The New York Islanders are expected to announce a more permanent move to Nassau Coliseum Saturday. The team has been splitting its games between Nassau and the Barclays Center in Brooklyn. New York Governor Andrew Cuomo will be on-site to announce the move before the 2020 NHL postseason.
BIG news in #isles land. Gov Cuomo is expected to come to Nassau Coliseum tomorrow to make an announcement. https://t.co/yn8RuhSaON
— Randi Marshall (@randimarshall) February 28, 2020
New York Islanders Moving Back to Nassau
The Islanders played in the Coliseum without interruption from 1972 to 2015 before they moved to the Barclays Center. They split the arena with the NBA’s Brooklyn Nets but the move was not as commercially successful as ownership had hoped. Nassau Coliseum underwent renovations between 2015 and 2017 and saw the Islanders return in 2018.
The move back to Nassau is only temporary as the Isles will eventually move into Belmont Park Arena. The team’s new home has a projected completion date of 2021. The Islanders would likely start play in the Belmont for the 2021-22 season. It has an estimated cost of $1.3 billion and will likely set a new standard for NHL arenas.
What This Means for the Future
It is great that the Islanders are moving back to Nassau for the next season or two. It is the third-oldest arena in the NHL after the New York Rangers‘ Madison Square Garden and the Pittsburgh Penguins Mellon Arena. The move also means New York will return to Long Island where it belongs. A team born in Long Island always felt out of place in Brooklyn and the fans thought so as well.
Belmont will be the newest NHL arena when it opens roughly alongside the new spot for NHL Seattle. The NHL has focused recent efforts on new arenas over the past 10 years as five of its 31 current locations have opened since 2010. Belmont and the Seattle arena will push that figure to seven of 32. Old arenas certainly have their nostalgic charm but new locations bring exciting amenities you can’t find in older rinks.
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