Islanders Going to Brooklyn, a Coup for New Arena

The New York Islanders, who have played in Nassau County, on Long Island, since they began play in 1972, will move to the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, officials announced on Wednesday.

The deal was officially announced Wednesday afternoon at a news conference at the new arena in Brooklyn with Charles E. Wang, the owner of the Islanders, and Bruce Ratner, the owner of the Barclays Center.

Under the 25-year agreement, which has to be officially approved by the National Hockey League, the Islanders would move to the Barclays for the 2015-16 season. The fate of this year’s hockey season is in limbo because of a labor dispute.

“We have tried very hard to keep the Islanders in their original home in Long Island,'’ Mr. Wang said. “Unfortunately, we were unable to achieve that dream. Our goal was always to have the Islanders play in a local world-class facility that contains the amenities our fans deserve.'’

The Barclays is already home to the Brooklyn Nets basketball team, which moved from New Jersey, and adding a hockey team would represent a major coup for Mr. Ratner and his arena. The Islanders would play 41 regular-season home games, doubling the number of professional sports games at the Barclays. But unlike the Nets, the Islanders would keep New York in their name.

Mr. Ratner, who negotiated the agreement with Mr. Wang, said that Mr. Wang had fielded offers to move the Islanders to other cities. “But Charles didn’t’ do that,'’ he said. “He wanted to keep them in the State of New York and keep them local.'’

The Barclays Center is not ideally suited for hockey — a hockey rink is bigger than a basketball court — and the size of the arena’s interior was reduced to pare costs. As a result, the arena has room for 14,500 seats for hockey, far smaller than most other hockey stadiums and 3,500 seats fewer than are available for Nets games. Gary Bettman, the comssioner of National Hockey Association, said there had been discussions with Mr. Ratner and Mr. Wang about the possibility of adding more seats to raise the capacity to just over 15,000. But, Mr. Bettman said, the arena’s capacity was “not an issue.'’

The Islanders’ current home, the Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Uniondale, N.Y., has a capacity of about 16,250, and the team’s average home attendance last season was 13,191.

The $1 billion arena is the centerpiece of Mr. Ratner’s sprawling Atlantic Yards development in Downtown Brooklyn. The project has been met with fierce opposition with critics citing its size, the increased traffic the arena will attract and what they claim is an inadequate amount of low-priced housing that will ultimately be built.

For Long Island, the loss of the Islanders, the only major professional sports team in the region, would be a blow to its civic pride, though it has been 19 years since the team last won the Stanley Cup.

Just heard Mr. Wang on the Mike Francesca Show. He said the team name, logo & colors will remain the same.

Cool! I'm not really a hockey fan, but if it's good for NYC, I love it.

This means we have two football teams, two basketball teams, two baseball teams, and two hockey teams, right? (I'm not really a huge sports fan...is there any other city that matches that?)

uPtoWnNY said:

Just heard Mr. Wang on the Mike Francesca Show. He said the team name, logo & colors will remain the same.

I figured as much.

a) you don't want to piss off "Long Island" fans who now have to travel across the Great Wall of Queens, too much.

b) we're all still trying to forget the ill-fated logo change fiasco from back when they changed it to that creepy fisherman dude.

[img:$uid]http://images3.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20100914171612/logopedia/images/2/22/200px-New_York_Islanders_logo_281995E280939729_svg.png[/img:$uid]

I think the new one is an improvement over the one they had before.

PurpleJedi said:

uPtoWnNY said:

Just heard Mr. Wang on the Mike Francesca Show. He said the team name, logo & colors will remain the same.

I figured as much.

a) you don't want to piss off "Long Island" fans who now have to travel across the Great Wall of Queens, too much.

b) we're all still trying to forget the ill-fated logo change fiasco from back when they changed it to that creepy fisherman dude.

[img:$uid]http://images3.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20100914171612/logopedia/images/2/22/200px-New_York_Islanders_logo_281995E280939729_svg.png[/img:$uid]

KoolEaze said:

I think the new one is an improvement over the one they had before.

PurpleJedi said:

I figured as much.

a) you don't want to piss off "Long Island" fans who now have to travel across the Great Wall of Queens, too much.

b) we're all still trying to forget the ill-fated logo change fiasco from back when they changed it to that creepy fisherman dude.

[img:$uid]http://images3.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20100914171612/logopedia/images/2/22/200px-New_York_Islanders_logo_281995E280939729_svg.png[/img:$uid]

Let me clarify it...they introduced that "fisherman" logo, and people hated it so much, that they changed it BACK to the traditional one;

What's funny is that...if you notice the "map" of Long Island on that logo...it actually only represents Nassau & Suffolk counties. The "head" of the island which is Queens and Kings (Brooklyn) counties is omitted because it's part of New York City and traditionally not considered "Long Island".

So...now that they're playing in Brooklyn...methinks that a change is logo is due.