(Photo: Philip Kalantzis-Cope/flickr)

The Islanders will be keeping the “New York” in their name after all.

Owner Charles Wang announced today during a press conference that the Isles will be moving to the Barclays Center in Brooklyn following the expiration of their lease with Nassau Coliseum in 2015. The lease with the Barclays is for an iron-clad 25 years (meaning there is no opt-out clause), extending through the 2039-2040 NHL season.

» Continue reading ““Hello, Brooklyn!”: Isles Moving to Other Side of the New York Divide”

The time window has begun to close on getting a new arena to keep the Isles on Long Island, but Nassau County politicians insist on keeping it a partisan issue. (Photo: Joe Shlabotnik/flickr)

The highly politicized situation regarding Nassau Coliseum is apparently heating back up… just a bit.

Nassau County politicians are reportedly dueling with each other regarding ideas for a new arena. One plan, thought up by Democrat Jay Jacobs, would require Isles owner Charles Wang to front 80% of the cost (with the other 20% coming from county funds), while the other (the brainchild of Republican Ed Mangano) would depend on no county funds whatsoever. All of this comes after Wang has apparently washed his hands of the Nassau County situation, looking to move the Islanders after 2015 when the Coliseum lease expires.

Basically, what this boils down to is that neither party rep seems to be willing to work together to keep the Islanders on LI, and neither Nassau nor Wang has the resources to plunk down and make a new arena appear. It’s pretty much all lip service at this point, and BD Gallof has an upcoming post regarding the fiasco that will no doubt explain it all much better than I ever could. Look out for it later this week.

Could the Islanders be Brooklyn's newest inhabitants? (Photo: Philip Kalantzis-Cope/flickr)

With the Isles’ lease at Nassau Coliseum set to expire in 2015, and the Town of Hempstead dragging its feet regarding a new arena, Charles Wang may (and likely will) take his purse and his organization to the other side of the city limits.

Chris Botta posted on Sulia via Twitter that Brett Yormark, the CEO of the Brooklyn (formerly New Jersey) Nets, has reported the Isles’ likelihood of joining his team at the Barclays Center to be “better than 50%.” Does that mean it’s going to happen? Of course not. Nothing is set in stone and the Islanders still have three years to weigh their (limited?) options.

Gary Bettman may not think Brooklyn is such a good idea, but I personally think it’s the best option for the Isles to stay close to their old home, at the very least. From what I’ve been reading, talks between the Isles and Nassau County haven’t been great (to say the least) and as far as accessibility, the Barclays Center is miles above Nassau Coliseum already (for starters, it’s got the LIRR close  by going for it). Of course, the county could always renovate the Coli, which would probably be cheaper and still provide the Isles with a home (one commenter on this column by BD Gallof noted that the Isles could play in Barclays for the time being while the renovations took place), but that would still take money that apparently, Nassau does not have (or isn’t willing to pony up).

Another, more recent Gallof column points toward Brooklyn as the new “hope” for the Isles, as the organization has been silent on the matter of staying in Nassau, so I think it’s safe to say that it’s got a lot of potential. Hey, they can still call themselves the “New York Islanders,” seeing as Brooklyn’s geographically on the Island. Also, they’re already playing an exhibition game with the Devils at Barclays, so this could be (and probably is) a sort of feeling-out of the possible new digs. Of course, there’s talk of the parking issues and how difficult it might be for fans in Queens and Long Island to reach Barclays,

More on this as it develops. In the meantime, here’s some reading from Larry Brooks, Lighthouse Hockey and the Daily News (Bettman’s take on it) regarding the matter. Keep in mind that I have stupidly not been keeping up with this story, so many of these are from March and April, but as far as I can tell, there hasn’t been that much new development in the plot.