NEW YORK, NY September 09, 2009 —Developer Bruce Ratner has released new renderings for a Nets basketball arena in Brooklyn. They're the first official ones released since architect Frank Gehry was dropped in June. WNYC's Matthew Schuerman has more.

REPORTER: The new design looks a bit like a race car with alternating bands of steel and glass. Instead of the flashy blue-tinted metal that Gehry proposed, the steel here features a brownish hue. The simpler design brings the cost down from nearly a billion dollars to $800 million. Part of the cost-cutting comes from reducing the number of luxury suites from 130 to just 100. The developer is hoping to finish the arena, along with a mixed-income apartment tower, in just two years. An opposition group, Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn, said in a statement that "Designs come and go but they change nothing." The developer still has to win a case in the state's highest court, and sell bonds, by the end of the year in order to move forward. For WNYC, I'm Matthew Schuerman.

To see the new design, and the ones that came before it, visit our news blog.