Islanders general manager Lou Lamoriello and owners Jon Ledecky and Scott Malkin should be proud of their work making this a first-class, state-of-the-art hockey facility. Now, if only they could apply the same magic to the product on the ice.
Before Saturday evening, I’d never attended an Islanders hockey game at the three-year-old UBS Arena. I had zero intention of going this season because the team hasn’t been worth the time and money for me to attend.
That changed when an X (Twitter) fan of mine paid for my tickets to go to an Islanders game, so I obliged. I’m glad I did. I was in awe of the experience. The best thing I can say is that it is majestic.
I never thought I’d see the day when the Islanders would have a new NHL arena after toiling at the antiquated Nassau Coliseum for most of my life. It’s been a long struggle to accomplish this, with owners giving up and politicians not interested in offering a subsidy to build an arena.
My experience started when I got off the Elmont-UBS Arena station. It was something walking through the emerald that led to the arena. There’s nothing like taking that long walk. That in itself is an experience. It’s like your heart starts beating once you make a beeline for there.
As I entered the $1.1 billion facility, I was captured by the entrance lobby with its murals, which featured everything about Long Island and Belmont Racetrack. The floor was spotless, and the lights were dazzling on my way to the escalator. The makeup of the lobby is similar to what you see at Citi Field lobby. One can make a case for the arena looking like a museum.
Then, we entered a bar in the arena and drank beer while we waited for the game to start. We also spoke to Islanders and Bruins fans at the game. The best part about this arena is the many sports bars for fans to hang out and liquor up to get going when the game starts. Also, there’s nothing like having a conversation with anyone. The fans were willing to talk and hang out, which made this a pleasurable experience.
We then made our way to our seats, and I was wowed (again) by the arena lights and the configurations. Like Prudential Center, you can get the best view of the game from any seat. There’s not a bad seat in UBS Arena, unlike Barclays Center, the worst of the new arenas in this town because of obstructed-view seats.
What’s neat about this arena is fans can be close to the action, which provides a unique home-ice advantage. It was something the Islanders had in mind when they built it since Nassau Coliseum featured fans who were close to the action, too. This is why there’s not much dropoff regarding the home-ice advantage at UBS Arena.
The Islanders had a nice Saturday night crowd, and it helped that the Boston Bruins were in town, and those fans travel well, But this night they walked out with a 5-1 loss. The Islanders dominated from the start with breakaways and faceoff wins.
Looking back, shame on me for not doing this long ago. But there’s another reality of which I must speak. The home team has a long way to go on the ice; they are 9th in the NHL’s Eastern Conference.
