Three months from Wednesday, Barclays Center will debut as a sports venue, the first arena to be built in New York since Madison Square Garden opened in 1968, the first time since 1957 that a pro team will play in Brooklyn since 1957. Bruce Ratner took Daily News columnist --and Brooklyn native Denis Hamil-- on a tour of the facility recently, talking a lot about community access.

"There will be 2,000 $15 seats at every Brooklyn Nets game, and 50% of Nets tickets will be $55 or less. About 7,000 of Jay-Z’s tickets at each concert sold for $29.50," Ratner told Hamil.

"I still have butterflies," Ratner adds. "After 10 years, a financial crisis that almost killed us, community protests pro and con, and 35 judicial decisions, the arena will open on Sept. 28. But we have 32,000 applications from the local community for 1,900 part-time jobs and 100 full-time jobs."

• A whole new arena - Brooklyn's O'Malley curse begins to end in 60 days - Denis Hamil - New York Daily News
• Popper: Nets on the spot right away - Steve Popper - The Record