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The Secret Behind Barclays Center’s New Car Smell


May 20, 2013 | Andy Cush

Attend an event at the Barclays Center, and you’re greeted by a luxuriant ambience–top-notch local food, black leather trim everywhere, and a smell like the inside of a brand new Benz. It’s easy not to consciously notice the scent at first–it’s all part of the experience–but consider it for a while and it becomes downright bizarre. How does an arena manage to keep continue smelling as fresh and sophisticated as a spray of Yankees cologne fine leather, day in and day out?

The answer, according to DNAinfo, is ScentAir, a company that–no joke–specializes in giving arenas, retail stores, and theme parks their “signature scents.” Neither representatives from ScentAir nor Barclays Center confirmed that any special smells were being used, but a “source familiar with the matter” did. ScentAir’s other clients include the Times Square Hershey’s Store (mmm, fresh chocolate), and the stadiums of the Dallas Cowboys, Atlanta Hawks, and St. Louis Rams, who chose a cotton candy odor for their arena for some reason.

“It became a topic of conversation and something [a local meet-up group] wanted to get to the bottom of,” a resident of the neighborhood told DNAinfo. “You have this stadium and it’s big and metallic and industrial looking, and you have this smell of perfume coming out of it, so it was kind of amusing.”

(Photo: Darkhunger/Wikimedia Commons)