Jews in Sports: Westward Bound

When I spoke to Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz this past Wednesday, I sensed his giddiness and excitement. Little did I know the extent of what would be revealed a few hours later: the National Hockey League’s New York Islanders had signed a 25-year lease with Brooklyn’s new Barclays Center. Furthermore, they were going to make the move at the commencement of the 2015-2016 hockey season.

The Islanders have been mired in the now-crumbling Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum since the team’s inception in 1972. The Isles were once upon a time the toast of the NHL, winning four straight Stanley Cups, and an unprecedented 19-straight playoff series wins – still an NHL record.

Those glory days of the early 1980’s are long gone.

In its stead, the Isles have been the NHL’s bottom feeders for much of the last two decades, last making the playoffs in the 2006-2007 season.

It was time for a change. And if the October 24 press conference wasn’t going to be about the current NHL work stoppage, then announcing this move was a close second.

Team owner Charles Wang has for years been trying to work out a new deal with the local governments of both the City of Hempstead and Nassau County. But time and again, Wang’s proposal for a new arena was shot down.

“I’ve been following this story for nearly 15 years,” said NHL historian and MSG personality Stan Fischler. “There was constant fighting between the Republican and Democrat politicians in Nassau County, so making a deal to keep the Islanders in Uniondale would have been very difficult.”

Honestly, Long Island didn’t deserve the Islanders anymore.

Even when Wang turned to the county voters last August for a public vote on his latest bid for a new arena in Uniondale, the people voted against keeping the Nassaumen on Eastern Long Island.

Perhaps the citizens of the county took it for granted that their one professional sports franchise would stay no matter what came its way.

Wang forever and a day had said he wanted to keep the Islanders in New York, and close to its roots on The Island. He tried and tried, and time and again was told to fly a kite. But he didn’t give up; unlike some other NHL owners (see the former Atlanta Thrashers).

It seemed only a matter of time before the Isles owner would make the decision to move the club to his native Brooklyn.

Barclays Center Developer and owner Bruce Ratner went so far as to call Wang a “hero” at the press conference, for his ability to keep the team in the New York Metro area.

The move itself certainly will pay dividends for the Islanders in terms of dollars and sense.

As my friend Daniel Friedman at NBC Sports points out, Islanders GM Garth Snow will now be able to lure – and reel in – high profile free agents with location stability and a core of talented youthful players, the former being something Snow hasn’t ever had at his disposal.

Simply put, the Islanders now have a real chance to compete in the NHL and get out from the League’s basement. The move to Brooklyn will reinvigorate the fan base and breathe new life into a team that’s been dying a slow and painful death the past few seasons.

Additionally, Barclays Center has the Long Island Rail Road and major subway lines running under it, and nearly a dozen bus routes with stops near or next to the arena, making travel to the state-of-the-art facility a public pleasure.

No more will Isles fans have to take their car to the game. There will be no post-game traffic halt on the Grand Central Parkway or the Jackie Robinson Expressway. Yes, the new arena location is 40 miles west of the current aging facility, but there’s no need to gripe about such a minor detail.

Gotham’s hockey rivalry will now reach a pitch not seen since the first Manhattan hockey club – the New York Americans – were disbanded after WWII. Imagine the Rangers and Islanders on opening night in Brooklyn. Utter Pandemonium.

The one sticking point to all this is the seating arrangement and potential ticket price hikes.

Barclays is configured to seat 14,500 patrons for a hockey game, roughly 500 seats less than the second smallest NHL arena, MTS Centre in Winnipeg (15,004). The only way to be able to garner the same ticket revenue for fewer seats is to raise ticket prices.

However, the powers that be aren’t too concerned with those numbers. NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman alluded at the press conference that the team and Ratner are working on a plan to add roughly 500-1000 more seats to offset some of the costs incurred by the fans by the time the puck drops at Barclays in 2015.

Islanders’ fans will be happy to know that the club will not change its name, keeping its storied history intact for its westward relocation.

The move to Atlantic Avenue certainly begins a new chapter for this franchise. Come what may, this team is and will forever be known as the New York Islanders.

The winds of change have certainly blown its course, and the Islanders will remain on Long Island. The “West End” of Long Island that is!