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April 24, 2012
Post tours Barclays Center construction site
The Brooklyn Blog [NYPost.com]
by Rich Calder
Credit the Post's Rich Calder for not letting Bruce Ratner dodge the crazy idea that the Barclays Center could ever be the permanent home of a professional hockey team (or the Islanders).
Q: What are your thoughts on the potential of the Islanders playing at Barclays Center permanently?
A: First off, I think the goal for everyone is that the Islanders stay in New York State. That’s No. 1. Obviously, if they are able to build an arena in Long Island -- wonderful. But we’d love to have them here if it does not work out. Having a two-sport arena would be terrific. The Islanders have a wonderful history, and it would be great to have them in Brooklyn. And Brooklyn is part of Long Island after all, so it would be great to have them.
Q: What is your sense or gut feeling on the likelihood of the Islanders coming to Brooklyn?
A: I don’t think I have a sense one way or another. It is still three years until [the Islanders] finish up their lease, so we’ll have discussions and I think it depends on what happens with building an [new] arena in Long Island.
Q: How many people will the arena hold?
A: 18,200 for basketball, 19,000 for concerts and likely 14,500 for hockey.
Q: Regarding hockey, is there any chance that more seating down the road could be added for hockey? [14,500 seats would make it the smallest NHL hockey venue]
A: Here’s the issue: Hockey is the kind of sport that because of the dasher [boards] you can get a slightly obstructed seat when the puck is right on your side. We can hold 18,000 for hockey. The question is how many above 14,500 would have somewhat obstructed seats. We have a good sense of it [that the number of seats not obstructed is about 14,500], so if your question is whether we’d want to put in more seats? Probably not. Can we change the obstructions? Probably not. Will more seats be okay? Possibly.
Posted by eric at April 24, 2012 10:46 AM