New York Islanders Moving to Brooklyn But There's One Problem With The Seating Chart

It was announced this morning that the New York Islanders franchise is relocating from Long Island to Brooklyn starting in 2015. The Islanders will play their games at the brand new Barclays Center after their deal in their current stadium, the Nassau Coliseum, expires in 2015.

The move isn’t an extreme one, seeing as it’s only an hour away from where they currently reside but it’s a move to reinvigorate the franchise. Besides, moving to a brand new facility will only benefit the team in the long run but there’s one tiny little problem with the Islander’s setup for hockey games in their new facility.

Um, where are the seats behind one of the nets? I know that the Islanders have not been very good lately and most of the fans have stayed away but wouldn’t they want to provide closer seating for the fans that have stuck around?

It just seems weird that the team would leave that many seats open each night on purpose. The problem could be the venue and by the time they move in 2015 they’ll have it fixed but this is what was proposed for an Islanders vs. New Jersey Devils exhibition game before the NHL Lockout happened.

The current proposal states that the Barclays Center will hold 14,500 for hockey, which is a miniscule capacity that would need dramatic increases in ticket prices to be profitable. Barclays locker rooms would need some infrastructure changes to accommodate hockey teams as well as a potential need for a practice facility nearby.

There is a lot of time between now and when the Islanders officially make the move an by then I’m sure they will tweak the seating arrangement. If not it seems like a dumb idea to leave that entire area open while leaving hundreds of thousands of dollars on the table each game.