cmm

The Islanders will be returning to the Coliseum. Twelve games there next season. Then if those go well, they will play at least half of their games in Uniondale until the new place is ready.

https://www.newsday.com/sports/hockey/islanders/islanders-nassau-coliseum-12-games-1.16380150

Bunch of proposed Ottawa Senators logos and jerseys in this video:

EDIT: Bonus--1990 NHL Draft logo at 15:49!

Baltimore Colts/Stallions (CFL)

(from https://youtu.be/beWTiASkd8I)

As long as Chance is safe

I remember watching that game. They were having problems with the graphic during the first half; sometimes it wasn’t there at all, sometimes it was there but not legible. Eventually they got it working with the proper background.

3 hours ago, ltjets21 said:

So are the Isles still moving after next season at Barclays? What is the deal?

They will opt out of the lease, which will see them play the 2018-19 season in Brooklyn. After that, it's up in the air until Belmont opens which they hope will be 2020-21. So they will need a home for one year (or more if there are any delays).

The governor said he hopes they can play at least some of their home games at the Coliseum. Bettman replied with a joke about Billy Joel (though he has said in the past that the Coliseum isn't viable even as a temporary venue); Jon Ledecky didn't address it at all. The Barclays folks, who run the Coliseum, said, “We are currently awaiting a response from the Islanders to our proposal to bring NHL games back home to the Coliseum on an interim basis. We understand the required approvals from all parties involved to make that happen, and are prepared to facilitate any necessary enhancements.”

So, who knows? Maybe they play an entire season (and even parts of 2018-19) at the Coliseum. Maybe they split the year between Uniondale and Brooklyn. Maybe they just stay in Brooklyn for another year. Maybe the talks with Barclays fall apart and they spend the interregnum at MSG or Hartford or the Meadowlands if that arena is still even operable.

I was really hoping they'd end up near Citi Field. I plan on moving to the city in the next year or two (not to find myself, but to cut down on my commute), and if I'm car-less, Belmont will probably be a pain to get to. And I have a friend in Brooklyn who started going to games and is becoming a fan; he will have a hard time getting to the new place. But it's still a great day. There weren't enough converts like my friend to make up for the Long Island fans who couldn't make the trek to Brooklyn, and Barclays was foolishly not built for hockey.

Brooklyn definitely wasn't a success. But it did buy the franchise time and kept them from moving to Quebec or Kansas City or wherever.

I hope this means the Steinbrenner Football Club Soccer Team has to move to Quebec City.

They’re coming home.

10 hours ago, the admiral said:

- 12 games against sustaining divisional rivals. Each team would have two teams designated for six-game season series every single year. In the case of Chicago, Toronto, and Detroit, all three are each other's two, same with New York, Long Island, and Jersey. Others would interweave: Boston would be locked into six with the Habs and six with the Whalers, but the Whalers would have their set series with the Bruins (Battle of New England) and Nordiques (WHA rivalry).

 

- Why do the Flyers have a permanent six-game season series with the Florida Panthers? Yeah, that was precisely where my whole sustaining/rotating system broke down. It was working so well right up to that point! Everything else made sense!

 

I'm thinking of really fleshing this out and doing all sorts of concepts and alternate timelines if there's any interest. 

I would consider making the Devils and Flyers as the permanent rivals and sticking the Islanders with the Panthers. I don't think the Isles and Devils have much of a rivalry. Yes, you do get a good number of Devils fans when they play in Brooklyn/Uniondale, and likewise many Islanders fans make the trip to Newark. But the intensity isn't really there. I'm an Islander fan, and I hate the Penguins and maybe even the Flyers more than I hate the Devils. On the other hand, Devils fans hate the Flyers almost as much as they hate the Rangers, and I don't think Flyers fans are fond of the Devils either.

16 minutes ago, dfwabel said:

It probably doesn't help that Pegula is Penn State's hockey benefactor as opposed to Ed Snider, Ron Burkle, or that legislators won't grant them (or their concessionaire) a liquor license for Beaver Stadium

They can always have the Sabres play a home game at Penn State; it’s not any more ridiculous than them having a home game on Long Island.

On 10/25/2017 at 8:08 PM, RyanMcD29 said:

Speaking of the mid-90's NBC graphics, do I remember correctly that the 49ers had some weird curvy divide between the gold and the red for their block?

Best I could find in a quick search of the you tubes.

6 hours ago, Chico said:

The New York Rangers have banners for Regular Season Championships as well. 

Banners for the Presidents’ Trophy aren’t too uncommon (I think). The NHL even had a rule before the trophy that allowed the team with the best record to hang an NHL League Champion banner:

http://www.nhl.com/ice/awarddisplay.htm?season=20102011#president

I don’t have a big problem with these. But the regular season conference champions banners are really dumb.

In their 142nd season, the Boston/Milwaukee/Atlanta Braves' all-time record is currently 10,462-10,462.

The Blue Jackets are 9-0-0 at home on Tuesdays this season.

Belmont doesn't have subway service, but at least it has a recently renovated LIRR station. It obviously wouldn't be as convenient as the 7 train to Mets-Willets Point, but hopefully they'd at least run some shuttle trains between Jamaica and Belmont to give city fans (and Long Islanders who don't want to deal with traffic) a somewhat reasonable way to get to the game, something they never had at the Coliseum.

I think each team will still have one bye week. But they won't be spread out like they were this season. So half of the teams will all be taking their byes on, say, February 1-5 and the other half will have theirs from February 11-15.

Just for the record, the Isles organ guy played "Brass Bonanza" at the game tonight. Either because they were playing Carolina or because he has a great sense of humor.

Plus Gary Bettman is a Half Hollow Hills graduate. He will put up a bigger fight for his hometown team than he did for, say, Atlanta, if it comes down to that.

Also, should they build a new arena, I don't think they would use the new Coliseum as a temporary home. It's operated by the Barclays folks. They most likely wouldn't be happy with the Isles for building a competing arena on the island. If they need a place to play while waiting for a Belmont Park or Mets adjacent arena, I'd guess that MSG (maybe with some games at Newark if the Garden is too busy) would be more likely.

Newsday has the Coliseum's hockey capacity at 13,000, with the ability to add 2,000 seats. So if they expand, it would be slightly smaller than Barclays (but without 1,500 obstructed seats).

Yep. There have been stories over the last year about the new owners considering Flushing and Belmont Park and keeping their options open. And we've known since almost day one that the Islanders and Barclays have had a strained relationship. Before they even moved, I heard that a team employee was told to plan for just three years in Brooklyn.

One more tweet from Staple:

He was just throwing that out there. But you do realize that the Islanders (and Devils) are on the MSG Networks, right? And that if either team leaves, either for another network or another city, it would be a serious blow to MSG? With just the Rangers, Knicks, and Devils, it would be a lot harder to price gouge consumers and other cable operators with two full-time channels. Look at how much they were willing to pay the Devils to keep them off SNY or YES when their rights were up ten years ago.

I'm not worried that they'll leave the area just yet. Both Belmont and the Wilpons have reportedly been willing to work with the Isles, and they do have that big tv deal that they won't get elsewhere.

This would be a fun temporary fix!

On 1/26/2017 at 4:50 PM, BeerGuyJordan said:

 

MSG would be idiots, to put their farm team in the heart of Isles fans territory, much less their old home. Talk about alienating a potential fanbase, from day one.

 

I get that making money isn't priority number one, but if you can make money, while you're at it, why not? The Isles would be wise to snatch up Nassau, for their AHL team.

There are a ton of Rangers fans on Long Island and in Nassau County (I honestly don't know which team has more fans here, and as an Islanders fan, that sucks). Any alienated Islanders fans can be replaced by a Rangers fan who wouldn't have supported an Isles affiliate. I don't know if an AHL team would draw well here, especially with the big clubs not too far away. But I think a Rangers affiliate would have just as good a chance of succeeding as an Islanders affiliate. The Rangers might actually have a better chance since the AHL team can be a cheap alternative for someone who can't afford a ticket to MSG, while Isles tickets can often be found on Stubhub for under $10. I don't think AHL tickets would be much cheaper than that.