Islanders’ Slide Towards Homeless Future

Audrey Abbate, Entertainment Editor

Noticed anything different about the Nassau Coliseum lately? Forest City Ratner Company is currently renovating the Coliseum and it should be completed in the spring of this year.

Barclays Center is planning to terminate their lease with the Islanders following the 2018-2019 season according to the NHL. The attendance was awful, I went to a game recently and the commute is annoying. So what’s the plan for the New York Islanders? I think it’s pretty evident that Barclays Center isn’t made for ice hockey. The fanbase is not even located in Brooklyn. The Islanders have the third-worst attendance in the NHL with an average attendance of 12,997.

So what’s the plan for the New York Islanders? According to USA TODAY and multiple other sports media sites, Governor Dannel Malloy of Connecticut and Mayor Luke Bronin of Hartford are open to idea of having the Islanders come to Hartford’s XL center. The Hartford Whalers team was relocated to North Carolina and is now known as the Carolina Hurricanes.

The Islanders are discussing constructing a new arena close to Citi Field or Belmont Park. The new Coliseum may not have enough seats to for The Islanders to return, it would be one of the NHL’s smaller arenas.

“I think that they should come back because their roots are here, they’re from here,” Jared Abbate said.

The expensive renovation is also adding on a movie theater, restaurants, shops, and a nightclub.