Nets-Clad Mayor Touts Free Playoff Tix For Vaccines At Barclays

BROOKLYN, NY — Don't throw away your shot at free playoff tickets.

New Yorkers who get vaccinated at a new mobile vaccine site at the Barclays Center will get the chance to win free tickets to a Brooklyn Nets playoff game, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced Tuesday.

The new vaccine site will be aimed at residents from neighborhoods hardest-hit by the coronavirus pandemic in the city's latest effort to boost a lagging vaccine distribution in 33 areas it identified as the most impacted by the pandemic.

"This is going to be another extraordinary effort to get people vaccinated and keep everyone safe," said a Nets swag-dressed de Blasio. "Go there...get vaccinated and enter the lottery."

The vaccine site will be open to those who have not yet been vaccinated in the 33 neighborhoods. In Brooklyn, that includes Bed-Stuy, Bushwick, East New York, Sunset Park, Coney Island, Flatbush, Midwood, Brownsville, East Flatbush, the Flatlands and Canarsie.

Residents in those neighborhoods who have already gotten their shot can also stop by the vaccine site to enter the playoff lottery, de Blasio said.

The mobile site comes as the Brooklyn Nets prepare to start their playoff run next week. Tickets for the games went on sale Tuesday morning.

Details about the launch of the mobile site are forthcoming Tuesday, the mayor said.

The Barclays Center — which has been at limited capacity since welcoming back fans in February — will fill almost all of its seats with vaccinated New Yorkers for the playoffs, Nets CEO John Abbamondi said Tuesday.

At least half of the seats in both the Barclays Center and Madison Square Garden are reserved for vaccinated New Yorkers under new rules from Gov. Andrew Cuomo, also announced this week.

A "handful" of socially distanced sections for unvaccinated fans will be set up at the Barclays Center, Abbamondi said.

"We’re going to get as close to full capacity as we’re able," he said. "...We’re looking forward to having Barclays Center be a raucous, raucous environment throughout the playoffs."

Perhaps one of those raucous fans will be the mayor himself, who made his allegiance to the Nets no secret with a matching cap and jersey — followed by a quick-change — during the announcement on Tuesday.

"The Nets are going to be in the playoffs for a long time, all the way to the end, so you’re going to have multiple chances to win playoff tickets," he said.