The Case To Move The New York Islanders Back To Nassau

The Barclays Center and Nassau Coliseum have shared dual custody of the New York Islanders this season. Even with their new Belmont Arena on the horizon, it’s best for the franchise and their fans to come back home to the best arena they ever knew, Nassau Coliseum.

On Sunday night, the Carolina Hurricanes defeated the New York Islanders to take a 2-0 series lead in the Eastern Conference Semifinal. It wasn’t the result Isles fans wanted, nor where was it where they wanted it to be.

The Islanders have been having a great year, but this past season have lived somewhat of a nomadic existence. They have divided their time between the Barclays Center in Brooklyn and their original home of Nassau Coliseum. Not to mention they’re also in the process of building their hockey specific stadium next to the Belmont Park Racetrack.

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For the vast majority of their inception, the Islanders played on Long Island at Nassau Coliseum. In fact, Nassau Coliseum is the only reason the team exists, as the NHL awarded an expansion franchise to the area in a knee jerk reaction to keep the then-emerging World Hockey Association out of the arena. Nassau Coliseum itself predates the very franchise that made it famous.

If the walls of Nassau Coliseum could talk, they would paint a vivid image of NHL history, especially in the modern era, when the likes of Bob Nystrom, Bryan Trottier, and Denis Potvin skated on the ice en route to four consecutive Stanley Cup championships and earned the arena the beloved nicknamed of “Fort Neverlose”.

As time went on and the NHL arenas of old were bulldozed for the arenas of LCD scoreboards and high ticket luxury suites, the Coliseum becoming incredibly obsolete,. However, players still spoke highly of its vintage charm.

After years of failed promises by local government to highly renovate the arena fell through, then Islanders owner Charles Wong haste fully and almost spitefully moved the team to play in the newly constructed Barclays Center in what was described as an ironclad contract. No matter if you liked the Islanders or not, after seeing he decaying conditions at the Coliseum at the time, Barclays Center at least looked like a step up.

The lease between the Islanders and Barclays Center was revolutionary in the way it dealt with revenue sharing and rent. However, the move to Brooklyn has been an unmitigated disaster from the beginning.

While most arenas these days are built to accommodate both ice hockey and basketball comfortably, to say hockey was an afterthought with Barclays is an understatement.  A good portion of the arena has obstructed views and watch any Islanders “home” game in Brooklyn and you’ll see an arena that’s ranked last in the NHL in attendance the past two years.

The Brooklyn Nets also haven’t been the best landlords. Declaring their own supremacy over Barclays Center, they borderline evicted the Islanders due to lack of revenue and more or less the hassle of the arena not being Nets exclusive.

Luckily for the Isles, the Coliseum finally got heavily renovated following their departure, giving them a place to play when NBA basketball took priority. NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman and his disdain for small capacity arenas were apparently not happy with the decision, but Islanders fans were ecstatic.

The NHL made its feelings about Nassau Coliseum well-known. Just look at this New York Times article discussing the New York Islanders then playoff aspirations.

"The Islanders announced Friday that the team and its fans may have to make their way back to Brooklyn in the playoffs. Should the Islanders reach the postseason, the first round of home games would be played at Nassau Coliseum, but subsequent rounds would be at Barclays Center because, according to a team statement, “Nassau Coliseum does not qualify as an N.H.L. major league facility.”"

Lost in all this mess, the Islanders had been planning, and finally had their own hockey specific arena approved to be built next to the Belmont Park racetrack last summer. Although always denied and never acknowledged, it’s widely believed the rush to get a new stadium coincided with the push to resign then franchise player John Tavares to give him an extra incentive to stay with the Islanders.

Even though the arena was approved, Tavares still moved onto the Maple Leafs. His homecoming to the Islanders, whether they were in Nassau or Brooklyn, haven’t been pleasant, to say the least.

When the Islanders clinched the playoffs this year, it was announced that the first round series would have its home games at the Nassau Coliseum, just like old times. However, subsequent rounds have been moved to Barclays Center.

Following the Brooklyn Nets first round exit in the NBA playoffs, this left the Islanders as the only major league sports action in Brooklyn. Even though fans showed up at Barclays to cheer their team one, ask any of them and they would tell you they’d rather be back on Long Island.

The difference in atmosphere between the two arenas during Islanders games is amazing and well noted. During the two home games of the Islanders four-game sweep of the Pittsburgh Penguins, the in-arena excitement was electric and well noted for its tailgating atmosphere. There was even one brave man who began tailgating at 9:30 am, because not only is it for the cup, but it’s at their old barn.

The NHL is business and money talks. Tickets for the Islanders opening round matchup sold for significantly higher than their second-round matchup when they went back to being banished in Brooklyn, even though they’re closer to the cup than before. It’s also worth noting that the renovated Coliseum has a seating capacity for ice hockey of only 13,900, but when every seat was filled it easily beat the atmosphere of the almost 15,800 seat capacity for the Islanders where many go empty.

What’s done is done, and with the playoffs in full swing right now it would be too much of a coordinated effort to re-route all potential future Islanders playoff games back to Nassau, but what about the future? The Islanders new Belmont Park arena is still years away, but barely any progress has been made. Maybe the Islanders should change course and decide to stay on Long island long-term where they belong?

Bettman wouldn’t be happy with the plan, as the arena and its projected 18,000 seating capacity is up to his standards, but we are talking about the Islanders that have been running with an average crowd of less than 14,000 the past few seasons. Sure a new arena will generate enough buzz for sellout crowds for a few weeks, but then it will go back down to point television camera will have to find a way not to pan out to empty seats.

The NHL overlooks the fact that the Islanders fan base is still mostly on Long Island, and hold emotional attachments to it. It’s easier to drive and tailgate to the Coliseum than navigate mass transit to go to Brooklyn. It would be a similar situation as if the New York Rangers decided to move to Westchester, but the opposite.

The alternative is the Islanders staying in the much smaller Coliseum, where enthusiastic fans will sell out almost every game. Bigger is not always better when it comes to sporting arenas if a good portion of the seats won’t have paying customers in them.

And now let’s look at the business economics for the Islanders. Between Madison Square Garden, Prudential Center, Barclays Center, Giants Stadium, Yankee Stadium, Citi Field and the various other concert venues, the New York area is over saturated of arenas to hold additional, non-sporting events.

Every sports team wants to have their own arena so they don’t have to worry about sharing with another team, but when it comes to those off-season events such as concerts to bring in revenue, those acts aren’t stopping everywhere.

The New Jersey Devils arena has largely been able to get away with this. Make every joke you want about the Devils attendance, but Prudential Center has been an extremely successful arena in its own rights and bookings with non-hockey event supplementing Devils ticket revenue. In fact, it’s the success of the arena itself that’s helped drive up the value of the New Jersey Devils franchise as a whole.

The Islander have found their historic home and identity on Long Island. That’s what’s made them so successful in the shadow of the New York Rangers, and to turn their back on their home and the community that embraced them would be completely foolish. This year’s short little limited return to the Coliseum should be proof of concept this is where the Islanders belong.

Before concrete is poured and foundations are set, the Islanders should cancel plans for the new arena and stay on Long Island. Even as much as the Islanders want to actually own their stadium, after losing their team once there’s no way Nassau want to lose their team again and would most likely be more than willing to ink an extremely team friendly deal to keep the Islanders.

The two biggest arguments against the “old” Coliseum was that it was outdated and lacked capacity. Following the 2017 renovations, the arena was brought up to the most recent NHL standards and solved that issue.

As for capacity, it’s better to have 14,000 screaming hockey fans that live for their team (did I mention the guy who started tailgating at 8:30 am for a playoff game? I did? Well I’m mentioning him again because he’s my hero) than an arena so empty it relies on in arena car advertisements to look full.

They’re the New York Islanders. Not the New York Brooklynites, or the New York Belmont Park-ers (is that even the way you’d say that?). So far with the Islanders new ownership has done everything right. Bringing the Islanders back to where they belong would be a slam dunk.