WELCOMING UBS ARENA
BY JOE PANTORNO
It wasn’t just another pre-practice huddle
on the morning of Thursday, Nov. 18, for
the New York Islanders.
As head coach Barry Trotz directed the
flow of proceedings, he and his Islanders
stood at center ice of their new home,
UBS Arena, for the first time ever as construction
crews put the finishing touches
on the new, state-of-the-art home of New
York hockey.
“It was cool. The best I could describe
it to anybody is that it felt like the Winter
Classic, those NHL series games,” Trotz
said at the time. “It has a different feel.
So there’s a little pep in the step. Getting
lost in it, figuring out every office, every
room. That’s probably what it feels like,
which is good. Those are great experiences.”
6 SCHNEPS MEDIA | DEC.10, 2021
“It absolutely blew me away,” star center
Mathew Barzal added. “The entire
facility and the rink and how it’s set up
is so high-end; I can’t even tell you how
nice it is down here. We’re a pretty lucky
group.”
“The boys are home!” one of the players
yelled from the middle of the huddle as it
broke off into sections of drills.
“We haven’t had a chance to play a
home game yet this year and you see
how much we feed off our crowd and
the impact they have on us,” Islanders
captain Anders Lee said on Nov. 18..
“We’ve seen it in the playoffs … now we
get to be back in front of them. After
that, you look at it, it’s a brand-new
building that this franchise has been
looking forward to for a long time …
It’s an extremely exciting time for this
organization.
“There’s a lot that’s gone into it. It’s going
to bring a lot of life and I know that we’re
going to feed off that life from the crowd.”
That home slate starts rather poetically
against a Flames team that they took
on 17,941 days earlier — when that franchise
was in Atlanta — in what was the
Islanders’ first-ever game as an NHL team
at their brand-new home at the time, the
Nassau Coliseum.
“The Coliseum served us well. The
Barclays served us well,” Trotz said. “The
guys on this team the last four, five years,
they built this. It’s helped that we’ve been
a competitive team the last couple of years
and we have to continue that.”
BY JOE PANTORNO
Jon Ledecky was all smiles as he overlooked
the observation deck near the
recently dedicated seat for veterans of
war.
The New York Islanders co-owner has
done what many others before him could
not: secure a long-term, state-of-the-art
home for the hockey club while keeping
them in Nassau County.
UBS Arena’s doors open to the NHL
Saturday night, giving fans a first glimpse
at the 18,000-seat, $1.1 billion venue that is
strictly dedicated to the Islanders — something
the franchise has not experienced
since the opening of Nassau Coliseum 50
years ago.
The road to get this for the Islanders was
arduous and plenty bumpy. Opposing politicians,
the striking down of the Lighthouse
Project, rumors of moving out of state
(whether it be Oklahoma City, Kansas City
or Quebec), and even an ill-fated move to
Brooklyn dotted the past two decades of
uncertainty.
But that’s all firmly in the rearview mirror,
though there was just one more little
challenge of getting UBS Arena built during
a pandemic after ground broke on the
project in September of 2019.
All the more reason to celebrate the doors
opening for Ledecky.
“The pandemic, all the different sacrifices
that all of us had to make. For this to rise up
and represent all that America and this area
after the pandemic — what a great symbol
of the resilience of New York, the resilience
of the Metropolitan area and the resilience
of our fans,” Ledecky said. “I’m so excited
that we can host the Islanders fans … where
they can have a proper home to watch the
team play. It’s been a long time coming and
a lot of people tried.”
Ledecky, co-owner Scott Malkin and Oak
View Group CEO Tim Leiweke were not
just able to keep the Islanders on Long
Island, toeing the Nassau, Queens border
at Belmont Park in Elmont, but they managed
to blend in the Islanders’ history and
the culture of New York.
An expanded arena features a ceiling
that is only three feet higher than that of
the Nassau Coliseum to ensure that the
intimate feel and deafening noise will
be carried over to UBS Arena. Photos of
glory days past adorn the walls, working
intricately with designs that are set
to hark back to the old days of Grand
Central Station.
“I want them to appreciate that they’re
at home. This is their home,” Ledecky said.
“We built this with hundreds of feedback
points from each and every fan. We wandered
around the Nassau Coliseum and
Barclays Center and took copious notes on
what they wanted.
“They wanted a supporters section, they
wanted to be able to stand and enjoy the
game together and have a meeting place.
They gave us details far and wide, very
niche things that we needed to do.”
That’s exactly what they’re getting.
UBS Arena is one of the premier sporting
venues in North America while somehow,
someway instituting everything that
the Islanders and their fan base are about:
a blue-collar work ethic, an incurable passion
for hockey and a tight-knit community
that resembles family more than fanaticism.
“Inclusion was the word that our fan
base said. We want everyone to feel like
they can participate and be a part of it,”
Ledecky said. “We don’t want to see corporate
suits. We want to be part of the
fans and they can interact with each other
whether they’re buying the best seat in the
house or the Bob Uecker seat last row,
the democratization of the fan base was
incredibly important to them.”
‘It absolutely
blew me away’:
Islanders get first
taste of UBS Arena
Brad Penner-USA TODAY Sports
A look at the ice before the New York Islanders play the Calgary Flames in the first ever hockey game
at UBS Arena.
Islanders co-owner Ledecky on fans as UBS Arena opens
Courtesy of New York Islanders
Islanders co-owner Jon Ledecky