As pro sports owners try to differentiate their offerings from highly produced TV and cater to the high end of the economic scale, their offerings will be unique.
A few days before the Brooklyn Nets retired Vince Carter’s jersey at center court of Barclays Center, the arena was the the scene of a more exclusive affair, one not featuring bottles rather than a ball or a jersey: the launch of BSE Global’s latest initiative, the Brooklyn Wine Club.
The Club is part of a broader effort to enhance the arena experience … and cater to the higher end of fandom. It is also among the first steps in a BSE Global play to create a “destination’ around Barclays, one that the Nets parent company hopes will eventually lead to a hotel, conference center, marketplace plus connective tissue like a proprietary media network to draw audiences to the overall arts and cultural scene in Brooklyn. For now, though, it begins with wine.
Indeed, things like the wine club among the ways pro sports owners are looking at to differentiate their in-house product from highly produced televised and streamed sports. The game may be the game, but the experience is often what teams are selling. In the case of the Wine Club and other planned offerings, the experience will not only enhance game experience but provide a stand-alone experience not necessarily associated with the games, a revenue stream independent of what the Nets and Liberty are doing.
So, on January 25, about 100 people, members and non-members of the club, were invited to the BWC launch, a tasting that took place at one of Barclays Center’s two premium clubs, the 12,000 square foot Toki Row, itself a new addition and part of the “eco-system” Joe and Clara Wu Tsai and BSE Global CEO Sam Zussman are planning.
The two-hour event was more a social gathering than anything else. It does advertise itself as a “club,” after all! The evening featured a number of BSE Hospitality Group’s 20 in-house sommeliers — wine stewards — who circulated among the crowd offering a “curated selection” of Bordeaux wines as well as sake, each somm also offering a description of the vintage to be sampled.
The sommeliers also provided each person a personal wine tasking “score card” and as each wine was poured, a square on the card was stamped.
Meanwhile, those present were offered savories put together by Livio Velardo, Executive Chef at Barclays Center in collaboration with Margot, an up-and-coming Fort Greene restaurant.
Not a dining experience per se, but one instead centered on pairing food with the evening’s selection of wines. The tasting was typical of New York’s growing wine club culture, with more than 100 currently operating in the city. Members pay a fee — in this case. $1,500 a year — to enjoy, as the New York Times described it, “a fun and convenient way to discover wines you might not normally try on your own.” In some cases, an additional fee is charged. (At the club’s first tasting, members paid $125 for the experience, non-members $175.)
The club was full.
Although not present, the Tsais and Oliver Weisberg, the director of their family office, Blue Pool Capital, have been the driving force in the wine club. All of them are “oenophiles,” wine lovers with an interest in vintages across the globe. (In fact, the Tsais recently invested in some celebrated vineyards in Burgundy, France. No financial details were provided but wine experts told NetsDaily the purchase may have cost him tens of millions of dollars.)
“We have an ownership group that is passionate about wine and we have some remarkable spaces in the arena we could stand up rather quickly and create exceptional experiences and we really wanted to do something I’d say a bit more non-traditional in the world of wine and we wanted to do it first.” Shanon Ferguson, BSE Global’s Chief Hospitality Officer, recently told NetsDaily.
Ferguson also said the wine experience will ultimately be expanded beyond the high rollers.
“Our next project that we’re looking at is in the upper concourse,” he told ND. “There’s going to be an association to this as well. It’s going to be an experience at an elevated level that everyone is going to have access to and wine will be a nice complementary part of that.“
Do features like the wine club, the new premium clubs and the Crown Club, a high-end restaurant, change the traditional fan dynamic where everyone roots for the home team no matter what their economic status? Perhaps, but in pro sports, that equality of experience has long since been delineated by courtside seats and suites and now even more expensive amenities. BSE Global can also point to a planned $100 million renovation of Barclays Center that will improve everyone’s experience.
BSE Global says in the future wine club events will take place throughout Barclays Center, including The Toki Row, JetBlue at The Key, the other premium club across the arena, as well as the Crown Club – but also throughout the borough as more events are announced.
Upcoming wine club events include Sip, Savor, IWA Sake (February 13, 2025), Lingua Franca: A Vertical Exploration with Larry Stone (February 27, 2025), and Burgundy & Baskets Paulée-Style (March 28, 2025).
Photos provided by BSE Global and NetsDaily.