Jay-Z to Play Eight Shows at New Brooklyn Nets Arena in 2012

Jay-Z will play a series of eight shows at the new Brooklyn Nets arena in 2012, the New York Daily News reports.

The shows, scheduled to kick off in fall 2012, will be the first concert series to be held at the Barclays Center, which is still under construction. The arena's official open date is Sept. 28, 2012.

This is where I'm from, I'll always be Brooklyn, and opening this arena will mean more to me than anywhere else, Jay-Z said at a news conference on Monday.

The 41-year-old rapper also confirmed the official name change for the team; the New Jersey Nets will now be known as the Brooklyn Nets.

The new NBA team will start the 2012-2013 season with plenty of luxury. All-access season passes are being sold for as much as $15,400 per season, while half of the new arena's 100 private boxes have already been snatched up, a spokesperson told the New York Daily News.

Besides all things basketball, Jay-Z will have another reason to celebrate next year. His wife Beyoncé is expected to give birth to the couple's first child in early 2012.

Jay-Z's most recent album, Watch the Throne (with Kanye West), has sold more than 870,000 copies in the U.S. since its August release.

The pair will tour more than 20 cities this fall in support of the album, starting with a show in Atlanta and ending the tour in Vancouver, Canada, just in time for Jay-Z's Brooklyn shows.

The new home of the Brooklyn Nets is the centerpiece to developer Bruce Ratner's controversial Atlantic Yards project, which includes 16-high rise buildings in the Prospect Heights area of Brooklyn.

In May 2010, the NBA handed over ownership of the Nets franchise to Russian billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov, who currently owns 80 percent of the team.

Details of the exact dates and prices of Jay-Z's 2012 arena shows were not revealed during Monday's announcement.