Congrats To Islander Fans! The Roller Coaster Ride Has Come To An End!

[DL44]

http://www.tsn.ca/nhl/story/?id=408031

Cliff notes:

- NYI move to Brooklyn starting with the 2015-16 season

- 25 Year ironclad Lease without out clauses.

- Play at Barclay's Center

- Likely about 15,150 seats after reno's

- They will keep the name New York Islanders

- Wang was committed to keeping the Islanders in New York, when he could of sold or moved.

- Barclay's : located atop one of the largest transportation hubs in New York City ... accessible by 11 subway lines, the Long Island Rail Road, and 11 bus lines.

I think they may have to modify the logo a bit since the "I" in lslanders points to Nassau.

- Suck it Nassau County! I don't know if any of you guys were following that saga... but man did i feel bad for Wang and the fans of the Islanders. With every hearing that continued to vote against the project that would of revitalized the area...

- The proposed Lighthouse Project was spectacular.

- Hope that county really feels the loss of the team.

- Hope all involved that roadblocked the project for political reasons lose their upcoming elections.

- The hilarious part... there was speculation that Nassau county was going to wait until next yr to attempt to leverage the completion of the lease and Wang's known commitment to keeping the Islanders in New York against him to squeeze a little more out of him for any new stadium. Love that he pulled this trigger on them... just awesome.

This is HUGE for the organization.

They will go from a bottom 2 revenue generator to a money maker instantly. The smaller state-of-the-art arena will create demand, and its luxury boxes are more numerous with a much greater potential for revenue generation.

Location, location, location... They will be in the fat part of the population base with an extraordinary infrastructure for accessibility... i don't think another arena comes close...

Anyways...

I don't think the timing is coincidence! A couple days before the 82 game deadline...

Here's a huge carrot hanging in front of the players that will take effect in 2015...

the cap gets a boost by turning a team that was a drag on revenues to becoming a team that produces revenue...

No matter what the final split, the players will get an up-tick in salaries the yr the move is made...

[CastleMania]

Anyways...

I don't think the timing is coincidence! A couple days before the 82 game deadline...

Here's a huge carrot hanging in front of the players that will take effect in 2015...

the cap gets a boost by turning a team that was a drag on revenues to becoming a team that produces revenue...

No matter what the final split, the players will get an up-tick in salaries the yr the move is made...

I think you're right that this isn't a coincidence, but I highly doubt that the reasons behind releasing the information today are whta you think. The more plausible explanation is that the NHL is trying to deflect attention away from the looming cancellation of more games.

[DL44]

It looks like the Islanders are moving to Brooklyn in 2015... http://www.theglobeandmail.com/sports/hockey/new-york-islanders-brooklyn-bound-in-2015/article4634013/

Well... At least someone got a deal done...

It is a huge deal when you take a bottom 2 revenue generating franchise and then plop them into a brand new state of the art facility!

The league revenues that yr will be impacted.

logic says it should result in the greater likelihood of getting a deal done for the players knowing the size of the pie will be bigger because one of the league's problem franchises is now set for the next 25 yrs in all new digs.

I think you're right that this isn't a coincidence, but I highly doubt that the reasons behind releasing the information today are whta you think. The more plausible explanation is that the NHL is trying to deflect attention away from the looming cancellation of more games.

[DL44]

With loss of Islanders, pol says Nassau skating on thin ice

http://mycrains.crainsnewyork.com/blogs/insider/2012/10/with-loss-of-islanders-pol-says-nassau-skating-on-thin-ice/

“It’s a crying shame,” Mr. Lavine said. “The adverse economic impact to Nassau County will be immeasurable. And the symbolic impact, given that the Islanders are our symbolic team, our iconic team, the damage to our psyche is, as well, immeasurable.”

Islanders owner Charles Wang announced the move to Brooklyn’s new Barclays Center this afternoon. He will be joined by Barclays developer Bruce Ratner and Mayor Michael Bloomberg.

Mr. Lavine, a Democrat who represents a portion of Nassau County, said the fault lies not with Mr. Wang but with the Town of Hempstead and the county government run by County Executive Ed Mangano, a Republican.

Politics.

[DL44]

Islanders got to where the Oilers want to go.

- 2 dynasties of the 80's

- 20-25 yrs of crap and high draft picks

- both owners looking for public assistance for new arenas

- both denied on various levels

- both with outstanding prospect pools and bright futures

--- Wang now finally gets his new arena, new lease, closure and bright future!

--- Katz... well, you know..

But quite the general parallels in the organizations.

[Crzydrvr]

Brooklyn itself isn't a well-to-do place though....just because they have the population doesn't mean that population can afford to go to games....considering the communities in and around Brooklyn directly are mostly immigrant populations, it's hard to say whether the Isles are really in a better spot. But at least the arena is asbestos-free

[The_People1]

Congrats?! I'm not really sure if it counts as congrats...???

Is this the same thing as the Vancouver Canucks moving to an arena in Surrey? Is it?? Is Brooklyn the same thing as Hempstead??? I kind of don't think so but then again, i'm not from New York so I don't know. i'm just kind of thinking this isn't much of a congrats.

[CastleMania]

Brooklyn is a major improvement for the Islanders and people in New York (at least from my observations) are excited about the prospect. Having the team located in Brooklyn actually makes watching them plausible for people living in the 5 boroughs, which gives the team a much larger fan base to draw from.

[Carty]

Congrats?! I'm not really sure if it counts as congrats...???

Is this the same thing as the Vancouver Canucks moving to an arena in Surrey? Is it?? Is Brooklyn the same thing as Hempstead??? I kind of don't think so but then again, i'm not from New York so I don't know. i'm just kind of thinking this isn't much of a congrats.

It is hard to say if the move will be good for the team at this point...

The new location is about 25 miles further (in New York traffic) for a lot of fans...

It also will cut the distance from the Rangers arena in about half...

[tachaudh]

Its a basketball arena. The sightlines will be brutal and the capacity for hockey will be the smallest in the league by far. Severe lack of foresight on the part of the Islanders, considering the Barclays Center's development attempted to discuss a potential partnership with the Islanders before groundbreaking. But what else can you expect from a petty idiot like Wang.

Look at the seating chart. A rink is larger than hardwood. You're going to have sections where the crowd will basically have to look back at times since the action will literally be behind them. Those angled sections will have to be curtained off (over 3,000 seats - almost TWENTY [20] percent of the arena).

Had they committed at that time, the design would have accomodated both NHL and NBA surfaces. Anyone who has ever been to a Thunderbird's game at the Key Arena will know what I'm talking about.

[DL44]

The pros massively outweight the cons by far...

All you will hear from naysayers is the seating and sightline issues...

But that pales in comparison to basically everything else... Nassau was imfamous for being difficult to get to... no where near the trains. Barclays sits on top of a hub.. Anyone from anywhere can get there easily via trains and buses. That alone is incredibly HUGE for any team, anywhere. One of the biggest hinderences in Pheonix. Its not a complete coincidence that the Isles and Yotes are the bottom 2 teams in the league.

Sightlines aside... the stadium is supposed to be sick. Luxury box revenue/consessions/merchandise sales opportunities all trump Nassau.. runs circles around it.

And its New York... just 15,150 seats... but if NYI come back to relevance with Tavares, Reinhart, de whatever, and their other prospects, the supply-and-demand issue will create skyhigh prices eventually... In yr 1 - since historically thats what new arens result in - sellouts.

The Isles will be a 'have' team again. Its congrats all around.

[DL44]

A few interesting points...

- Wang is stated they'll have about 15,500 seats.

- Isles current arena has 31 luxury suites. Barclay's has 100 luxury suites. (anyone know how many the MTS Center has? Edit: 48)

According to the NY Times, the isles will look to make their money on the luxury suites, not the cheaper regular seats.

- BD Gallof wrote that tix prices will be 25% higher then they are at NVMC.

The article below looks at other ways the isles could make $, despite the seating arrangement:

http://www.brooklynpaper.com/stories/35/20/all_horseshoearena_2012_05_18_bk.html

“It eliminates some very viable seats especially in the lower half of the venue,” said Ray Katz, a managing partner of Source1 Sports and a Flatbush native who teaches sports management at Columbia University. “But it wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world for that team to have limited seating. It would still be a great thing for Brooklyn.”

The team could even turn lemons into iced lemonade by using some of the arena’s dead space to sell ads and merchandise, Katz said.

“There’s other ways to generate revenue from that side of the arena,” said Katz.