Islanders back at Nassau Coliseum for a day
Nearly 2 1/2 years after last playing at the Nassau Coliseum, the New York Islanders are back on the ice at their refurbished former home Sunday.
It’s just for one day — for a preseason game against Philadelphia — but that didn’t matter to fans clamouring for the team’s return from Brooklyn. They showed up early to tailgate and participate in pregame festivities outside, including a museum truck and a virtual reality Zamboni experience, and to take pictures with the Stanley Cup.
“It’s nice to be back home,” said Andrew Gagnon, a student at nearby Hofstra University who arrived at 9 a.m. to tailgate. “This is where the four Cups were won.
All that history is here. I saw a sign that said, ‘This is home, not Brooklyn.’ That’s how everyone feels.”
Daniel Fisher, a Deer Park
resident who has attended every game for 15 years, agreed.
“It’ll be good to see them in the Coliseum again,” he said. “It’s almost like old times. Got
here early, 8 o’clock, tailgating. That’s how we roll.”
The Islanders’ last game at the Coliseum, now called NYCB Live, was on April 25, 2015, in a 3-1 victory over Washington in Game 6 of the first round of the playoffs. They were eliminated in a Game 7 loss two days later, and began playing at Brooklyn’s Barclays Center the following season.
Claire Harding, a resident of Huntington and president of the Islanders Boosters Club that she says has been around since the team’s inception in 1972 was also glad to see the team back at the old arena where it played for the franchise’s first 43 years.
“The atmosphere right now is the same as it used to be,” said Harding, who was joined by her husband Gary and two friends. “I haven’t been inside yet. I’m sure it will be different . ... We’ll make our own fun, enjoy our friends.”
The fans greeted the team with a strong ovation when the Islanders took the ice for pregame warmups about 35 minutes before the game, and roared when they came back out for introductions shortly before puck drop. The cheers continued while a video on the scoreboard showed the team’s four championship banners and highlights of Stanley Cup wins.
The arena was renovated and reopened earlier this year with a capacity of about 13,000 for hockey, less than both the 16,170 it had previously and the 15,795 currently at Barclays Center. The team’s move to Brooklyn was announced in 2012 after a failed attempt to secure public financing for a new arena on Long Island, and zoning approval was rejected for a privately funded development plan that would have included renovations to the Coliseum. It was announced as a 25-year deal and appeared to secure the Islanders’ future in New York amid talk the team could move to another city.
However, the lease has an opt-out clause with a January deadline that either side can exercise. If the Islanders choose to leave, they can do so as early as after the upcoming season, while either side can terminate the deal effective at the end of the 2018-19 season.