Brooklyn’s in the sold-out house.
The Barclays Center, a magnet for music superstars during its first full year of business, is already the nation’s No. 1 venue in the number of tickets sold and gate revenue.
The new arena in New York ranks No. 3 worldwide in number of tickets sold, according to Pollstar magazine. And Billboard magazine ranked Barclays Center as No. 2 globally in gross ticket sales revenue at $46.9 million.
The new arena sold 657,423 tickets to concerts and family shows between Jan. 1 and June 30 — the highest figure in the U.S., Pollstar reported.
The only buildings on the planet with better ticket sales numbers were the O2 arena in London and Manchester Arena in England — and only the O2 outgrossed Barclays Center.
Local residents weren’t surprised by the first-year success of the arena.
“It’s beautiful,” said Yvette Raymond, 49, who lives near the building that opened in September. “It makes the neighborhood more lively. The neighborhood has always been good, but Barclays has made it even better.”
The building’s star-studded first-year lineup of performers started with Jay Z headlining eight shows, and then included Brooklyn native Barbra Streisand, the Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan, Justin Bieber, Rihanna and Paul McCartney.
“We are proud to have become a destination venue that has been recognized globally in a short period of time,” said Brett Yormark, CEO of Barclays Center.
Senior citizen Andrea Cave, a retired teacher, said she thought the new arena was a major boost for the area.
“It’s an iconic building,” she said of the $1 billion facility on Atlantic Ave. “At one time that area was really crappy … If you walked around over there, you could get creamed. It’s much safer now.”
Barclays Center quickly outpaced its Manhattan neighbor, the venerable Madison Square Garden. The World’s Most Famous Arena, with 194,237 tickets sold, ranked No. 29 worldwide for the first half of 2013. That means the Brooklyn arena sold more than three times the number of tickets than its counterpart in Manhattan.
Gary Bongiovanni, editor of Pollstar, said the numbers reflect more positively on the Brooklyn facility than negatively on the Garden, which has a maximum capacity of 19,763.
“The Garden will remain the iconic building that it has always been, and the artists will still want to play there,” said Bongiovanni. “Brooklyn got Streisand, the Stones, McCartney playing there.
“That doesn’t mean that they won’t play the Garden.”
Not everybody was thrilled about the success of the 19,000-seat Brooklyn arena.
“It didn’t bring nothing to this neighborhood but traffic,” said James Luben, 35, who moved into the area in 1983. “Where the hell’s the affordable housing? Where are the jobs?”
