Editorial

Bring the Islanders home to the Coliseum

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Islanders fans at the Nassau Coliseum had the “old barn” rocking for what proved to be the final time on April 29, 2015, when the club beat the Washington Capitals to stave off elimination in that season’s Stanley Cup playoffs. When the team lost Game 7 on the road, it was the end of an era for the Coliseum.

Or so it seemed.

Now, it appears a door is open for the Islanders to return to the venue, where a $130 million renovation is nearing completion. The new Coliseum will reopen its doors on April 5 for — what else? — a Billy Joel concert.

Last season, the Islanders signed what was expected to be a 25-year lease to play their home games at Brooklyn’s Barclays Center, which is also home to the NBA’s Nets. The move happened after the Isles’ former principal owner, Charles Wang, was unable to convince Nassau elected officials — or taxpayers — to approve plans to upgrade the aging Coliseum.

Wang’s proposed Lighthouse project, a $3.7 billion plan to transform the arena and its surroundings, died after county and Town of Hempstead officials declined to grant the approvals necessary for the project to proceed. Then another plan to renovate the venue, with the $400 million cost to be borne by Nassau County taxpayers, predictably failed, leading to the move to Brooklyn.

Amid falling attendance and complaints about Barclays Center, it has become clear that the team may need a new home by 2019. The Brooklyn arena wasn’t built with hockey in mind. There are about 1,500 seats with obstructed views. The Islanders now rank 29th out of 30 NHL teams with average attendance of just over 13,000. They averaged 15,334 in their final season at the Coliseum.

And Barclays Center is the only venue in the NHL to have a floor piping system made of PVC rather than steel. The material makes it impossible for the pipes to reach 21 degrees, the ideal temperature for NHL play. Islanders forward Cal Clutterbuck once told the New York Post that the Barclays rink was the “worst ice I’ve ever seen in my nine years” in the league.

Both the Islanders and Barclays Center can opt out of their lease agreement in January 2018. If the Islanders decide to leave, they can do so after either of the next two seasons. If Barclays opts out, the team must stay until after the 2018-19 campaign.

In 2013, Wang struck a deal with Nassau Events Center, an entity formed by developer and minority Nets owner Bruce Ratner to renovate the Coliseum, for the Islanders to play six games per season at the revamped arena — two in the preseason and four in the regular season. Wang has since sold the team, and its new majority owners, Jon Ledecky and Scott Malkin, have yet to announce whether they plan to stick to the deal, but it could be a good test for a team looking for a new home rink.

We believe that Long Island — and the Nassau Coliseum — is where the Islanders belong. And now, with the Coliseum finally being renovated, there is a new hope. The new building will have the capability to retrofit 2,000 additional seats to boost its planned capacity of 13,000 fans for hockey. A return would not only be a godsend for faithful Long Island fans, who would no longer have to travel to Brooklyn, but also would revitalize the commercial activity that local businesses have missed in the Islanders’ absence.

Returning to Uniondale would make more sense than plans being floated to build a new arena near Citi Field, in Queens, or — the big news reported by Bloomberg last week — at Belmont Park in Elmont. Such a project would be unlikely to be completed by 2019. And a move out of state, which has also been discussed, would devastate a loyal fan base.

So it seems logical for the Islanders to play six games at the revamped Coliseum next season. Then Ledecky and Malkin could determine whether opting out of the Barclays lease and returning to Uniondale would be viable and financially beneficial.

The Coliseum was home to the Islanders from 1972 to 2015. It was where they became a dynasty, winning four straight Stanley Cups from 1980 to 1983. The time is right for them to seriously consider coming home. The sleek new digs might not feel like an old barn anymore, but loyal Long Island fans could surely make it rock like one again.