Barclays Arena Rivals the Garden’s Glow

The Barclays Center is scheduled to open on Friday.

WHEN Jay-Z takes the stage on Friday night at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, it will be more than the triumphant homecoming of a native son, performing eight sold-out nights in a sparkling new arena near the housing project where he grew up. It is also the official opening of an 18,000-seat performance space that will fundamentally transform the music scene in New York City.

Jay-Z is scheduled to perform eight concerts at the new arena.

The arena’s opening is being closely watched in the music business, and perhaps nowhere more so than in Manhattan, at Madison Square Garden, which for generations has been the only game in town for arena acts and has earned a reputation as a career-defining concert hall. 

Though Garden officials and Barclays executives are both careful to say that the arenas are not in direct competition for big-name bands, concert promoters and booking agents say such competition is inevitable, and Barclays has already positioned itself as an alternative, booking several marquee performers who have played the Garden in the past. 

“Barclays is going to say, ‘Hey, if you want to play New York City, you have two choices,’ ” said Jim Glancy, a partner in the Bowery Presents, a New York concert promoter. 

With three professional sports teams and St. John’s basketball, the Garden’s calendar has long been extremely crowded, making it a headache for tour planners seeking an open night in the city; its calendar has been even tighter over the last two years as it has undergone renovations. 

And while the Garden is considered a prestigious place to play — a high-profile arena in the media capital of North America — it is not always a lucrative one. The costs of doing a show there are high and profit margins low, promoters say. What’s more, it is hard to get two nights in a row there, even if the band or performer is capable of selling out two dates. 

“I consider it a godsend Barclays arena is there,” said Randy Phillips, the chief executive of AEG Live, one of the largest promoters in the country. “Prior to this we were really kind of held hostage on a tour to the availability of Madison Square Garden.” 

The new $1 billion arena rises at the intersection of Flatbush and Atlantic Avenues like a modern sculpture, evoking a crashed alien spacecraft with its rusted-steel-and-glass facade and swooping lines. Inside, it is a sleek study in gray and black broken only by bright digital banners, with steeply raked rows of black seats that descend from the street level into the arena’s bowl. With clear sightlines and acoustic panels over hard surfaces to minimize reverb and noise, the space seems intimate yet open. For some, it is a symbol of Brooklyn’s cultural and economic renaissance, a sign the borough has come back from the long slide that started when the Dodgers left in 1957. But it is also a symbol of the borough’s growing stature as center for the arts. 

Several big acts have added a night in Brooklyn in addition to planned dates at the Garden, among them Neil Young and Crazy Horse, the Who, Lady Gaga, Justin Bieber and Leonard Cohen. Others who have played the Garden in the past are foregoing it altogether and playing Barclays instead, among them Bob Dylan, Green Day, John Legend, Rihanna and Rush. 

Brett Yormark, the chief executive of the Brooklyn Nets, who will call the arena home, and of Barclays Center, said he did not see it in competition with the Garden. He said there was a demand in New York City for far more arena concerts than the Garden could accommodate.

“We knew there was a void, and a new venue in Brooklyn could be supported by a lot of events that weren’t coming here,” he said. “I don’t look at this as cannibalization in any way. I look at it as truly additive to the market.” 

Melissa Ormond, the president of Madison Square Garden Entertainment, acknowledged that the Garden’s tight calendar has meant it has few dates to offer artists, and that Barclays has benefited, as have the suburban arenas. But she said in an e-mail statement: “We always respect any competition, but the Garden will always be the Garden. We’ve been privileged to be at the center of New York City for more than 130 years, with 400 annual events, the most of any arena in the country. It’s the pinnacle of an artist’s career to play Madison Square Garden.” 

Historically the market for concerts has expanded every time a new arena has been built in the region, a testament to the enormous population within commuting distance of Manhattan. The arrival of the Nassau Coliseum in Uniondale, N.Y; the arena now called the Izod Center in East Rutherford, N.J.; and the Prudential Center in Newark did not damage Madison Square Garden’s profits.

But the new arena is the first challenge to the Garden’s dominance, and it underlines a growing rivalry between Brooklyn and Manhattan as cultural centers, not to mention the competition between the Knicks and the Nets. “The big question is: Will Barclays expand the marketplace?” said John Scher, a veteran New York City promoter. 

Mr. Scher said the Garden would remain a steppingstone for young artists who need the prestige of a show there to further their careers, even if it means earning less. One such client of his is Jason Mraz, who is playing his first show there on Dec. 11. 

“Not unlike the Yankees, you can’t trade that tradition and that sense of accomplishment for something that’s newer,” Mr. Scher said. “No one can compete on that level with the Garden. But you can compete on cost and efficiency.” 

Not surprisingly, Barclays has undercut the Garden’s prices for performers, which are among the highest in the industry. Several promoters said a band stands to earn between $150,000 and $250,000 more for a sold-out show at Barclays than for one at the Garden. For concertgoers that means ticket prices for some shows will be lower at Barclays as well: Neil Young fans can buy a seat for $58 at Barclays, versus $63 at the Garden, according to Ticketmaster. Yet tickets to other big shows — the Who and Justin Bieber for instance — are roughly the same price at both places. 

If a price war ever develops with the Garden, owned by the publicly traded Madison Square Garden Company, the new arena has deep pockets. Though Jay-Z has a tiny stake in the Nets and the arena, the principal partners behind the new building are the developer Bruce C. Ratner and the Russian billionaire Mikhail D. Prokhorov. 

Mr. Phillips, the chief executive of AEG Live, said the lack of competition in the city’s market had turned the Garden into an exorbitantly expensive space many performers are grudgingly compelled to play. “You’re lucky to break even,” he said. “Now we have a building where we can play and actually make money and the press will come. That’s big for us. That’s going to make the Garden more honest.” 

Still, Marsha Vlasic, the booking agent for Neil Young and several other top-tier performers, said the Garden retains an advantage. She said Mr. Young and his band only decided to play a second concert at Barclays because two dates could not be found at Madison Square Garden. 

Some bands, however, are betting that playing both arenas is a winning strategy, promoters and agents said. The thinking is that Barclays can tap Brooklyn’s 2.6 million residents and, because the arena sits at the junction of several subway lines and a Long Island Rail Road station, it can draw fans from Long Island and Staten Island, while Madison Square Garden tends to pull people from Manhattan, New Jersey and the northern suburbs, promoters said. 

Barclays is likely to develop its own personality as well, as promoters and arena officials discover what sort of acts resonate there. Jay-Z’s run of eight shows and involvement may cement it as a popular hip-hop stage. It also could become a forum for emerging acts that cannot yet command high ticket prices, older artists who want a larger profit margin or performers with ties to Brooklyn’s vibrant indie-rock scene. 

Mr. Glancy said it will take time for the positions of the arenas to become defined. Barclays will enjoy a honeymoon period, as bands and their promoters give it a try, and the Garden’s renovations will not be completed until late next year. “The true test is years away,” Mr. Glancy said. 

Credit : NY Times