The New York Islanders have adapted to their new home in Brooklyn by making lifestyle changes, including boarding a train to go to work on game days. Their fans have not followed them.
After 43 years playing home games at the Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum, on suburban Long Island, the Isles moved 23 miles west to the Barclays Center this season. Because they still practice at the Coliseum, players still live near the old arena.
For home games, players avoid the messy urban traffic by taking a train to the city for their morning skate at Barclays, eat a team meal there and spend the afternoon at a hotel within walking distance. After games, car services drive them home. It’s more than a 12-hour day.
Their Long Island-based fans are not as committed. They cite parking problems and late-night public transportation issues hindering their return to the suburbs. Also, the arena was built mainly for the Brooklyn Nets basketball team, meaning corners and goals cannot be clearly seen in some sections.
The 15,813 seats for hockey make it the second-smallest arena in the NHL, but only 77 per cent of tickets have been sold. The average islanders home crowd of 12,188 is second-worst in the league, ahead only of Carolina, and 3,000 fewer than last year.
The Isles either must grow new, urban-based fans or re-connect with more of their old loyalists.
“New” is supposed to solve problems, not create them. So far, bad move. Literally.
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