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Billy Joel Fan Injured at Concert Sues Barclays Center Over Seating Design

 Billy Joel performed at the Barclays Center on New Year's Eve in 2013. A Long Island woman who was injured at the show when a drunken concert-goer fell on her is suing Barclays' operators, claiming the arena's seating rows are too steep and narrow.
Billy Joel performed at the Barclays Center on New Year's Eve in 2013. A Long Island woman who was injured at the show when a drunken concert-goer fell on her is suing Barclays' operators, claiming the arena's seating rows are too steep and narrow.
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Noam Galai/Getty Images

PARK SLOPE — A Long Island woman is suing the operators of the Barclays Center, claiming the arena's narrow seat rows caused a blotto Billy Joel fan to tumble and land on her while the Piano Man tickled the ivories during a New Year's Eve concert.

Elizabeth Silver, 53, and her husband, Lewis, filed a lawsuit in Brooklyn Supreme Court last week, accusing the Barclays Center's operators of having "an unreasonably unsafe, hazardous and dangerous seating design in the upper levels of the arena."

The lawsuit says the rows for the upper deck seating are too narrow and too steep for people to navigate — especially when tipsy.

The drunken concert-goer was staggering back to his seat while juggling multiple alcoholic drinks he had just purchased when he fell on Silver on Dec. 31, 2013, according to the lawsuit.

Moments before the fall, the boozed-up bozo was spotted "stumbling in a dangerous fashion from an arena concession stand, passed arena personnel and up a steeply inclined set of steps while attempting to return to his seat," the lawsuit says.

Silver suffered permanent injuries, according to the lawsuit, but it does not provide details about them. The lawsuit also does not say how many rows the concert-goer fell before landing on Silver.

The Silvers, who live in Oakdale, L.I., blame the arena's operators, Brooklyn Events Center and AEG Management Brooklyn, for not cutting off the drunken concert-goer's access to alcohol.

They also claim in the lawsuit that the operators have known "of the unsafe and dangerous nature of the seating design based upon the many prior complaints by other patrons."

The Brooklyn arena, which is home to the Nets, opened in 2012, drawing both praise and criticism for the exterior's rust-colored steel and undulating shape.

But some commenters on the online review site Yelp and other social media sites have complained about the vertiginous stairs and rows inside the arena.

The Silvers' lawyer did not return a call for comment. 

A spokesman for Brooklyn Events Center said the company had not yet been served with the lawsuit and declined to comment.

AEG Management did not respond to a request for comments.