Menu
Download the app

SBJ subscribers – Enhance your experience with the revamped iOS app

NHL Season Preview

Barclays Officials Balance Islanders' Tradition With New Marketplace In Brooklyn

Barclays Center officials charged with overseeing the Islanders' transition from Nassau Coliseum and marketing the club in its new home "have to walk a fine line: keeping the existing fan base happy and acknowledging the franchise's Long Island roots, while also playing up its new environment and attempting to grow the fan base," according to Joe DeLessio of SPORTS ON EARTH. The result, so far, has been the "mild Brooklynization of the Islanders -- but even that's been controversial to some fans already wary of the team's new chapter." Existing Islanders fans "are far too large a group to ignore, and perhaps more importantly, building an entirely new fan base of hockey fans in Brooklyn would be difficult, if not impossible." That meant "keeping the Islanders' blue-and-orange color scheme, as well as their 70s-era logo with the outline of Long Island on it." Space was "reserved for the Blue and Orange Army, a fan section that had become a staple of home games, and the team's banners will be re-hung in the new building." But with Barclays Center officially taking over the marketing of the club when last season ended, "it was inevitable that they'd try to Brooklynize the Islanders at least a little" (SPORTSONEARTH.com, 10/5).

DAWN OF A NEW DAY
: In N.Y., Larry Brooks wrote, "This might be difficult for the natives to swallow, but the idea for the Islanders is not to try and recreate the atmosphere that existed at the Coliseum, it is to create an atmosphere of its own at their new home in Brooklyn." This is a Brooklyn team, "even if the incoming ownership and Barclays management that runs the off-ice operation, did not petition the league to change the club’s name to either 'the Brooklyn Islanders' or 'The New York Islanders of Brooklyn.'" The Islanders "have built a pretty darn good team that is a very watchable one." Ownership has the "obligation to try and make it Brooklyn’s team without neglecting the franchise’s roots or offending its loyal and original fan base." Brooks: "It’s a tightrope difficult to walk, but the transformation is both necessary and appropriate. This is about a new era in Islanders hockey and creating a new environment and atmosphere at Barclays" (N.Y. POST, 10/4).   

SBJ Morning Buzzcast: March 25, 2024

NFL meeting preview; MLB's opening week ad effort and remembering Peter Angelos.

Big Get Jay Wright, March Madness is upon us and ESPN locks up CFP

On this week’s pod, our Big Get is CBS Sports college basketball analyst Jay Wright. The NCAA Championship-winning coach shares his insight with SBJ’s Austin Karp on key hoops issues and why being well dressed is an important part of his success. Also on the show, Poynter Institute senior writer Tom Jones shares who he has up and who is down in sports media. Later, SBJ’s Ben Portnoy talks the latest on ESPN’s CFP extension and who CBS, TNT Sports and ESPN need to make deep runs in the men’s and women's NCAA basketball tournaments.

SBJ I Factor: Nana-Yaw Asamoah

SBJ I Factor features an interview with AMB Sports and Entertainment Chief Commercial Office Nana-Yaw Asamoah. Asamoah, who moved over to AMBSE last year after 14 years at the NFL, talks with SBJ’s Ben Fischer about how his role model parents and older sisters pushed him to shrive, how the power of lifelong learning fuels successful people, and why AMBSE was an opportunity he could not pass up. Asamoah is 2021 SBJ Forty Under 40 honoree. SBJ I Factor is a monthly podcast offering interviews with sports executives who have been recipients of one of the magazine’s awards.

Shareable URL copied to clipboard!

https://www.sportsbusinessjournal.com/Daily/Issues/2015/10/07/NHL-Season-Preview/Islanders.aspx

Sorry, something went wrong with the copy but here is the link for you.

https://www.sportsbusinessjournal.com/Daily/Issues/2015/10/07/NHL-Season-Preview/Islanders.aspx

CLOSE