The Islanders’ relationship with Barclays Center has "been on such thin ice during the club’s first season in Brooklyn that both sides are secretly exploring ways to cut ties or modify the existing terms of their lease," according to Calder & Kosman of the N.Y. POST. The Islanders were losing roughly $20M annually playing at Nassau Coliseum when Owner Charles Wang in '12 "cut a 25-year lease deal with Barclays Center to have the team move there beginning this season." Sources said that the lease "includes a little-known out clause that kicks in after the fourth season that both sides could take advantage of." A source said, "I don’t think either side ever believed the full lease would be honored. I just didn’t think we’d be talking about this the first year in." Although the Islanders "own one of the NHL’s top home records, their fans have been quite sour about the move, complaining about obstructed-view seating, jacked-up ticket prices, the nixing of longtime team traditions and feeling like second-class citizens in a building monopolized" by the Nets. A source said that Jonathan Ledecky, who "heads a group of investors set to replace Wang as the team's majority owner July 1," is "enamored with possibly moving the team to Queens or back to Long Island." A new arena "likely would have to be built" in either of those scenarios. Sources said that another option is "renegotiating the Barclays Center lease to salvage the relationship." The Islanders declined comment, but Barclays Center CEO Brett Yormark on Friday "denied his arena wants out of the deal early" (N.Y. POST, 2/20). YAHOO SPORTS' Greg Wyshynski wrote the report is a "pretty transparent attempt by the Islanders to renegotiate its lease." The team "agreed to a setup where Barclays controls the business side of things." If there is some out-clause to "pressure a renegotiation, might as well start banging those drums now to up that number" (SPORTS.YAHOO.com, 2/20).
COMMUNITY OUTREACH: On Long Island, Ian Wenik writes the Islanders yesterday went "to the farthest reaches" of Brooklyn, as C Ryan Strome "made an appearance at a skills clinic all the way out in Bergen Beach." The event was "part of an eight-week partnership between the Islanders and Brooklyn-based nonprofit Millennium Development to install floorball as an after-school activity in seven elementary and middle schools in the southern area of the borough." The Islanders "see an opportunity to build plenty of goodwill in a previously untapped area of the borough" (NEWSDAY, 2/22).
