New York Islanders: What’s a Season Ticket Holder To Do?

The New York Islanders have put some season ticket holders in a poor position when it comes to investing their money in this team.

For many New York Islanders fans, the time is coming to decide whether or not to renew their season tickets. For fans of the team that have held them for decades and continued to do so after the move to Brooklyn, this might be a no-brainer. For other, less tenured season ticket holders like myself, it’s not so easy.

As it stands, the Isles have lost four straight. Their big win streak thus far, while stocked with some of the strongest teams in the league, was short lived. It was peppered with some stronger effort but carried mostly by goaltenders who just can’t sustain those performances.

The Islanders are sitting on an 11-13-6 record. They’re 13 points out of a wildcard spot. There’s no telling what effort fans will see game in and game out. Management seems content with this.

Mangement’s Failure

Jack Capuano is the only coach in this league whose team could perform like this through 30 games and still have a job.

Doug Weight continues to run a power play that has become every example of what NOT to do with the man advantage.

John Tavares still doesn’t have a winger and aside from the captain, the Isles best forward has been Josh Bailey. While content with Bailey’s performance by Bailey standards, this isn’t good news for this team.

Ryan Strome continues to get the shaft – though his last two games have given us flashes of the player we know he can be.

Anthony Beauvillier is another example of current management’s tragic inability to properly develop prospects.

Travis Hamonic continues to play top D minutes with Nick Leddy and he’s failing terrifically at it. Is it the injury? Is it something else? Or have we overvalued him?

The Islanders are getting pushed around. Badly.  Hamonic has been the only guy with the actual ability to step up and do something about it. So sure, let’s have the guy with the broken finger and concussion history do the fighting. That’s smahhhht!

So we’re waiting around for Andrew Ladd to show up. We hold our breath to see which Brock Nelson comes to play. We watch third periods with our eyes half covered and our hearts in our throats because we know how this narrative goes now.

And Snow’s only move from October to now has been giving Cal Clutterbuck a questionable contract.

Should I Stay or Should I Go

So I’ve got Joe Strummer in my ear, a constant should I stay or should I go hum. What really, is my motivation to renew my season tickets with the current state of this team?

Do I live in a world of misguided optimism because this team had a good two weeks? Should I be appeased by the report that ownership is looking for a president of hockey operations? Who knows what that actually means anyway when ownership and management are mired in status quo.

The Islanders have at least recognized this conundrum. They’ve lowered season ticket prices for auto-renewers. They’ve added more experiences and benefits for less money. It’s actually a pretty good deal.

What’s disturbing about this is how there is recognition to the attendance issues and how vital it is to keep current season ticket holders. They have to keep people in the stands and they’re attempting to do it with better pricing and more experiences rather than putting a winning product on the ice.

Next: New York Islanders Postgame - Time for a Change

And I’ll renew but only for the possibility that it could be my last season watching Tavares in an Islanders uniform.