CorpComms Magazine

Brooklyn's second busiest subway station Atlantic Avenue will soon get a new moniker. From 2012, Barclays Center will be appended to its name.

The rebranding is part of the package agreed by high street bank Barclays when it signed up to sponsor a new sports arena which is being built as part of a new $3.5 billion redevelopment.

Barclays Center will become home to the New Jersey Jets, a basketball team owned by property developer Bruce Ratner, who is behind the sports arena, business and residential complex.

It is the first time in more than 50 years that Brooklyn will have a major league sports team. 

Ratner is paying the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) an annual fee of $200,000 for 20 years for the rights to rename the station. It is the first time that the MTA has sold sponsorship rights to any of its 734 stations. 

The price was determined by comparing successful sponsorship deals in other cities, including communications company Nextel's sponsorship of a monorail in Las Vegas.

Spokesman Jeremy Soffin said: 'It's always a question of balancing our need for revenue and our stewardship of public space.'

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