Denis Hamill is a native of blue-collar Brooklyn He has long supported the Nets move to Brooklyn and uses the occasion of Friday's ribbon-cutting ceremony to write about the value of home teams.

"I keep thinking how great it would have been to grow up shouting, 'Go, Brooklyn!' — which is like rooting for yourself. That’s what the kids of the New Brooklyn will get to do in this new Barclays Center," writes Hamill in the Daily News. He argues that it's the kids who will drive loyalty (and force their parents --who might have been critics-- to bring them to games, concerts and the circus.)

Meanwihile, Daniel Goldstein, the last holdout in the battle that slowed arena development, said he would protest the ribbon-cutting as part of a coalition of critics.

• Brooklyn's Barclays Center is a rallying cry for borough that has been absent of a major sports team since Dodgers left town in 1957 - Denis Hamil - New York Daily News
• Last man standing in the way of Barclays Center plan to picket ceremonial ribbon cutting - Erin Durkin & Corky Siemaszko - New York Daily News