Technically speaking, Brooklyn is on Long Island -- like, it’s physically on the island. Long Island University even has a campus in Brooklyn, too. Just don’t tell somebody from the borough that they’re a Long Islander, because you’re likely to get punched in the face for that. Culturally, the two places couldn’t be much different.
New York Islanders Future In Limbo: Is Brooklyn’s Barclays Center An Option?
It raises an interesting option for the New York Islanders, however, in the wake of the refusal by Nassau County voters on Monday to allow the government to take out bonds to build a new hockey arena for the team.
Could they move to Brooklyn? More specifically, could they move to Barclays Center, the new $800 million building at Atlantic & Flatbush Avenues that the NBA’s New Jersey Nets will soon call home? We don’t know what Charles Wang will do with his team next -- he could try to sell the team or he could try again to build an arena on the Coliseum site or he could opt for relocation, whether that be in the New York metro or elsewhere.
If selling is his top option, it doesn’t appear as though the move to Brooklyn is in the cards. A spokesperson for Nets owner Mikhail Prokhorov told SB Nation’s NetsDaily on Tuesday that the eccentric billionaire is not interested in purchasing any other sports teams, eliminating any hope that he could buy the team and put them in his new building.
But if Wang held on to the team and tried to move them to Brooklyn, the Barclays Center itself could be a bit of an obstacle. Nets CEO Brett Yormark released a statement on Tuesday saying the following, via NetsDaily:
“Barclays Center will have an ice rink that can support professional hockey,” Yormark said in an email that followed Prokhorov’s by minutes. “Due to the venue’s design, the capacity for hockey would be several thousand seats less than for basketball. While we hope to explore hockey opportunities in the future, our primary focus at the moment is to build the best sports and entertainment venue in the world.”
Renderings of the new arena do show that it’s a bit of an odd specimen, and it doesn’t look like it will ever have the ideal set up for hockey. There’s going to be a gorgeous new arena in downtown Brooklyn come the late summer and early fall of 2012, but it doesn’t appear as though it’s an ideal option for the future of the New York Islanders.
For more on the Isles, be sure to head over to SB Nation’s Lighthouse Hockey, where they’re all over the depression and the anxiety of Monday’s failed vote.
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