The New York Islanders will be playing all their home games at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn starting next season but – if the preseason game they played there against the Devils this weekend was any indication – it’s got some very weird flaws that indicate it wasn’t built with hockey in mind.
The first (and certainly most noticeable) oddity is that the jumbotron hangs off-center, sitting above one of the rink’s blue lines instead of the center ice face-off dot like every other arena. It’s not anything that will alter the quality of play on the ice but, as you can see in the photo above, it does look pretty strange.
The reason for the off-kilter scoreboard is the arena’s design. In order to accommodate the 200-by-85-foot NHL ice surface, one end of seating at Barclays Center needs to retract. When that happens, the giant screen, which hangs directly over center court for the arena’s primary tenant, the Brooklyn Nets, becomes askew. (via)
Another issue with the arena is that it holds around 400 seats that have obstructed views, preventing fans from seeing the net below the stands at one end of the ice. Obviously, that’s not exactly ideal from the consumer perspective…
NHL Hockey in Brooklyn… every game features the Islanders and in some spots you can’t even see the goal. No thanks. pic.twitter.com/9YuldP2rcu
— Chris Creamer (@sportslogosnet) September 29, 2014
The venue still has time before the Islanders move out of Nasseau Colliseum for good, but it’s pretty apparent that they’ve got some serious work to do if Barclay’s hopes to be a great host for hockey.
