New York Islanders Moving to Brooklyn

The New York Islanders announced today that they will be moving to Brooklyn, New York and playing their home games at the Barclays Center beginning in the 2015-16 season — after their lease at the Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum expires.

Barclays Center hockey seating chartOf note to Icethetics readers is the fact that the colors, name, logo and uniforms will be remaining the same. In other words, the club will not be named the Brooklyn Islanders. (Then again, the move is still three years away and who knows what could happen between now and then.)

The Barclays Center is actually not ideal for NHL hockey so I was a little surprised by the announcement. The arena holds on 14,500 for hockey when most other "state-of-the-art" buildings seat about 20,000. Naturally, it seems like it will have to mean higher ticket prices and a need for higher attendance.

Not unlike Seattle's much-maligned Key Arena, the Barclays Center wasn't really designed with hockey in mind. And when you replace a basketball court with a hockey rink, you lose a lot of seats at one end. Not much you can do about that, I guess.

But it gives me hope Seattle can put a team in the Key until new arena is built. I'd be all for that!

What do you think of this announcement by the Islanders? And what do you think of the fact that the 40-year-old name and logo will remain the same?