Back in November we were able to check out the new Barclays Center – which is only a few blocks from our place! The event was ‘Brooklyn Hoops’ – this is where local and other college teams get the chance to play in this great stadium.
Back in 2008, I attended the University of Maryland for two weeks on a study tour during my Masters. It was such an amazing experience. Back then, we saw them play Holy Cross and Maryland has been my college team ever since! Here I am with some of my RMIT pals back at the amazing College Park stadium –
We got the train to Barclays after work and saw immediate changes as the subway doors opened. A train nerd, I was excited by the new signs at Atlantic Avenue station. It used to be called Atlantic Avenue-Pacific Street… but no longer!
Everything was so NEW!
As soon as you exit the station you are at the doors of the stadium. Everything looks so new and bright and the place really stands out!
Inside, we did a whole lap of the bottom level and then a whole lap of the top level and then got some dinner. This is where it became disappointing – the prices. Oh my gosh. It was expensive! We didn’t mind because it was a night out for us but if we were going to Nets games every week, there is no way I’d be eating there.
We got our food from Fatty ‘Cue and it was good but was not worth the price. My advice? If you are going to Barclay’s check out one of the many awesome restaurants our area has to offer and give the stadium food a miss. The only other downer was the way the seats are you feel like you may tumble over the edge while you are getting to and from your seat.
My mac cheese with some brisket from Fatty ‘Cue –
We were there very early –
The first game was the local Long Island University vs Morehead State. It ended up being a close game with LIU just losing. A great thing about Barclays is they have AWESOME wifi – so I was able to FaceTime mum and dad from our seats and share the new stadium with them! Crazy!
The best thing? We ended up being in the Maryland ‘area’ for supporters.
This game bought back so many memories. The crowd did the same thing back in 2008 as they were doing here when Kentucky were being introduced –
To make it even cooler? Jay-Z was there watching too! Huzzah!
We enjoyed seeing the game there and we loved being able to take a a quick walk home, down our leafy street after having a fun night out! We left early as we were tired and Maryland were down by a lot. By the time we walked in the front door, they had come back but not enough to beat Kentucky. Sigh!
Our end thoughts? So while we would definitely go to events there (it really is a great stadium) we would patronize some of our local eateries before we went rather than purchase the stadium food.