The roof was decidedly not on fire at Barclays Center on Tuesday night.
The Nets game against the Miami Heat was delayed for around 30 minutes at the tail end of the first quarter, when the roof of the two-year-old, $1 billion arena sprang a leak. A spokesman for the team said the problem stemmed from work to make a green roof up top, and that arena management has fixed it.
“The delay was caused by a water leak due to the installation of our new green roof,” he said. “We have taken all necessary steps to rectify the situation.”
Referees stopped the game with 1:47 left on the clock for the quarter when they noticed water dripping from the ceiling onto the court, near a three-point line. A crew mopped up the mess and placed a kitchen-sized trash can under the leak, then when that proved insufficient, upgraded to an outdoor trash can, keeping the game paused until the leak stopped.
Adding injury to injury, the Nets eventually lost the game 95–91.
Construction on the living rooftop started back in October, requiring three cranes to hoist materials to the top of the arena. Forest City Ratner, which built the arena and is a minority owner in the related development project formerly known as Atlantic Yards, expects the project to take about nine months, and hopes that it will help sound-proof the arena, in addition to sweetening the view for future neighbors.
The company has also experienced construction problems at the first residential tower in that project, B2. The building’s contractor Skanska sued Forest City for cost overruns associated with alleged design flaws back in September. Forest City later broke ties with Skanska.
