New York Islanders Moving to Brooklyn
Wednesday · Oct 24 · 2012 | 10:57 AM PDT
The New York Islanders announced today that they will be moving to Brooklyn, New York and playing their home games at the Barclays Center beginning in the 2015-16 season — after their lease at the Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum expires.
Barclays Center hockey seating chartOf note to Icethetics readers is the fact that the colors, name, logo and uniforms will be remaining the same. In other words, the club will not be named the Brooklyn Islanders. (Then again, the move is still three years away and who knows what could happen between now and then.)
The Barclays Center is actually not ideal for NHL hockey so I was a little surprised by the announcement. The arena holds on 14,500 for hockey when most other "state-of-the-art" buildings seat about 20,000. Naturally, it seems like it will have to mean higher ticket prices and a need for higher attendance.
Not unlike Seattle's much-maligned Key Arena, the Barclays Center wasn't really designed with hockey in mind. And when you replace a basketball court with a hockey rink, you lose a lot of seats at one end. Not much you can do about that, I guess.
But it gives me hope Seattle can put a team in the Key until new arena is built. I'd be all for that!
What do you think of this announcement by the Islanders? And what do you think of the fact that the 40-year-old name and logo will remain the same?
Reader Comments (30)
I think the Islanders should stay the Islanders. They've been around since the 70's, peaking in the early 80's. There's some history there. However, I do believe they need a fresh look, with a fresh uniform. They've been the same for a while and I'd think the change to this brand new venue should give them a brand new look.
oddly enough i think nobody is too shocked about this,im glad the name and logo will stay but it seems like we may see more off those black jerseys in brooklyn,hopefully this can make an isles and rangers rivalry more exciting that is when they decide to actually play hockey again....quick thought tho could bridgeport move potentially to long island?
I'm not sure why people think they'd change their name/logo. The Barclay's Center and Nassau Coliseum are on the same island, and are only about 25 miles apart - they're still on the same island. Hell, they're more 'New York' now than before.
Good news. It'd be a shane to see a franchise with forty years of history and four Stanley Cups just go down te drain.
Also announced at the presser was that they would try and add 500-or-so seats to get the capacity up to 15,000+ for hockey. If you watched a WPG game last season you could clearly see how ridiculously loud those games got.
I really hope the Islanders don't change their uniforms when they move to Brooklyn. It's bad enough that they have that black 3rd jersey now even though there are worse jerseys in the league as of now.
If they decide to change the Name, I accept no other options than the Brooklyn Brawlers. It needs to happen.
I agree with Steve, the team name should stay the same but the logo and uniform should be updated a bit. There was a concept on here a couple days ago that looked really great. It had the Gortman's Fisherman Isles font with the Brooklyn Bridge in the background.
I really like that they (at least for now) won't change anything with the logo/uniforms, as the current ones (minus the black) looks really good.
One minor change that would make sense though would be to include Brooklyn and Queens on the island in the logo, as only Suffolk and Nassau counties are there now.
I thought there was a minimun requirement for seating in a newly constructed NHL arena?
At least Long Island isn't losing its team. That seating arrangement is VERY strange (the center court scoreboard would actually be centered over a blue line by the looks of it), but I'm glad the name/colors/uniforms (minus the hideous alternate) are sticking around.
They should a Brooklyn-themed shoulder patch. Maybe some sort of stylized Brooklyn Bridge? Also a "Brooklyn" third Jersey would go over really well I think. Could even make it Black & White to match the Nets branding. The primary colors don't need to change though. Orange Blue + White are NYC's colors so that color scheme still works. The "Island" on the logo doesn't include Brooklyn or Queen's though. Will be interesting to see if they do anything about that.
Good that they're not changing their name and likely not their look.... but the long-term lease is surprising to me. A 14.5K max arena might cut it now, but 10 years from now when they're hopefully a playoff contender and likely could draw significantly more than that? Thinking they're going to be wishing for a new arena an an out-clause of Barclays.
Interesting... Didn't the Phoenix Coyotes have the same arena seating issue when they first moved to Arizona and had to share an area with the Suns?
Seems we're all on the same page here - great that they're keeping the name and logo and great that they're moving to a new stadium (albeit one with a weird seating arrangement!).
I also concur that this is an opportunity to update the uniforms although I think they've currently got one of the better ones going around, excluding the ridiculous 3rd set of course!
Owner Charles Wang has agreed to a 25 year, iron-clad lease with no 'out' clause. So my theory of playing in Brooklyn for a few years while Nassau County gets it together and then moving back is out of the question. Also, Wang stated on the radio today that they will seek to leave the Nassau Coliseum earlier than the 2015 season.
Long time Islander fan here and I am absolutely thrilled with this announcement. Given the Isles history, I think you'd risk alienating too much of the current fan base by changing the name or logo. There's already a vocal minority of fans that are upset with the move (basically Long Islanders who hate the city) and I imagine a name/logo change would be the final slap in the face to them. I'm sure they will try to capitalize on their Brooklyn address somehow though - most likely with a 3rd jersey. I'm also guessing there might be a Brooklyn-themed shoulder patch and that the logo will be altered slightly to include Brooklyn and Queens.
So...Wang complained about an arena for all these years....and then is moving to an arena that only seats 14,500? And it's not like it's a short deal that tides him over until he builds a new arena, he signed a 25 year deal! ??? He's losing almost 2,000 seats from the current capacity at Nassau Coliseum which is 16,250. He'll be in a small arena for 25 years. ???
The Barclays Center is going to be making structural changes to better accommodate the NHL as part of this, probably modifying the ends of the lower bowl to make it much steeper on both ends, though I don't know the details.
Mark: Not formally, but pretty much. The NHL bent that rule for the Jets, and is bending it here- it's a brand spanking new arena in every other fashion, including lots of nice suites that, in New York, the Isles will be able to get enough out of to compensate for the lost seats many times over. And well, it's not newly built for the NHL now, is it?
Ed P: If they change the name, Brawlers is not acceptable. Only "Brooklyn Americans" is acceptable (can you say Winter Classic option for the first year in Brooklyn?), and the uniforms have to match.
Also, Chris is wrong about state of the art buildings seating 20k- that's just United Center (19.7k, though they used to have 20.5, took some out for nicer suite options), Joe Lewis (20k, and not exactly modern) and Bell Centre (21k). A few more are in the 19k range, but the bulk, including most new ones, are 18 something thousand, a few around 17k, and then Rexall at 16k, MTS at 15.5, and now Barclays at 15k. But artificial demand and some real NYC Suite revenues for the first time in their history should keep the Isles happy. If they're successful, they'll just up the prices on what they do have.
Would like to see what an updated logo would look like if Brooklyn and Queens are added to it... I'm not sure what this addition would do to the shape of the island.
Fantastic news for NY hockey, and for fans in the city who didn't want to pay Rangers prices, travel to Uniondale or to Newark. Bad news for fans looking for the team to relocate to Quebec or Seattle (though it seems like Phoenix may be primed to move to the latter).
Won't be surprised to see another NYI third jersey in the coming years.
I think keeping the name / logo / colors is good for fanbase continuity.
With that being said, they're no longer representing Long Island - they're in New York City. At least they do play on Long Island. It's better than the Jets playing in New Jersey or the Giants playing there as well (as much as they claim they're really the NY City Giants and drop the "City" from the name). I'd like to see the Islanders embrace the "history" of the Brooklyn Americans even though the New York Americans never took the ice as the Brooklyn Americans.
I wouldn't be surprised if that did happen at some point. I really don't think Wang is in for the long term.
This means the devils and the rangers will no longer be the league's closest teams. The isles and the rangers will be.
Will they be providing free neck massages to the people sitting in sections 4 and 28?
They will have to change the logo. Even if only a little because the long island on the logo doesn't include Brooklyn. I think they should go back to those jerseys they had when the nhl started using the edge jersey system. A cool Brooklyn uni would be sickk
A new logo incorporating Brooklyn and Queens? What in the hell are you people talking about? Brooklyn and Queens are on the damn logo already. So is Suffolk. It's a big island. Don't mess with a good thing. Keep the sweaters and the logos just like they are now and subtract the 3rd jersey and they'll be solid.
As a long time Pens/Islanders fan (my grandfather was born on the island....Greenport, moved to Pgh to work in the steel mills. Grew up a Rangers fan, became a Pens fan when he moved here, ditched the Rangers to become a Islanders fan...something about hometown pride, he really really liked that Mike Bossy kid...lol....so naturally Bossy became my Hockey GOD before the Pens lucked out and got Lemieux, my Hockey number is 22 because of Bossy) I am so happy that the Islanders are staying on the island. Sooooooo happy that the team name/logo/colors are staying the same.
@Joe: Look at the left part of the island in the logo, then compare it to a map where you can see Long Island with the borders of the different counties. The logo includes the Nassau and Suffolk counties but not Brooklyn and Queens.
Sorry, BeanTown, but the current logo does NOT include Kings and Queens counties. Please look at the logo and compare it to a map ... the shape is different. The logo follows the border of Nassau and Queens counties. And, BTW, I am a trained cartographer not a troll.
As to the unis: touch up here and there and, please, dump the lousy third and you will have a classy set.
Why not a Brooklyn Americans special third jersey night?
@Tokyo2LA: The Brooklyn Americans did not actually play in Brooklyn. They played in MSG. They only practiced in Brooklyn.