Going Home

There is some magic when the New York Islanders play at their original home back on Long Island at the aging Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum. The crowds seem more engaged than they do when the Islanders play at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, and the Islanders seem to feed off the boisterous crowds that fill the Nassau Coliseum for games. Despite arguing for the last few years that the Islanders should be playing in their old home for some time now, it always seemed that those arguments fell on deaf ears.

The shovels have broken ground on a brand-new, state-of-the-art arena at Belmont Park for the New York Islanders, so it won't be long before they move into their new home, but a report hit the news today that New York Governor Andrew M. Cuomo was heading to Nassau Coliseum for the game between Islanders and the Boston Bruins, and he was going there to make an announcement!

According to a Newsday report filed by Randi F. Marshall, Governor Cuomo will visit the arena to announce that all New York Islanders games will move back to Nassau Coliseum for 2020-21, leaving Barclays Center as footnote in their history! With the new Belmont Park arena project set to open for the 2021-22 season, this move puts the Islanders just eight miles away from their new home in 2021-22, moves them back to Long Island proper where they get better support than 15 miles away at Barclays Center, and puts them back in the arena where they made all their franchise's history.

After watching the Islanders in the playoffs last season where Islanders fans turned the Nassau Coliseum into Thunderdome in their efforts to support the Islanders, this move seems elementary for the Islanders. While there were concerns about Nassau Coliseum's aging amenities, it seems that, assuming the NHL signs off on this, the upgrades made to the arena meet the NHL's standards.

According to this BarDown report,

"A total of $175 million pumped into the arena to make the arena feasible to play in. Saturday's game commences the start of 21 home games the Isles will play at the venue where they called home from 1972-2015 in Uniondale, New York. A good chunk of the funds were specifically used to meet the NHL's requirements in the ice plant redundancy and dehumidification along with infrastructure for the media and broadcasting apparatuses."

There have also been upgrades in the dressing rooms and player's lounge, and it seems the team has listened to its fans as they prefer Nassau Coliseum over Barclays Center according to an Associated Press story from January 2019. Islanders fan Josh Rosenberg told the AP, "I've been coming to Brooklyn since they first started. I mean, it sucks to pay the extra fee to ride the train but I'm a die-hard fan. I'll take the Coliseum any day, but I don't mind taking the trip out here. (The Coliseum has) a way better vibe. It's packed all the time, everybody's cheering and the real fans are there."

As the state and borough look to build momentum for the Belmont Park arena opening, this move back to Nassau Coliseum should rekindle the flame in fans located on Long Island who were unwilling to make the trip to Brooklyn to see their NHL team play. While Nassau Coliseum was never a long-term solution due to its aging infrastructure, playing one last season in the barn where four Stanley Cups were won and countless Hall of Famers took the ice seems like the storybook ending that the Islanders deserve prior to moving into their glitzy new home in 2021.

While it may not be a state-of-the-art arena, it's home for the Islanders and their fans. Going home is never a bad choice.

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!