Barclays Center, located in Brooklyn, New York was finished in September of 2012. Initially meant as the new home of the Brooklyn Nets, Barclays Center wanted to attract all sorts of sporting events and entertainment acts. The center cost $1 billion to make so there was a need to pack this place on a consistent basis in order to make the investment worth their while. For the 2015 NHL season, the New York Islanders will call Barclays Center home. In addition to the Nets and Islanders, college basketball tournaments have taken place here as well. The center was also home for the 2013 MTV Video Music Awards as well as a concert venue for artists like Coldplay and Jay-Z. The newest attraction that Barclays Center CEO Brett Yormark is targeting is boxing.
Boxing is a sport on the rise and with the recent fight between Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather recently garnering a lot of attention. The process of putting boxing has already begun with the Amir Khan-Chris Algieri welterweight fight hosted at Barclays at the end of May. In the coming weeks, the center will host 2 major fights in the span of eight days in order to bring more boxing to Barclays. Since opening it’s doors to boxing, Barclays Center has hosted 90 bouts and 19 world title fights. Yormark’s vision is on the right track but he ultimately wants to bring big-time boxing to the arena.
Ultimately, Barclays has done a great job in hosting boxing events and has the proper facilities and venue to host larger fights. It’ll be interesting to see if they can take fights that are normally hosted in Las Vegas and bring them to the east coast and have them held at Barclays Center. It’s certainly a tough task, but CEO Brett Yormark is the one guy that I think could do it. For more on this topic, check it out at espn.com.