The Great Eight: Jay-Z Set to Roc Eight Shows at the Barclays Center

Via NY Daily News: Rap mogul Jay-Z will headline a series of concerts to open Brooklyn's new Nets arena next fall - and will make it official Monday: The team will be named for his hometown.

The superstar, who owns a small piece of the soon-to-be renamed Brooklyn Nets, will perform at eight concerts to celebrate the grand opening of the arena - where all-access passes are going for up to $15,400 a season.

Jay-Z likely will be joined by his wife, Beyoncé - who by then will have given birth to the couple's first child - at one of the shows, and will bring on a series of other performers, sources said.


Jay-Z will appear with developer Bruce Ratner and Borough President Marty Markowitz to reveal details of the shows Monday at the Prospect Heights construction site.

The Barclays Center, which is rapidly rising at Flatbush and Atlantic Aves., is set to officially open on Sept. 28, 2012, with the first concert and will have three weeks of special events before the basketball season starts.


They'll also make it official today that the team will be named the Brooklyn Nets, sources said.

Although that name was long expected, Russian billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov flirted with the idea of changing the team name when he bought the Nets last year, even joking he might name it after his girlfriend - and change it every time he got a new one.


The Nets are touting the pricey all-access passes - which are $15,400 a person for 44 games for courtside seats - in glossy brochures they're using to woo local businesses to advertise at the arena.

The passes come with access to swanky clubs, free food and first dibs on concert tickets, boxing matches and other events.

Other NBA teams offer similar VIP deals, and Nets ticket prices at the Brooklyn arena are about on par with what the Knicks charge at Madison Square Garden.

The team started selling season tickets in March.

A spokesman said the team has sold half of its 100 luxury suites - including one to Jay-Z.

The Barclays Center is the centerpiece of Ratner's controversial Atlantic Yards project, which also includes 16 housing and commercial towers.

The rest of the project has been delayed repeatedly. Ratner had pledged to start construction on the first residential building by the end of this year, but he now says it may be early next year.

--Princess Carter

Source:  NY Daily News