‘No Sleep ’til Brooklyn’ for the Islanders
It was announced yesterday that the New York Islanders will finally leave the Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Long Island and play at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn from 2015-16.
The Isles will honour the last three seasons of their lease before moving boroughs. It has been a drawn out affair for the Isles who have wanted to develop a new arena in Nassau County as their present home, since 1972, is tired and lacking the feel of other arenas. However, the current projected hockey capacity for the Barclays Center is 14,500 which will be a reduction on their current 16,250 capacity.
Isles owner Charles Wang has finally brokered a deal to move the Isles after years of attempting to get a new stadium in Nassau. In 2006, the “Lighthouse Project” was agreed in principle but voters in 2011 voted against a tax-payer funded replacement for the Coliseum. This effectively signalled the end of the Isles in Long Island as Wang had stated in 2009 that he would move the team if a new stadium wasn’t constructed.
The $1 billion Barclays Center opened last month and their first tenants are the NBA’s Brooklyn Nets. The Nets have moved from their New Jersey home of 35 years and have changed name in the process. The Isles fans need not worry that their team will do the same as Wang said “We are the New York Islanders” to reinforce the fact that the brand has a more encompassing demographic than just Long Islanders. The first ice hockey games will, however, be KHL games as HC Dynamo Moscow and SKA St Petersburg are due to play twice in January 2013.
For the New York Islanders fans, it will be quite a wrench as the Coliseum has been their home since inception in 1972. The Isles won 4 Stanley Cups (1979-80 to 1982-83) and, for many, leaving Uniondale will be difficult. NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman managed demonstrate, once again, how out of touch he is with fans by commenting that the new stadia was ‘only a train ride away’ for Isles fans. “You don’t have to worry about the future of this team,” he said. “It’s remaining local.”
As touched on earlier, the Barclays Centre will become the smallest capacity arena in the NHL and will replace the Winnepeg Jets home of MTS Centre at the bottom of the list. The Coliseum currently resides just above the MTS Centre currently. Again, Bettman commented on the possibility of taking the new arena to over 15,000; “A thousand seats – I don’t think it makes a material difference.”
(Main image courtesy of Adam Moreira – @aemoreira81 / Photobucket )