Wednesday: The official documents have been released, the Islanders are set at Belmont Park. The plans include the building of an 18,000-seat arena, 435,000 square feet for a retail shopping center, a hotel, offices and parking. You can see a map of the proposed build at the end of the documentation.
Tuesday: Though the official announcement won’t come until tomorrow, multiple sources including Jim Baumbach of Newsday are reporting that the New York Islanders have won the bidding on the Belmont Park development project. That would allow the Islanders to build a new arena and solidify the future of their franchise.
This is huge news for Islanders fans hoping not only for the long-term stability of the franchise, but also the chance to re-sign John Tavares this summer. The pending unrestricted free agent has made it clear in the past that he was waiting to know where the arena plans were before signing, and with an agreement to build a brand new arena, shopping area and hotel in Belmont Park it’s clear there is a path in place for the Islanders long-term health. Though there is no guarantee this makes Tavares stick around—after all, he is looking at potentially the biggest salary in the league should he hit free agency and start a bidding war—it certainly helps the Islanders’ case.
More than that, it brings the Islanders back out of Brooklyn and the Barclays Center, an arena that has caused the team nothing but problems since moving there in 2015. The Islanders have an opt-out opportunity in January to start the process of getting out of their current lease, though it’s not clear exactly when the new building would be operational.
For a team that is keeping pace in the difficult Metropolitan Division, and looks to have several of the top free agents to sign, news like this can’t come at a better time. There was worry that a decision wouldn’t come early enough for the Islanders to have time to decide what to do ahead of the trade deadline, but they should now be able to know the exact direction of the franchise before buying or selling. With Tavares, Josh Bailey, Calvin de Haan, Thomas Hickey and Jaroslav Halak all up for new contracts or free agency, the team is one of the more interesting to watch over the coming months.
I am only a basic hockey fan, so can someone explain why the Barclays Center and Brooklyn has been bad for the Islanders?
Barclays Center wasn’t really built with hockey in mind, so they can only seat I think around 15,000 people and there are many seats with obscured sight lines. I think there’s also an issue with not all of the gate and concession money going to the Islanders. There may be other issues, but I think those are the major ones.
Oh. Apparently I missed the biggest issue—Barclays claims they can get more money from other events so they want to kick the Islanders out.
Barclay’s center was never designed to accommodate a hockey team, so for the seating it’s very awkward to watch a game, also the fan base is largely from long Island and going to Brooklyn from almost anywhere is a pain in the ass. There’s no parking in the area, your only means of transportation is the train and train tickets in the long Island railroad are obsurdly overpriced.
Don’t forget about the ice issues ;)
the irony of the islanders situation is that “right wing” nassau county could have done this for the islanders at least 10 years ago !!!!!!!!!!!!!!! does an environmental study take 7 years ?! their politicians are self centered and corrupt ! the justice system in nassau county is really tragic where 2 out of 5 people that are convicted are really innocent!!!! yes it takes on average 90 minutes longer to get to barclays center. the sight lines are terrible. the islanders are “gauranteed” a profit .they also share the same staff with the brooklyn nets too. the real tragedy is that the islanders are one of the greatest dynasties in sports that nobody knows about !!!!!!!!!!!!! the area around belmont park has been available for the past 60 years !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! if you are caught drunk driving in nassau county they post your picture on the internet before the trial unless you are under 19 years of age because the biggest campaign contributor to the chief district attorney (kathleen rice at the time) gave miss rice over $100,000.00. the campaign contributor’s daughter drank 3/4 of a bottle of jack daniels and his little girl was found alive in a ditch in oyster bay,long island so therefore the drunk driving law was “amended” ! for people accused of drunk driving many blood samples were contaminated resulting in “false positives” which amounted to 30 percent of people being accused of drunk driving were actually innocent ! also their were missing files for the people being accused of drunk driving.now in regards to hockey let us look at the pittsburgh penguins who in 2004 were $92,000,000.00 in debt. their mayor in pittsburgh had the persistency and tenacity to build a casino and look at the penguins today who are highly successful because this mayor had the vison to get things accomplished. of course winning 3 stanley cups since 2004 is the greatest “miracle on ice” because when your 92 million dollars in debt in reality they would have to sell their better players to make their payroll even semi functional. oh yes when the islanders came into the nhl in 1972 they had to give the new york rangers 12 million dollars for “infringing” on their so called “territory”.what this tragically let to was that the original owner of the islanders,roy boe, was in such dire financial straits that he had to sell julius erving to the philadelphia 76’ers and nate archibald to the celtics( roy boe also owned the american basketball association new york nets at the time before they moved to piscataway,nj in i think 1979. the islanders have a nice solid base of true hockey fans who deserve better! why do people in general root for the new york rangers who really only care about the wealthiest of fans !!!!! yes people in new york are that stupid !!!!!!!!!!!!! this arena in belmont park would be perfect where it is situated on the border of nassau county and queens county which is 1 of the 5 boroughs of new york city. it is 15 miles from madison square garden and maybe 5 or 6 miles from nassau county coliseum. i wish the islanders good luck in their new “endeavor” because the hockey fans in the new york area regardless if they root for the rangers,new jersey devils,or the islanders deserve another potential first class facility. yes i am a pittsburgh penguins fan so my comments are from a “neutral” perspective !!!!!!!!!