New York Islanders Belmont Park Traffic Misconception

Not everyone wants the New York Islanders at Belmont Park. Those who don’t are using flawed logic to prove their point though.

The New York Islanders are getting a new arena built at Belmont Park. They won the bid fair and square and the process is supposed to get started next month. Now, like anything, there are people who oppose this idea.

Usually every few months we see a tired take on Twitter about why it would be bad for the Islanders to move to Elmont. This one might take the cake though. The tweet says:

"Cross Island Parkway after Stakes. A proposed arena and mega mall project will bring more congestion on top of regular rush hour weekday traffic. Once a year on a Saturday is fine. Every other day would be a nightmare. Islanders belong at Nassau Coliseum."

The tweet also includes a photo of the traffic on the Cross Island. Let’s break this down starting with the traffic comment. The racetrack can hold over 100,000 and the Belmont Stakes is one of the biggest racing events of the year so the place is packed out.

At maximum, the Isles new arena will hold 19,000 people. There’s no way that 19,000 is going to create the same traffic situation so to use a photo of the traffic from the Stakes is flat out silly.

The person then goes on to say that every other day would be a nightmare. That would infer that the Islanders will have games 182 times per year. At most, the Islanders would have four preseason games, 41 regular season home games, and 16 playoff games on home ice if they went as far as possible playing the maximum amount of games in each series.

That’s a grand total of 61 days out of the year where 19,000 people would be in Elmont. The arena is happening, even if a handful of people plan to give out misleading information on why it’s a bad idea.

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