When last we checked in on the new New York Islanders arena at Belmont Park, team president Lou Lamoriello was swearing that it would be “ready for the coming season” despite apparently slow progress on construction. Three months later — and three months closer to the coming season — we learn this:
“I do expect us to be on the road at the beginning of the year,” said Islanders President and General Manager Lou Lamoriello. “That is our intention. I don’t want to say what the potential date is because it’s a moving target.”
This is a hell of a way to announce that your $1.3 billion arena complex will be weeks or possibly months late in opening, forcing your team to emulate the tragic tale of the Hartford Yard Goats. But to be fair, construction was delayed for a bit by the pandemic, so there’s no scandal here or anything. It is mildly puzzling why the Islanders won’t just play at the Nassau Coliseum while they wait, but presumably they figure it would be more lucrative to jam all their home games into the end of the season at their new place where they get to keep all the revenues rather than rent out the building down the road that they don’t own, and if the NHL is okay with that, then really it’s no skin off anyone’s nose except maybe Nick Mastroianni’s.
So I apologize for any lack of schadenfreude in this post. To make up for it, here are some screenshots from WCBS-TV’s exclusive look around the construction site:
Feel the excitement! It’ll probably look better once the “YES YES YES CHAMPIONS! GO!” signage is up, or at least through wine goggles.
Probably because they’ve sold “15,000” season tickets for the new building and the old barn doesn’t hold that much anymore. Why issue refunds if you don’t have to?
I should have mentioned this above, but I am a little puzzled at how the NHL is supposed to draw up a schedule if the opening date is “TBD.” Do they just start flipping home and road dates with other teams if the construction delays drag on? What do the opposing teams do then about tickets they already sold for games in April that suddenly get moved to Long Island?
Is there a reason why they can’t just do what MLB does for rainouts or otherwise rescheduled games?
I would expect the league will schedule the Islanders on the road for the first 2-3 weeks, perhaps with a reduced schedule (7-10 games in the first month rather than the usual 13-14).
They could make it easier to adjust location by also scheduling mostly in division/conference games for the first month or six weeks. As long as you have home and road games with the scheduled opponent, you can always flip dates (as you noted).
Right, that works fine if it takes a month. If it unexpectedly takes two months, then you have some issues.
I can see them wanting to keep all their home games for the coming season in the new arena. That is what the team and the fans have wanted for decades – an arena that is truly hockey and truly their own. Then to have to play elsewhere (even if it is the old fan favorite “Old Barn) disrupts the flow of the start of this new age of New York Islanders hockey. Besides, it will potentially give the Isles more home games at the end of the season when they may mean a lot more. Especially with a shorter off season this year. Come the end of the new season their legs may not be as solid as the ice late in the season.
No talk about playing in their former home in Brooklyn? Or Kansas City? And just when I bought a season ticket to the UBS arena( we put the U in BS as they said on “Fernwood 2-Tonight)”. . By the way, how is that railroad station/spur for eastern Long Island?