TO HONOR  
 Brooklynites push to rename Barclays  
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 COURIER L 2     IFE, JULY 10-16, 2020 
 BY ROSE ADAMS 
 A handful of Brooklynites  
 are renewing calls to rename  
 Barclays Center after Jackie  
 Robinson,  the  famed  Brooklyn  
 Dodger who broke racial  
 barriers in professional baseball, 
   saying  that  the  time  is  
 ripe  to  properly  honor  the  
 Brooklyn trailblazer.  
 “You’re seeing certain individuals  
 being  criticized  
 and  their  statutes  rightly  
 removed,  and  here’s  the  opportunity  
 to  do  something  
 symbolic,”  said  Park  Sloper  
 Arthur  Piccolo,  who  started  
 the  movement  to  honor  the  
 legendary  athlete.  “What  
 I’m  proposing  is  an  obvious  
 idea.” 
 Robinson became the fi rst  
 African American  to play  in  
 the Major Leagues, spending  
 ten  seasons  with  Brooklyn’s  
 former  ballclub  from  1947  to  
 1956, and helping to pave the  
 way  for  other  Black  athletes  
 in American sports. 
 A  vocal  civil  rights  advocate  
 throughout  his  life,  
 Robsinson  lived  for  a  time  
 in  Brooklyn  and  is  buried  
 in  Brooklyn’s  Cypress  Hills  
 Cemetery — but, Piccolo says,  
 the borough has not properly  
 honored his legacy. 
 “He  spent  his  life  at  the  
 forefront.  While  he  was  in  
 the  military,  before  Rosa  
 Parks, he refused to sit at the  
 back of the bus,” said Piccolo,  
 who runs a Lower Manhattan  
 advocacy  non-profi t  called  
 the  Bowling  Green  Association. 
   “He has never  been adequately  
 honored  anywhere,  
 not even at his home.”  
 Barclays  Center  and  its  
 surrounding  square  has  
 emerged  as  a  key  gathering  
 space  in  Brooklyn  throughout  
 A handful of locals are pushing the owner of the Barclays Center to rename the arena after Jackie Robinson.  
 the recent spate of Black  
 Lives  Matter  protests,  making  
 the  Fort  Greene  arena  
 a  perfect  place  to  honor  the  
 sporting icon, Piccolo added. 
 “It’s  no  doubt  the  epicenter  
 of  Brooklyn  right  now,”  
 he said.   
 The  stadium’s  developer,  
 Bruce Ratner, sold the arena’s  
 naming rights to the Londonbased  
 banking  group,  Barclays, 
  in 2007 for somewhere  
 between  $300  and  $400  million  
 over 20 years — the most  
 expensive  naming  contract  
 for any indoor stadium in the  
 US  at  the  time,  according  to  
 the New York Times.  
 The  deal  was  re-negotiated  
 to  $200  million  in  2009  
 amid  the  recession,  coming  
 out  to  $10  million  per  year  
 through  2032,  the  New  York  
 Post reported.  
 To get around the contractual  
 obligations in that deal,  
 the  arena’s  current  owner,  
 billionaire  businessman  Joseph  
 Tsai,  could incorporate  
 Jackie  Robinson  into  the  
 existing  name  rather  than  
 swapping  the  name  out  entirely, 
  proponents suggest. 
 “I’d  propose,  the  ‘Jackie  
 Robinson  Arena  at  Barclays  
 Center,'”  wrote  Atlantic  
 Yards watchdog journalist  
 Norman  Oder  in  a  June  28  
 blogpost.  
 Piccolo fi rst called on Ratner  
 to  name  the  venue  after  
 Robinson in 2006, before the  
 area was named, but his calls  
 fell  on  deaf  ears.  Oder,  however, 
  revived the proposal in  
 an op-ed in Bklyner on June  
 4,  inspiring  Piccolo  to  fi ght  
 for  the  name  change  once  
 more. 
 “I  said  wow,  this  is  the  
 time to revive that idea. Perfect  
 timing,”  Piccolo  said.  
 “We’re talking about symbol- 
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