Bloomberg’s Scott Soshnick reports today that the New York Islanders are discussing a move to Queens, with the help of Major League Baseball’s New York Mets, whose Citi Field home is also in the New York Borough.
The Islanders, who had played on Long Island since their founding in 1972, moved to the Barclay’s Center in Brooklyn, home of the NBA’s Brooklyn Nets, to begin last season. The ice conditions and obstructed seating brought complaints from players and fans alike. Soshnick reports that the move would be dependent on a new building being put up across the street from Citi Field, and would come in the event that Barclay’s Center and Brooklyn Nets owner Mikhail Prokhorov refused to make upgrades to the building in order to better host hockey games.
The Islanders were sold in 2014, and their new ownership group, led by Value Retail Plc founder Scott Malkin and Jon Ledecky, was confirmed this past July 1st. Soshnick also notes that the Sterling Equities owns a share of the Islanders, and are themselves co-founded by Fred Wilpon, owner of the New York Mets.