Park Slope residents are rallying against another new sports bar that will open next to the Barclays Center.
A fiery group of neighbors stormed a Community Board 6 meeting on Monday night to rage against the proposed “Players Gastropub and Sports Bar,” which seeks to serve alcohol until 4 am across the street from the rising arena on Pacific Street at Flatbush Avenue.
It would be the closest drinking establishment to a venue that is expected to draw 19,000 sports fans per night.
“I don’t want fans coming out and pissing on our neighborhood,” said Jon Crow, a longtime advocate of nightlife limits in Park Slope. “People looking to drink until three or four in the morning are already three sheets to the wind.”
Residents of the once-hardscabble, “Fortress of Solitude”-esque block said they don’t want to go back to the bad old days.
“We’ve fought long and hard to bring stability to the block,” said Syble Henderson, of the East Pacific Street Block Association. “We don’t want a business that’s potentially disruptive.”
But owners Scott Alling and Michael Pappalardo — who also attended the CB6 meeting — said their establishment would serve pizza, boast a celebrity chef and cater to Brooklyn Nets fans and the neighborhood’s “indie rock scene.”
“We’re not trying to pull the wool over anyone’s eyes,” Pappalardo told us. “We are not a club — but we do need stay open late to survive.”
That’s just what some residents are worried about. One woman even passed around newspaper clips detailing crimes that have allegedly occurred inside sports bars across the country.
The owners — who run Social Eatz on E. 53rd Street in West Brooklyn — added that the venue will welcome “an all-ages crowd.”
Pappalardo predicted an opening late this year in the building that now houses American Mattress & Furniture Warehouse.
The battle over the new bar comes just weeks after a heated debate over Prime 6, one of several recent proxy battles in the lost war over the Atlantic Yards mega-project.
Prime 6 initially planned to cater to the arena crowd, have live music and offer a late-night outdoor patio bar — but then agreed to a compromise with neighbors, including an 11 pm outdoor curfew.
Pappalardo said he has no such patio plans, and vowed to “work out a set of stipulations” with the community before making a final presentation to the board next month.
Hours of operation will likely be the most contentious issue.
“From a business perspective, we know the neighborhood [clientele] is the most important,” Pappalardo promised. “We’re gonna work it out.”
The liquor license application will be discussed during a Community Board 6 committee meeting in May that has not yet been scheduled.
