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Scent Of An Arena
With its sweeping steel and glass exterior and boisterous crowds, the new
The venue is making a push to appeal to fans’ olfactory senses with a “signature scent” piped into the concourse. It has garnered some mixed reviews on social media sites.
“Barclays Center an impressive venue but whole place smells like Calvin Klein store,” a visitor recently tweeted. “Exclusive olfactory sponsor of the Nets?”
“If you dislike the intense smell of aromatherapy you might want to skip every hallway in this place!” another complained on Foursquare. “It’s pumped into the ventilation or something. Too much!”
Representatives for Barclays Center didn’t respond to Pollstar’s request for comment but the city’s DNAinfo.com stuck its nose into things.
A source reportedly close to the matter told the site the scent is the work of ScentAir.
The company produces scents for theme parks, stadiums and stores around the world, and says its creations help clients “connect on emotional and memorable levels” with customers and strengthen brand identity.
The NFL’s St. Louis Rams is one such client. The team signed on with ScentAir earlier this year to pump a cotton candy smell into Edward Jones Dome on game days. Another venue, the Mahaffey Theater in St. Petersburg, Fla., enlisted the help of ScentAir in 2011 for a coconut mango signature scent.
Even artists have jumped aboard the scent bandwagon.
ScentAir declined to tell DNAinfo what scent the company may or may not have produced for Barclays Center, but the smell has been described by some as fresh and citrusy.
“It’s kind of pleasant,” sports writer Josh Newman told the website. “It just makes the atmosphere more enjoyable. You don’t have to smell food or anything else.”