Fun set to drop at state-of-art arena
Islanders’ new NHL home ties in history of New York City
ELMONT, N.Y. – A bird has trapped itself in a dressing room at UBS Arena.
It was the reality of the final stages last week of construction for the new home of the Islanders that still needed debris to be cleared from concourses, concession stands to be stocked and marble floors to be polished.
The walkie-talkies rose to mouths and ear.
Yeah, a bird got into one of the below-stage dressing rooms, can we get that taken care of?
Yes, UBS, which opened last weekend at a $1.1 billion price tag, presents a step up in class even from the late-stage Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum.
It might as well be a “Star Trek” command center compared to the pre-renovation days of the Coliseum, the NHL team’s former – and over the past few years, part time – home. UBS, which broke ground on Sept. 23, 2019, is privately funded by sports development and investment company Oak View Group, the Islanders and real estate developer Sterling Project Development. Architecture firm Populous designed UBS.
Once the Islanders’ four-decade lease at the Coliseum – a true “hockey barn” to its core – expired, and the local political scene became messy, an air of uncertainty surrounded the Islanders.
Brooklyn and the Barclays Center, home of the Nets, presented a temporary option. It immediately proved too ostentatious for a fan base that prides itself on a blue-collar vibe, especially among the three New York-area NHL teams. The situation proved so dire they moved back and forth between there and the Coliseum, which received a face-lift in 2017, yet remained unfit for an NHL team
due to capacity limits and a lack of premium seating options.
“We’ve gone away from suites, and kind of that class exclusion, and we’ve opened the building up to be more inclusive,” Oak View CEO Tim Leiweke told USA TODAY Sports during a tour of the arena last week.
UBS Arena – which is set to host concerts, basketball games and any other events suitable for a modern entertainment complex – most definitely is constructed for puck. The low ceiling is the same distance from the ice as it was at the Coliseum. To satisfy luxury demands, there are 38 second-level seats on top of five clubs and lounges, some near ice-level.
And UBS (capacity 17,250) can hold 4,000 more fans than the Coliseum for hockey games. The second level of seats flies out nearly 10 rows above the lower section, making fans feel like they’re on top of the ice, even from the upper levels.
“We pushed everybody (up) and in,” said Leiweke.
Just the way Isles fans like it.
Old influences, new priorities
The majority of guests will enter through the set of main doors that lead into “The Great Hall” – meant to resemble Grand Central Station; arches are a theme in the interior and exterior. Ebbets Field, the demolished baseball stadium of the Brooklyn Dodgers, and the original Madison Square Garden are also inspirations for the building’s design.
Two giant murals – one depicting Long Island, one featuring horse racing legends and other notable individuals – attract the eyes toward the high, starry ceiling.
Belmont racetrack, the site of the annual Belmont Stakes, the final leg of horse racing’s Triple Crown, also heavily influenced the look of the exterior – the bricks, the arches. But the dark green exterior trims make it a natural comparison to Citi Field, about seven miles up the Cross Island Parkway. (Sterling is the company belonging to the Wilpon family, the previous owners
of the Mets.)
Eight bars, located in each corner of both main concourses, face the bowl. There’s an exclusive, wood-paneled speakeasy. Two outdoor terraces – one is sponsored by Heineken and is located above the main entrance that looks at a large video board and Belmont’s paddock – are another feature.
For concerts, UBS can hold about 19,000 (one section of the lower bowl folds and becomes the stage). The investors in UBS, Leiweke said, will recoup most of their money through musical acts and other events; the arena is expected to host 150 events a year, at least 41 of those being Islanders games.
Basketball games feature a capacity of 18,300. There are more suites and club options than at the Coliseum, but it was important that the building retain an air of togetherness.
Several efforts were made to achieve ideal acoustic conditions at UBS. The walls of the bowl are made of perforated metal panels to trap the sound. Roof treatments – sound-absorbing baffles that are suspended from the roof – improve the bass.
Leiweke has been in the arena building business for a while. He served as president and CEO of Maple Leaf Sports (Toronto FC, Maple Leafs, Raptors) and Entertainment for more than two years and before that as president and CEO of AEG, a major operator of sports and entertainment venues, which owns arenas such as Staples Center in Los Angeles.
Oak View Group is responsible for the expansion of the Seattle Kraken’s Climate Pledge Arena, which says it’s the world’s first net-zero carbon arena. The goal for UBS is to be carbon neutral by 2024; a lot of the utilities are currently natural gas, Leiweke said.
“The majority of the energy coming in will be renewable and electrical, wind and solar, and then they are doing quite a bit of work to eliminate single-use plastic,” Leiweke said.
Seventy-five percent of the food is sourced within a 300mile radius of the arena. Leftovers are donated to nearby food banks. Oak View predicts it will be the most sustainable major sports complex on the East Coast once it achieves those goals.
A new Long Island Railroad station was built north of the arena as part of a $100 million investment from Oak View. A 200-room, four-star boutique hotel will be constructed and a parking garage will be completed by the end of the regular season. Construction for fashion and luxury retail space south of Hempstead Turnpike will start next year.
UBS’ functions as an all-purpose arena will be put to a test early. After a string of Islanders games, the first concert will take place Nov. 28 with a Harry Styles tour (100,000 preorders were registered through Ticketmaster, Leiweke said). On the hardwood, Kansas men’s basketball will play St. John’s at UBS on Dec. 3.
“Let the real fun begin,” Sciortino said.