I bought this ticket for Game 7 of the Bulls vs. the Nets first round playoff series and did not expect it to come down to a seventh game, thinking that I'd just get my money back if there was not Game 7. But, as it turned out, it came down to this one game and I'm glad I bought the ticket and attended. Having previously been to Bulls games at the United Center (being a Bulls fan from Chicago now in Brooklyn), I must say that the Barclays Center offered quite a different experience. For one thing, it is a very new venue, but also not built to accommodate large moving crowds all trying to find their seats at once and get through the hallways, whereas the United Center seems to have been built with just that in mind. The stadium seating seems to rise up more than out, thus resulting in the 200 level seats being pretty high up there, close to the rafters. My seat was about six rows below the rafters. I think I was actually above the jumbo tron. Nonetheless, I still had an unobstructed view of the court and could read the numbers on players' backs. Accessibility to the seats once you get up that high is very poor, however. It wasn't easy to find my seat in level 200, row 17, seat 18. Also, where the row angles at about a 35 degree angle to follow the curve of the stadium, there are two seats right next to each other, I think seat 16 and 15 in row 18, that literally fold down on top of one another. In other words, when the seats fold down, they overlap each other, making it virtually impossible for two average sized humans to sit in them side by side. So if they ever sell out the center, this would be a funny but frustrating situation for the two people who buy tickets for those seats. I'm surprised such a flaw was overlooked and it seems like they were trying to just cram as many seats into the stands as possible.
About the game itself, it was a fresh take on an NBA game, for me at least. I'm used to the traditional Chicago Bulls style of pumping up the crowd using the old organ or some really lame sponsored cartoon races between a M&M and a Lemon Drop or something dumb. I have to give props to the Barclays Center for elevating the level of in game entertainment, as well as doing things like playing sort of a background music while game play is taking place. Usually the music stops as soon as the ball is in bounded, but here they kept it going, so it added an extra excitement and entertainment value. I really liked that and always thought they should keep "We Will Rock You" or whatever pump up song was playing on during the game as well because it creates more energy for the players and the crowd. The announcer did a great job of getting the fans into it as well, as did the woman who came on during timeouts or between quarters to announce the Brooklynettes, who were great, or Peter Rabbit, who put on an impressive display of percussion on his overturned buckets. There was sort of a WWE element mixed in, resulting in upping the entertainment and exceitment. There were less boring sponsor crap on the jumbo tron or uninteresting contests between game play, and more just local hip hop acts, dancinc, music, and the like. The halftime show was basically DJ CJ mixing up Saturday night dance music, which was pretty cool because it felt more like being in a club and watching the game, which I liked.
All in all, I'd go see another game, but I'm a Bulls fan so they'd have to be playing the Nets again for me to go.