New York Islanders Announce Move to New Arena in Brooklyn

The Barclays Center, the home of the NBA’s Brooklyn Nets, is getting another major tenant. The New York Islanders of the National Hockey League have announced they will leave Long Island as of the 2015 season for the brand-new facility.

Owner Charles Wang has long sought a new building to replace the Nassau Coliseum, which opened its doors in 1972. Nassau County taxpayers in 2001 had rejected a $400-million proposal for a new arena to have been funded by a bond issue. Wang then floated an idea in 2003 for a project — to have been built with private funds — which would have included housing, retail spaces and a new arena; the plan died amid local opposition to the development.

Former Islanders player and current hockey analyst Ray Ferraro sounded off on what it was like to play in the building on Long Island…

On Wednesday morning, Wang announced a 25-year deal to share the building with the Nets. Also present at the announcement were the center’s majority owner, Bruce Ratner, along with New York mayor Michael Bloomberg and NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman.

Within the current configuration, the Barclays Center would hold only 14,500 for hockey; the MTS Centre in Winnipeg is the smallest arena in the league at the moment, with a listed capacity of just over 15,000 fans. Bettman had previously expressed reservations about the viability of Brooklyn as a destination for the Islanders, but there shouldn’t be a problem with transportation: the arena is accessible via 11 different subway lines and the Long Island Rail Road.

Although the Islanders have fallen on hard times in recent years — fan attendance is among the bottom five in the league, averaging just under 14,000, and the team hasn’t made the playoffs since 2007 — the Coliseum had a dynasty team playing on its ice surface two decades previously: the Islanders won four straight Stanley Cups from 1980-83.

A preseason game which had already been scheduled for the Barclays Center was cancelled by the lockout. The Islanders were slated to face off against the New Jersey Devils Oct. 2, billed as the first pro hockey game to ever be played in Brooklyn.

Now that the news is confirmed, one of the obvious questions is: should the club eventually dump its Islanders nickname despite the NHL insisting that the name be kept? Yes, technically Brooklyn is located on the western end of Long Island, but reality is not as much fun as speculation. So what should be the new monicker: the Brooklyn Atlantics? The New York Strangers? Maybe it will be the Dodgers — no pro team in Brooklyn has used that one in a while….