The Nets and Liberty parent company has been slowly parceling out plans to create a “destination” around Barclays Center. The latest: in-house media properties.
Never estimate the ambition or the wherewithal of BSE Global.
The parent company of the Brooklyn Nets, New York Liberty and Barclays Center, owned by the Tsai (85%) and Koch (15%) families, has quietly in recent months committed around $200 million to improvements at Barclays Center ($100 million); a new training center for the Liberty ($80 million); as well as the purchase of an exhibition space at the iconic One Hanson Place, the former Williamsburgh Savings Bank ($10 million) an undetermined amount for a stake in Brooklyn Paramount.
There’s also the much larger plan to create an “ecosystem” of hotels, restaurants etc. around Barclays Center, a vertical version of LA Live!, the $2.5 billion entertainment district adjacent to Crypto.com arena and Convention Center in Los Angeles. No details yet but Clara Wu Tsai reiterated the ambitions in an interview with Bloomberg News published this week.
[M]eanwhile, the Tsais are planning a major development initiative in the traffic-clogged area around Barclays. Adding hotels and restaurants, Wu Tsai says, will help draw more fans for the Liberty and Nets while also benefiting Brooklyn more broadly: Only a fraction of New York City’s 63 million annual tourists ever set foot in the borough.
It’s a big idea but there is some logic to it. Barclays is already one of the borough’s biggest draws, an established venue that sits atop the third busiest transit hub in the metro area.
The ambitions aren’t just limited to brick-and-mortar. BSE Global announced this week an expansion of its media holdings, creating a second internet publisher, Type.Set.Brooklyn, to complement Brooklyn Magazine, established last year.
Type.Set.Brooklyn is described by AdWeek as a “broader gambit from BSE Global to distill the essence of Brooklyn into a marketable commodity,” creating video content that “defines and capitalizes on Brooklyn’s distinctive brand.” It will show up on YouTube, Instagram and TikTok. Among the regular features will be something called “The Last Pick,” which celebrates underdog athletes.
Brooklyn Magazine, AKA BKMag, is more of a a guide to Brooklyn entertainment and fashion choices — including some related to Nets offerings. At the same time, the Nets social media content has dramatically expanded with documentaries and docuseries plus basketball-centric analysis, much of it by our own Lucas Kaplan.
Put together, expect the media to further the idea of Brooklyn — and more specifically the area around Flatbush and Atlantic — as a “destination”, not just a sports and entertainment venue, for New Yorkers and tourists alike.
“It’s a “vision where you’re coming here; you can stay at our hotel; you can go to our game; you can dine at a restaurant; you can do a conference at our conference center; you can go to the magic show venue; you can go have a drink at our bar,” Sam Zussman, the Tsais’ CEO told Bloomberg last October. “And you’re constantly in our ecosystem.”
All are likely to be stand alone entities linked to the Brooklyn ‘zeitgeist.” The BSE Global executive in charge of the media part of the plan, DeJuan Wilson told AdWeek, “We’re not looking at this as a marketing vehicle. This has to be a strong, standalone business that represents Brooklyn culture globally.”
The Nets worldwide popularity — they’re the most traveled team in NBA history and will play in China again in October — is part of the “destination” thinking as is the Liberty’s WNBA quest for a dynasty in women’s sports and the arena’s rising rep as a top concert hall. The groundwork is indeed there.
Disclosure of the overall plan is at least months away with this being New York, it will take a while to get approved and built. but with the backing of two billionaire families and the ambition, there will be a lot for the two online publications to write about.
- Billionaire Brooklyn Nets Owners Launch Media Company, Type.Set.Brooklyn – Mark Stenberg – AdWeek