by Ray Keating
Gee, couldn’t see this one coming. What? The
New York Post reported that the Islanders are not too happy playing in
Brooklyn.
After last season, the Islanders cleared out of the aging
Nassau Coliseum for the Barclays Center. But the Brooklyn arena was not built
with hockey in mind. The Isles managed to move into an arena with the second
smallest seating capacity in the league. Oh yes, and there’s the fact that the
team has no real fan base in Brooklyn. This season, the Islanders have the
third lowest average attendance in the NHL.
Whoops.
As reported, though, the team and the Barclays Center have
an opt-out after the fourth season the Islanders play in the arena.
But where would the Islanders go?
No doubt, many Long Island fans want to see their team come
back. That’s especially the case given that the Islanders improved their play
during their last season in Nassau and are playing well this year. Islanders
fans waited so long to get a winner back, and then the team went off to
Brooklyn.
But a move to Nassau or Suffolk County seems unlikely. The
Nassau Coliseum renovation will make that arena even smaller than Barclays, and
who would fork over the dollars for an arena in Suffolk? Not to mention that
it’s a highly questionable endeavor to place an NHL team on the island. Other
than the cable TV deal, the Islanders on Long Island made little sense over the
years.
Interestingly, the NHL is considering expansion,
with Quebec and Las Vegas in the running, along with Seattle. Heck, Quebec has
a new arena with no NHL team. For good measure, Kansas City has an arena
without a team.
Here’s my guess: Las Vegas and Quebec get expansion teams,
and the Islanders head off to Kansas City eventually.
Remember the Kansas City Scouts once played in the NHL, and
then moved on to become the Colorado Rockies, and finally the New Jersey
Devils. If the Isles wind up on K.C., just think of it as the New York metro
area returning the favor.
______________
Mr. Keating is an
economist and novelist who writes on a wide range of topics. His Pastor Stephen
Grant novels have received considerable acclaim, including The River: A Pastor
Stephen Grant Novel being a finalist for KFUO radio’s Book of the Year 2014,
and Murderer’s Row: A Pastor Stephen Grant Novel winning for Book of the Year
2015.
The Pastor Stephen
Grant Novels are available at Amazon…
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