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Islanders Coming to Barclays Center in 2015
Wednesday, October 24, 2012 at 11:12AM 
Big news coming through the wire this morning: several sources are reporting that The NY Islanders will be moving out of their current home, Nassau Coliseum, and in a few years will be shacking up with the Nets in the Barclays Center.
Many postulated that it would make a lot of sense for a hockey team to move into the arena, and the Islanders were the obvious choice; apparently the team owners agreed as well. A major press conference is scheduled for 1 PM today, when it's assumed the official announcement will be made.
The Islanders have been looking for years to move out of, or renovate, their crumbling arena, and their lease is up in 2015. Islanders owner Charles Wang claims that he's losing $20 Million/ year, and a move to Brooklyn seems like the obvious choice.
A couple obstacles remain in their path, though: the Barclays Center would only able to seat 14,500 hockey fans, which makes it difficult to be profitable. Also, modifications to the locker room would need to be made to accommodate them, and ideally they'd also need a nearby practice facility.
Barclays Center
Reader Comments (15)
Awesome news-suck on that Barclays haters
Jbob, don't be such a pessimist - I can hate the Barclays Center AND the Islanders!
And which island is Barclays on?
Yoga, Long Island.
I was a huge Islanders fan growing up. I'm looking forward to reconnecting with them.
"Wire"? You have a wire? Yeah, right.
AWESOME! JUST AWESOME!
@schwartzkoph It's a metaphor.
What's a meta for?
Actually, don't think this qualifies as a metaphor. It's just a reference to a now-antiquated method of communicating news. If you're like me, you first learned of the Islanders' decision on the NY Times web site at about 9:15 AM this morning.
All in all, a coup for Brooklyn, although a headache for Flatbush Ave./Atlantic Ave. traffic.
Also a headache for those of us who reverse commute unless the LIRR adds trains.. took the train from Jamaica to Atlantic Monday, train was filled with Rush fans (very polite, by they way) Not looking forward to sharing my car with hockey fans..
Good god you people are a bunch of complainers.
This is great news for Brooklyn (the 4th largest city in the United States).
You wanted a sleepy suburb, move to Long Island. You don't live in the largest, most congested city in the nation and then get to complain about these things. It's a fast-changing global city, not Hempstead, L.I.
Get a life and start sweeping your block if you want to make our city better, being constantly negative on a local blog is not the answer.
Thanks for the reverse commuter perspective on things JSS. I'm surprised they didn't ask your permission before they signed the deal.
Agree 100% with Ed that the whiny ass comments this blog (and others) are a sad reflection on what "Brooklyn" has become.
Schwartzkopf, "the wire" is an expression that has passed into the language and isn't read literally in its original sense anymore, like "on the horn" for "on the phone" or "bcc" for "blind carbon copy." I think we all knew what Dan meant.
Christ, do I love when people start pulling out the "This is Brooklyn, stop whining you whiners! Only the people whining about the whiners are allowed to whine!"
Listen up geniuses, because this is simple enough even for you to understand: people get their panties in a bunch because they don't want their neighborhood to turn into the dead zone around Madison Square Garden.
For the most part they don't care about the teams, or the fans, or the concert goers -- they, like most people, just want to feel that their neighborhood is respected and relatively safe. And the more visitor traffic you introduce into a neighborhood (especially visitor traffic that is likely to be drinking, perhaps irresponsibly), the more likely a violation of respect or safety.
That's all it is.
...don't want their neighborhood to turn into the dead zone...
Is this area more of a dead zone now than when it was comprised of a long- out-of-use rail yard and stores you didn't patronize?