NY Islanders to decamp for Brooklyn
the New York Islanders announced Wednesday they would abandon their home of 40 years in Nassau County and move west to Brooklyn for the 2015-16 season, if not sooner.
Mr. Wang has said the team would honor its Nassau lease, which runs through the 2014-15 season, but at Tuesday’s announcement he noted, “Obviously, anything can happen.”
Mr. Wang said his team won’t incorporate Brooklyn into its name like the Nets did after decamping from New Jersey. “We’re the New York Islanders,” he said at a press conference at the Barclays Center, where he was flanked by Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Messrs. Ratner and Bettman, among other officials.
….a small arena might be a good fit for the Islanders, who haven’t drawn well at the 16,000-seat Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum for many years. Indeed, the team’s average announced attendance was only about 13,000 per game last year, the lowest in the league except for the franchise in Phoenix. NHL teams rely more heavily on ticket sales for revenue than other major sports and the Islanders’ take last year of $63 million was the lowest in the league, according to Forbes, and were less than 40% of the Rangers’.