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Islanders Good News: Belmont still on schedule for 2021-22

By Michel Anderson

ELMONT, NY - APRIL 05: The New York Islanders future home adjacent to Belmont Racetrack has suspended construction during the coronavirus pandemic. The arena was photographed on April 5, 2020 in Elmont, New York. (Photo by Bruce Bennett/Getty Images)
ELMONT, NY - APRIL 05: The New York Islanders future home adjacent to Belmont Racetrack has suspended construction during the coronavirus pandemic. The arena was photographed on April 5, 2020 in Elmont, New York. (Photo by Bruce Bennett/Getty Images) /
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According to a report, the New York Islanders arena at Belmont Park is still on schedule to open for the 2021-22 NHL season.

With construction put on hold statewide during the COVID-19 pandemic, there was a concern that the New York Islanders new arena at Belmont park might not be completed for the start of the 2021-22 season as scheduled.

Putting construction on hold was the right call to make by New York Governor Andrew Cuomo. Any concern over a possible delay to the Islanders new arena was secondary to the health and well-being of the construction workers, their families, and their communities.

If the arena couldn’t be opened on time for the 2021-22 NHL season, then so be it. But according to a report from ESPN, the arena is still on schedule, despite the delay.

Still on Pace

On March 27, all non-essential construction was put on hold statewide, which included the construction for the New York Islanders brand new state-of-the-art arena at Belmont Park.

On Wednesday, ESPN’s Greg Wyshynski reported that the Islanders Belmont Arena is still on schedule to open for the start of the 2021-22 season. Despite construction being on hold for over a month now.

Islanders owner Jon Ledecky added that “they’re ready to go” when construction is allowed to start up again.

Earlier this week, Governor Andrew Cuomo announced that Phase 1 of his plan to re-open the state was to have “low-risk construction and manufacturing functions” start back up.

As an open-air site, that should very well include Belmont.

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The Future

The $1.3 billion Belmont arena project will see the Islanders finally find a stable home on Long Island after years of being relatively nomadic (in NHL terms) by splitting time between the Barclays Center in Brooklyn and the Nassau Coliseum in Uniondale.

Belmont is the future Islanders fans have been waiting for since Charles Wang proposed the Lighthouse Project all the way back in 2007. A short delay in construction wouldn’t have been the end of the world considering the circumstances and with how long Islanders fans have had to wait already. Gladly, it seems there won’t be a delay.

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