Sunday, October 18, 2009

(5) Comments

The 126th Street Islanders?

SS

Over on nj.com Matthew Artus writes about the thought of putting the Islanders in a new building on 126th street.   

While that would be an improvement over the chop-shops, and preferable to the Islanders moving to Kansas City, I don't see it solving anything for the hockey team.

There's zero chance that someone is going to travel from Suffolk to 126th street for an Islanders game so there goes half the fans.   The people in the city have a hockey team already.  Moving to Queens would be as pointless as the Brooklyn Nets would be.   You can't be the Rangers, Knicks, Giants or Yankees.  These other teams will always be second fiddle, except for the occassional front-runners (even Rutgers football had fans for three weeks).   Are the Devils any more or less popular in their new building?

All 126th street needs is a hotel and a sports bar or two.   A hockey arena is wasted money.   If Charles Wang thinks he can make money in KC let him go.  There's plenty of struggling NHL teams out there - let the Formerly Islanders be one more.   Would it be a shame, yes?  Is is the problem of the taxpayers?  No.

You might want to begin with getting Cablevision to offer MSG to be in HD on some other cable systems (I have Fios, we dont get MSG-HD) and while you're at it - make MSG good like it used to be, not the present Sportschannel/FSNY quality.


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5 Responses to "The 126th Street Islanders?"
Stephen said :
October 18, 2009 at 3:35 PM
I have to disagree. So many young Islanders fans work and/or live in the city, plus public transportation, which NVMC does not have; this would be a great move for the Islanders and they would have no trouble filling the arena. Since Wang is ready to foot the bill for the Lighthouse Project, I doubt he'd be looking for any taxpayer money to build an arena and whatnot in Queens. Can't compare them to the Devils b/c the Isles have twice the fanbase. Also, there are plenty of Mets fans traveling from Suffolk to games.
DyHrdMET said :
October 18, 2009 at 8:05 PM
Charles Wong is no Walter O'Malley. The Islanders have as much business being in Queens as the Brooklyn Dodgers do (Citi Field design aside - I mean the original Brooklyn Dodgers) - absoultely NONE. For the Islanders, the same applies to Brooklyn and Manhattan. They're Long Island's team, so if they're going to leave the Island, get them the hell away from this area.

And for Cablevision holding back on and MSG HD/MSG+ HD, I've been posting on Neil Best's blog for years that Cablevision doesn't know how to play well with others (much evidence of this as both owners of MSG and the former SportsChannel/FSNY and cable operators fighting with YES and SNY). They tied up TV rights to the Devils and Islanders so they can stay on MSG's "secondary" channel, MSG+, and not in more prominent competition with the Rangers on MSG. Only the FCC can get you MSG HD and MSG+ HD on Verizon FiOS (or AT&T U-Verse in Connecticut).

And who is this idiot commenter saying the Islanders have twice the fan base of the Devils? If that's the case, why do the Devils get better ratings and attendance than the Islanders?
Unknown said :
October 19, 2009 at 11:02 AM
Jets fans from Suffolk travel to Jersey for games. They go to Manhattan for Rangers games all the time.

I live in western Nassau and I would have zero problem driving or getting on the train and heading to Queens to see the Islanders.

Naturally, I don't want the Islanders to leave Long Island but if they have to go somewhere, Queens or Brooklyn is fine with me and dare I say with the majority of Isles fans as well.

It's better than losing them to Saskatoon or K.C. or where ever else.
Unknown said :
October 19, 2009 at 2:07 PM
Correction: I meant I live in Eastern Nassau.
Anonymous said :
November 3, 2009 at 11:56 AM
i agree im in the city and i love the islanders, Im a huge mets fan as well, this would be a dream not only for me but for many other fans. this project if it ever would get approved would make that area seem so much better, and it would attract more people too come to islanders and mets games. I think this is a no brainer, if Wang can get the money its a deal, the city does have a lot of money loss with two new ball parks.

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