TO HONOR
Brooklynites push to rename Barclays
A handful of locals are pushing the owner of the Barclays Center to rename the arena after Jackie Robinson.
INSIDE
Your entertainment
guide Page 17
Police Blotter ..........................8
Opinion .................................... 14
Letters ..................................... 15
HOW TO REACH US
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
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-
This newspaper is not responsible for typographical errors in ads beyond the cost of the space occupied by the error. All rights reserved. Copyright © 2020 by Brooklyn Courier Life
LLC. The content of this newspaper is protected by Federal copyright law. This newspaper, its advertisements, articles and photographs may not be reproduced, either in whole
or part, without permission in writing from the publisher except brief portions for purposes of review or commentary consistent with the law. Postmaster, send address changes to
Brooklyn Courier Life LLC, One MetroTech North, 3rd Floor, Brooklyn, NY 11201.
Mail:
Courier Life,
1 Metrotech Center North
3rd Floor, Brooklyn,
N.Y. 11201
General Phone:
(718) 260-2500
News Fax:
(718) 260-2592
News E-Mail:
editorial@schnepsmedia.com
Display Ad Phone:
(718) 260-8302
Display Ad E-Mail:
rdonofrio@schnepsmedia.com
Display Ad Fax:
(718) 260-2579
Classified Phone:
(718) 260-2555
Classified Fax:
(718) 260-2549
Classified E-Mail:
classified@schnepsmedia.com
link
link
link
link
link
link