a full-service private bar, premium wines with access to a team of sommeliers, and a dessert station featuring fresh gelato. Measuring just more than 12,000 square feet, The Row, featuring the herringbone floors and wainscot paneling of an upscale Brooklyn brownstone rowhouse (hence the name), is sold in increments of four through an annual license, though seats can be sold in pairs or on an individual event basis.
The Key includes many of the same perks — theater-style reserved seating, all-inclusive dining, and a full-service bar (the only such bar in Barclays Center with beer on tap) — but it comes with an interactive basketball game, a 44-foot LED display behind the bar and a lighter mood and finishings, including tables made from repurposed Brooklyn Nets basketball courts. Access to The Key — measuring 11,185 square feet — is sold as an annual license in any increment, with inventory held back for individual event and group sales.
Details aside, the gist for The Row and The Key is fewer suites, no walls, and a more social experience. The Row and The Key have full-sided bars and culinary stations on both ends of The Row and The Key, an effort to disseminate people throughout the spaces.
“So, while they’re going to a concert or a game, they still have the ability to have action around them, and they’re not confined to one small space,” said Ferguson.
The Key faces The Row in a nearly identical space across the Barclays Center seating bowl, but possesses a more energetic, sportier atmosphere, including the Pop-A-Shot basketball game.Courtesy of Barclays Center
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Both clubs will feature a rotating food menu with The Row offering upscale items such as ceviche, lettuce wraps, pasta, and a carving station, while members of The Key can enjoy elevated takes on comfort classics such as sliders and mini brats, a BBQ table, and mac and cheese bar, all provided by concessionaire Levy.
Best-in-class food, cocktails, no bathroom waits … “both of these clubs will allow for that in two different design aesthetics and stories,” Stover said. “Both of these have the same sightlines, but when you’re deciding what experience you want to participate in, it’s important to give two strategies.”
The Barclays Center’s Suite Level B renovation is the latest in a generational cycle of projects that are reshaping NBA arenas. Wells Fargo Center and Gainbridge Fieldhouse just completed multiyear renovations either side of $400 million, and Crypto.com Arena will finish its own nine-figure refurbishment project ahead of this NBA season just as the Clippers vacate the premises for their new arena, the $2 billion-plus Intuit Dome. Charlotte’s Spectrum Center, Toronto’s Scotiabank Arena, Orlando’s Kia Center and Memphis’ FedEx Forum are all either being renovated, poised to begin one this offseason, or moving in that direction.
More work is in the Barclays Center’s future, too, including what Stover described as the broad category of helping people move through the building more easily. The venue’s upper concourse is almost certainly in the crosshairs, too, though Stover and Ferguson were vague about what’s next.
“We’re looking to build a 360-degree experience whether you’re in the Crown Club on the ground level, the main concourse, Suite Level B, and we’re looking to do something in the upper concourse in the future as well, so, whether you’re sitting down and you’re looking up saying, ‘I want to go up there,’ or whether you’re up top looking down. It’s going to lean into creating generational fandom in all things that we do moving forward.”
Courtesy of Barclays Center
