New York Islanders moving to Brooklyn

[njmeadowlanders]

A playing-around mockup from some commentor on Deadspin:

[rams80]

I don't like this as anything more than a stopgap. Bad move for Long Island, but Nassau County only has themselves to blame.

Hardly. The blame lies squarely on Charles Wang and his inability to understand how the politics in Nassau County and the Town of Hempstead works. Further, he devised a project that just did not fit in with the surrounding area and refused to budge on the development. If this was only about an arena he would have had an arena opening probably this season or next season. The issue was never the arena the issue was the development of the surrounding area.

The better question is does Nassau Coliseum now beat Jobbing.com Arena to parking lot status.

It's not advisable to use a Superfund site for parking purposes, so I'm still going to give the edge to the Jobberdome.

[dfwabel]

14,500 seats, guys. Like I said in another thread, it's okay that Winnipeg only has 15,000 seats because all 15,000 are good. It's a thoroughly unconventional seating bowl that simply doesn't go up as high as others do. Looks like a lot of the 14,500 in Brooklyn are bad seats. And I have this funny little feeling that going to a game in Brooklyn, bad seats and all, is going to be considerably more expensive than a game in Uniondale!

15,000 seats by 2015.

Try to get 1,000 worthy to sell seats from this:

I don't like this as anything more than a stopgap. Bad move for Long Island, but Nassau County only has themselves to blame.

Hardly. The blame lies squarely on Charles Wang and his inability to understand how the politics in Nassau County and the Town of Hempstead works. Further, he devised a project that just did not fit in with the surrounding area and refused to budge on the development. If this was only about an arena he would have had an arena opening probably this season or next season. The issue was never the arena the issue was the development of the surrounding area.

The better question is does Nassau Coliseum now beat Jobbing.com Arena to parking lot status.

The St. Louis Arena sat dormant for five years after the Blues moved to downtown. Plus, asbestos abatement is a long and costly process. I doubt that they took it all out earlier this year.

[Gothamite]

A playing-around mockup from some commentor on Deadspin:

Not bad, but that geography is way too detailed. I'd even simplify from the existing logo.

[The_Admiral]

The blame lies squarely on Charles Wang and his inability to understand how the politics in Nassau County and the Town of Hempstead works. Further, he devised a project that just did not fit in with the surrounding area and refused to budge on the development. If this was only about an arena he would have had an arena opening probably this season or next season. The issue was never the arena the issue was the development of the surrounding area.

The better question is does Nassau Coliseum now beat Jobbing.com Arena to parking lot status.

In fairness, I don't think anyone understands the labyrinth that is Long Island politics. It's a small miracle anything gets done there. I agree that the Lighthouse was a fatally flawed idea and had no business ever being built, but I don't think the NIMBYs in Nassau wanted him to build anything anywhere. I noticed a lot of talk about how a new arena would endanger a "suburban way of life," which smells for all the world like coding for something, though who can say for sure just what, exactly.

And yeah, there's really no reason to keep the Nassau Coliseum around once the Isles are gone. It's a festering pit. It's a festering pit with nary a bad seat in the house for hockey, unlike their new home with thousands of terrible seats, but it's still a festering pit. I think it would've been nice to have a suburban Long Island arena to play shows for the people who didn't want to go all the way into the city or to Jersey, which I think a non-ostentatious arena in western Suffolk would've accomplished quite well, but apparently that ship has sailed, and there will be no major venue for Long Island anymore.

[Gothamite]

I noticed a lot of talk about how a new arena would endanger a "suburban way of life," which smells for all the world like coding for something, though who can say for sure just what, exactly.

Traditionally, those words haven't indicated terribly subtle rhetoric, although I'm not sure how those fears were very relevant in this case.

[Kevin W.]

I noticed a lot of talk about how a new arena would endanger a "suburban way of life," which smells for all the world like coding for something, though who can say for sure just what, exactly.

Traditionally, those words haven't indicated terribly subtle rhetoric, although I'm not sure how those fears were very relevant in this case.

Are you kidding? Jay-Z's involved. The WASPs are probably already freaking out. It's those damn brown kids and their rap music and their hipping and their hopping...

[The_Admiral]

We were talking about building in Nassau, with which Jay-Z was never involved.

[Gothamite]

Exactly.

"Suburban" is usually polite-company code contrasting against its opposite. What, they were worried the giant mall/hockey stadium/residential complex was going to draw yoots from da Bronx?

[cmm]

14,500 seats, guys. Like I said in another thread, it's okay that Winnipeg only has 15,000 seats because all 15,000 are good. It's a thoroughly unconventional seating bowl that simply doesn't go up as high as others do. Looks like a lot of the 14,500 in Brooklyn are bad seats. And I have this funny little feeling that going to a game in Brooklyn, bad seats and all, is going to be considerably more expensive than a game in Uniondale!

15,000 seats by 2015.

Try to get 1,000 worthy to sell seats from this:

They can always turn to the Dolans for inspiration:

skybridges!

[The_Admiral]

That they would be the ones staffing it, yes.

So until these seats are magically shoehorned in, we're looking at four digits of unobstructed views. "yeah well they don't even get 10,000 now!" okay but I should like to think one day they CAN. I think the Isles are a sleeping giant, but I'm not sure this is the way to wake them up.

[Kevin W.]

We were talking about building in Nassau, with which Jay-Z was never involved.

Oh, my mistake. Sorry.

[Gothamite]

That they would be the ones staffing it, yes.

So until these seats are magically shoehorned in, we're looking at four digits of unobstructed views. "yeah well they don't even get 10,000 now!" okay but I should like to think one day they CAN. I think the Isles are a sleeping giant, but I'm not sure this is the way to wake them up.

After how many years of trying to get a new arena? Nassau shot them down, and hockey is enough of a niche sport that I don't see NYC ponying up for their own palace.

I really think it was this or Quebec City.

[The_Admiral]

Do you think the demand for events in the Long Island suburbs is still high enough to necessitate an arena? Could they have gotten private money behind one? It wouldn't even have to be an expensive rusty spaceship that changes the way we think about wasting money, just an acceptably functional venue, kind of like the Rosemont Horizon/Allstate Arena is out here.

[AndrewPF]

The Brooklyn logo's been leaked onto Reddit:

[tp49]

The blame lies squarely on Charles Wang and his inability to understand how the politics in Nassau County and the Town of Hempstead works. Further, he devised a project that just did not fit in with the surrounding area and refused to budge on the development. If this was only about an arena he would have had an arena opening probably this season or next season. The issue was never the arena the issue was the development of the surrounding area.

The better question is does Nassau Coliseum now beat Jobbing.com Arena to parking lot status.

In fairness, I don't think anyone understands the labyrinth that is Long Island politics. It's a small miracle anything gets done there. I agree that the Lighthouse was a fatally flawed idea and had no business ever being built, but I don't think the NIMBYs in Nassau wanted him to build anything anywhere. I noticed a lot of talk about how a new arena would endanger a "suburban way of life," which smells for all the world like coding for something, though who can say for sure just what, exactly.

And yeah, there's really no reason to keep the Nassau Coliseum around once the Isles are gone. It's a festering pit. It's a festering pit with nary a bad seat in the house for hockey, unlike their new home with thousands of terrible seats, but it's still a festering pit. I think it would've been nice to have a suburban Long Island arena to play shows for the people who didn't want to go all the way into the city or to Jersey, which I think a non-ostentatious arena in western Suffolk would've accomplished quite well, but apparently that ship has sailed, and there will be no major venue for Long Island anymore.

In all candor I may be one of the few who does understand the labyrinth that is Nassau County politics. Wang's fatal error was he had the wrong consultants to play ball with the township that ultimately has control over the zoning. That said, The Lighthouse would have "endangered a suburban way of life" but an arena alone would not have and I don't think many publicly said as much. There's been an arena at that spot for over forty years and it was an airport before that. From the people I've talked to who have knowledge of the inner workings of the situation if it was about the arena as Wang kept trying to play, he would have had the zoning for an arena approved. The Roosevelt Field Mall expansion was approved over the objections of the area NIMBY's. It was all of the other things he was looking to do that got his project 86'd and his method for trying to get it done.

I also can't think of anyplace in Western Suffolk where there would have been a plot large enough to build an arena. I just think that in this case placing the blame on the County, Township or even the NIMBY's is misplaced.

[infrared41]

Their logo is a jumbled collection of competing elements hastily thrown into a generic roundel, and it also is completely wrong for Brooklyn for the reasons mentioned above.

You say that like it's an indisputable fact.

[tp49]

Do you think the demand for events in the Long Island suburbs is still high enough to necessitate an arena? Could they have gotten private money behind one? It wouldn't even have to be an expensive rusty spaceship that changes the way we think about wasting money, just an acceptably functional venue, kind of like the Rosemont Horizon/Allstate Arena is out here.

Honestly, I don't think the demand is there anymore. The private money would have had to come from Wang to build a privately funded arena which was money he didn't want to spend. IIRC from the Lighthouse project the arena wasn't going to be a new arena but a heavily renovated NVMC.

Additionally the referendum that the County had never was binding. The County could have floated the bonds without the vote. An election that cost the cash strapped county over $2 million to conduct. Seemed like a big old dog and pony show to me.

[-kj]

Their logo is a jumbled collection of competing elements hastily thrown into a generic roundel, and it also is completely wrong for Brooklyn for the reasons mentioned above.

You say that like it's an indisputable fact.

It may not be, but it's not fiction either.

[infrared41]

Hopefully they change those dated-looking uniforms and that jumbled mess of a logo. It's too bad they ditched their first Edge uniforms, because that would have been the perfect combination of classic and modern for Brooklyn.

Surely you can't be serious. There's absolutely nothing wrong with their uniforms or logo. Do you just want every team to get rid of their classic uniforms?

It sure seems like it. But keep in mind that he's also the guy who thinks this is the best baseball jersey ever...

It's just my opinion, but I think that liking something that silly looking dilutes the legitimacy of his opinions by at least 43%.

Anyway, I agree with you, Crich. The Islanders have a great look. Correcting the geography on the logo would be easy enough to fix. Leave the rest alone.