http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/01/nyregion/at-barclays-center-islanders-to-play-where-hockey-was-an-afterthought.html?_r=1According to Robert Sanna, Forest City Ratner’s executive vice president for construction and design development, the seating capacity will be reduced to 14,500 from 18,000 for basketball, which would make it the league’s smallest rink. Retractable seats will mostly be collapsed on one end, closest to the Atlantic Terminal side, and therefore the alignment around the rink will resemble a horseshoe.Mr. Sanna said the construction team would also have to design additional locker rooms for hockey players.The ice, which will be manufactured in July, will stay underneath the basketball floor permanently. Whether this leads to an N.H.L. franchise that will wear Brooklyn on its jerseys, Mr. Sanna could not say.
Before we make a final judgement on the arena and it configuration lets see how October 2nd goes.
Why would they not be able to use the upper level seats on the far end?
ReplyDeleteIn order to fit an NHL size rink in the Barclays Center it will have to be off center simialr to the picture above. By doing this the upper level will not be able to see the near goal. Several AHL arena suffer from this configuartion.
ReplyDeleteI'm a sharks fan but I stumbled upon this blog because I'm a Fanatic about how these sort of thing play out w the stadiums and where teams play for example the islanders possibly moving to brooklyn and the nets moving to Brooklyn (btw I've heard rumors about them possibly building an islanders arena out in willets point near citi field.) anyhow in my opinion I think it is very minor league to have to tarp seats off for the game because some seats cannot view the goal. I was a proponent of the team moving to barclays center but after seeing that I may have to reconsider.
ReplyDeleteThere has been no news about Willets Point and the Islanders. Several Queens politicians tried to get Wang involved, but he wasn't interested. That may be due to the fact that the development project there is being held up in court, so it should be interesting to see if anything happen after the issues are cleared up. I recommend this article if your interested on the topic http://mobile.newsday.com/inf/infomo;jsessionid=471F385D505BD574F2BA.3216?site=newsday&view=sports_item&feed:a=newsday_5min&feed:c=sports&feed:i=1.3550252
ReplyDeleteI've been an Islanders fan for nearly 30 years and lived in Brooklyn for 25 years. Initially when I heard that the Barclays Center was being built I was thrilled with the prospect of the Islanders moving to Brooklyn. When I heard what the dimensions and seating capacity were for hockey I couldn't believe it. This building will never be able to host a full time team. It will be spectacular for basketball. I understand that the original design would have supported a higher capacity for hockey and even though they had to cut back due to costs I can't believe this blunder. The extra cost for the original design could have been made up by the 41 home games that the Islanders or another team would have played over the years. I still feel the Barclays Center is a great place, but hockey on a full season basis will never happen.
ReplyDeletehttp://newyorkislandersadrift.blogspot.com/2012/03/barcalys-hockey-sightlines.html
ReplyDeleteThe hope is the Isles play there for a few seasons as a trial run and if successful renovations are made for hockey. Plus those few years in Brooklyn gives them more time to try to work with Queens or Suffolk. Plus let's wait and see how October 2nd goes before we kill it.