Venue News: Nets Begin Ticket Sales for Unfinished Brooklyn Arena

The Nets’ new home in Brooklyn is still an unfinished collection of steel beams, but the seats that are still quite a bit away from being actual seats are on sale — for some. Getting a full season’s jump on selling season tickets at Barclays Center, the Nets started their sales effort this week. Available now only to current season-ticket holders are premium season passes, which include unlimited food, concierge service and other perks. They start at $99 per game and go up to $1,500. The Nets’ chief executive, Brett Yormark, said the team started sales to gauge how many season-ticket holders would re-up for the move to Brooklyn. The passes will be offered in June to fans who do not hold season tickets, and the rest of the tickets will be available in the fall…

…Pierre Karl Peladeau, the chairman of media giant Quebecor, has met with Edmonton Oilers owner Daryl Katz to discuss hockey — and small-market hockey teams. Katz invited Peladeau to chat in Katz’s box at Rexall Place this week during a game between the Oilers and the Los Angeles Kings, said Martin Tremblay, Quebecor’s senior adviser on special projects. The invitation came two weeks ago during a previous encounter between the businessmen. Tremblay told a radio station the men talked hockey and about the return of a team to Quebec City, which is actively seeking one to put in a new proposed sports arena being financed by the city and the provincial government…

…The Sacramento Kings may be headed for the exit, but their threatened departure has energized the effort to build a new sports arena. A grass-roots campaign emerged Wednesday to raise money for a new facility in Sacramento. Within hours, the movement spread through social media and billboards along area freeways. At the same time, Sacramento city leaders vowed to press ahead with their years-long, frequently frustrating effort to find an arena financing plan that works. A city-sponsored development team continues to analyze the economics of a new building, with a report expected in late May…

…A new Minnesota Vikings stadium, including a roof, would be built with up to $300 million in state money raised from an assortment of new fees and taxes, under a plan that will be introduced at the Legislature next week. The new details emerged late Thursday, when two leading Republican legislators sent a letter to their colleagues broadly outlining the public subsidy package for the project and told them that “the time has come to move forward on a bill”…