After 40 years of calling Nassau Coliseum home and winning four straight Stanley Cups in the early ’80s, the New York Islanders are pulling up stakes and heading west to Brooklyn and the team’s new home at the Barclays Center. Owner Charles Wang, who has reportedly lost tens of millions of dollars over the years while trying to keep the team afloat, finally tired of the jousting he’d been doing with Nassau County and the Town of Hempstead in an attempt to renovate the aging barn the Isles called home. Longtime fans may feel betrayed to the point of throwing their allegiance behind another team, but at the end of the day, Long Island’s only professional sports franchise didn’t end up lacing their skates up at locations they were rumored to move to including Quebec and Kansas City. And truthfully, given the sad state of negotiations between owner and the players union during this ongoing NHL lockout, the bigger concern might be whether the Islanders will even have a league to play in.
– Dave Gil de Rubio
