Despite attracting star-studded events like the MTV Video Music Awards and concerts by the likes of Beyoncé and Paul McCartney, Brooklyn’s Barclays Center hasn’t been able to stay on pace financially.
The billion-dollar stadium – the most expensive in the country – is tens of millions of dollars behind its projections for operating income, according to the Wall Street Journal. The stadium’s co-owners, developer Forest City Ratner and Russian billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov, had estimated that the arena would generate more than $76 million in operating income in its first year of operation. However, Barclays produced just $19 million in the nine-month period ending in July, according to Forest City securities filings cited by the Journal.
The filings show that Barclays is on pace to produce approximately $25 million by the year’s end, which will not even cover the arena’s $29 million in annual debt service.
“We’ve made an amazing first impression,” MaryAnne Gilmartin, Forest City Ratner’s CEO, said. “Now, we turn our efforts toward calibrating the operating expenses.” Gilmartin predicts that annual operating income will reach $70 million by 2016.
However, arena experts say that competition from Madison Square Garden and tight margins will make raising that amount of income difficult. [WSJ] –Christopher Cameron