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July 17, 2012
Long Island's arena reluctance could lead to Brooklyn Islanders
Sports Business Journal via The Sporting News
by Christopher Botta
By all accounts, Chris Botta is a smart guy who knows hockey. Which makes his propagating the nonsense that the Islanders might remotely consider playing anything but exhibition games in the Barclays Center all the more mind-boggling. As the seating chart below shows, playing hockey in the Nets' arena would be like playing the World Series in Arthur Ashe Stadium.
With only three years left on a lease that team officials insist they will not extend, and no deal for a new arena in sight, the New York Islanders' best option to continue playing in New York in 2015 might be in Brooklyn, at the soon-to-open Barclays Center.
...Asked whether his arena would welcome the Islanders when the lease in Nassau runs out, Barclays Center developer Bruce Ratner said, "I would hope that's possible."
Bruce would hope he isn't loathed in the neighborhoods around Atlantic Yards, too, but his hoping doesn't make it so.
Here, though, is the clincher:
Asked last week about the possibility of the Islanders moving into his building in 2015, Barclays Center and Nets CEO Brett Yorkmark said, "We are interested in bringing NHL hockey to Brooklyn. We feel very strongly about Brooklyn as a hockey market and know we can accommodate it from a building perspective."
Anyone remotely familiar with the Nets Chief Exaggeration Officer knows that when Brett Yormark says "we can accommodate it from a building perspective," there's absolutely NO WAY the Barclays Center can physically accommodate hockey.
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More magical thinking...
Puck Daddy [Yahoo! Sports], Brooklyn Islanders? New arena says it’s ready for NHL tenant
Yormark also said he looks forward to "continued dialogue" about the Islanders' playing more games at Barclays Center.
NoLandGrab: Of course Yormark looks forward to more of this nonsense — it keeps his arena in the headlines.
ProHockeyTalk [NBCSports.com], Brooklyn gains steam as possible Islanders destination
Perhaps the Islanders could alleviate the smaller seating concerns by charging more for tickets in a fairly wealthy area?
NLG: Yes, great idea. Charge more for terrible sightlines. Genius.
The Hockey Writers, Five Reasons Why the NY Islanders Future is in Brooklyn
The Islanders play an exhibition game in the Barclays center on October 2nd, giving everyone a chance to see how the arena will play to a hockey crowd. After seeing how that goes everyone can get a better idea of how the arena will work for hockey.
NLG: Promise? Then we can be done with all this "Brooklyn Islanders" fantasy.
SNYRangersBlog.com, Read: The Brooklyn Option For The Islanders
The Barclays Center only holds 14,500 for hockey and it has been said in the past that the building developers were against a hockey team playing there when the arena was being constructed.
In terms of seating, Botta tweets, “Charles Wang does things differently. Doubt he’s worried much about the current U-shaped seat plan for hockey at Barclays.”
Posted by eric at July 17, 2012 12:01 PM