New York Redux

(Editor's Note: Even though it's January of 2019, I actually went to these games in March of 2018, started this blog entry, and then other stuff happened and I only finished it now basically, so that's why the timing in the article seems odd)


If you’ve been one of the few people reading for 6 or more years, you may remember when I went to see 4 games in New York (and Jersey, and Philly) in about a week. Recently, I got a chance to go back and see two of those teams play home games (the Devils were on the road and I’d just recently been to Philly this year). These two were also the interesting cases, as the Rangers had finished a massive renovation during the time between visits, and the Islanders moved out of the charming Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum, for a while at least.

First up was the newly renovated Madison Square Garden. I can say without uncertainty that the renovation was a big improvement. Obviously the fact that they were playing the Hurricanes (one of the worst drawing teams in all of sports) instead of the local rival Islanders meant that tickets were far, far, far cheaper. So that had something to do with it. There are some big improvements that aren’t related to ticket price, however. The new upper level concourse not only has many food and beverage options (as opposed to almost none before) but it has BATHROOMS!!!!!

More than 6 urinals for thousands of people to share!!! That alone is worth the cost of admission, sadly. Another big upgrade in the area I was sitting was the chairs and TVs in the front row of the section. While I didn’t really use them, and some of them seemed to be tuned to random local channels running reruns of Two and a Half Men, it would be cool to watch the game on it to give you a different perspective.

The TVs are at the bottom here, and this isn't a bad view at all really

In another win in the category of “things all stadiums should have”, they added a team shop at the entrance, why they didn’t have one before is still odd to me.

The bad is that there are still the seats that we were sitting in the last time, which appear to still be partly obscured for hockey games. Honestly when the building was built with hockey in mind, and renovated with one of the most valuable NHL franchises well entrenched, there’s no real reason to have seats that can’t see all of the ice. This is what we call foreshadowing.

They at least painted them blue.

As for the game on the ice, it was an enjoyable game, just boring enough that you could play another game, called “Count the number of Chase logos”. I got to 11. Other than the still baffling use of obscured seats, and the still requirement to go up many levels, the MSG renovation was a big plus.

Moving on to *accent* BROOKLYNN, the lowly nomadic Islanders have (temporarily) taken up residence in what has to be the ugliest stadium this side of Soldier Field, Barclays Arena.

It’s just soooo ugly.

However, one advantage that Barclays has over Nassau is that it was easier to get to on public transportation. And there’s a Barcade within walking distance. So two points there. Other than that, the arena itself has issues, so to speak.

The obvious one, and the root cause of many of the others, is that the arena was built with basketball (as well as concerts and shows) as the sole focus. Since a basketball court is smaller than a regulation NHL rink, that means that a lot of sacrifices had to be made.

Two of the most glaring are the seats that were taken out for hockey in one of the attacking zones, replaced by a big old truck (I think it’s a Honda). That not only lowers capacity (which is admittedly common, and why buildings that host both NHL and NBA teams have higher attendance for NBA games), but also puts the second level seats right on or over the glass, which is...suboptimal.

The second glaring noticeable issue people can and will see is that the “center hung” scoreboard is, in fact, not hung in the center of the rink. I’m sure it’s over center court at a Nets game, but the dimensions forced them to put the rink in such a place that it is closer to the blue line than the center dot.

It’s even noticeable in the seats themselves, as they are pointing towards the middle of the court, not the middle of the rink.

This shows a little of both of the last two issues, as the seat is pointing at the scoreboard and not center ice.


So, for all its advantages and amenities that Nassau lacks, it was always pretty obvious that Barclays was going to be a temporary fix to the Islanders stadium woes. And it was even more temporary than anticipated, because of the lack of interest, the Islanders have been playing about half of the 2018-19 season at their renovated old home (because it has an even smaller capacity now, it won’t be a permanent home) while playing some games in Brooklyn. Presumably this situation will continue for the next three seasons until the new arena in Belmont is finished. It’s just kind of a crummy situation, and hopefully it works out for the best.

While I spent most of the game craning my neck to see the actual action in the (mostly empty, that is another problem that Barclays has been having) arena, I did manage to see the Isles get beat handily in what was a pretty forgettable 2017-18 campaign.