Islanders fan creates petition to keep games at Nassau Coliseum

New York Islanders fan created a petition to keep Nassau Coliseum open.

Mikhail Prokhorov’s Onexim Sports and Entertainment will shutter the Nassau Coliseum, home of the New York Islanders. As you can imagine fans weren’t too pleased about the surprise development.

Onexim is shuttering the Coliseum as it struggles with $100 million in debts and with the inability to host events, like Islanders games or concerts at the venue.

In response, Isles fans have taken to the internet to get their voices heard and to ideally get something done to reverse that decision.

The Petition

After hearing the news about the Coliseum, Islanders fan Cole Healy decided to try and get his voice, and hopefully, those of other Islanders fans heard. So he created a petition on Change.org.

The goal of the petition is to get New York Islanders owners Scott Malkin and John Ledecky to try and step in to get the Old Barn doors open again for Islanders games.

So far over 400 people have already signed the petition and that number is working it’s way to the goal of 500 signatures. Something that caught Cole by surprise:

"I was pretty surprised. I’ve made petitions on that site but they never really went anywhere. When I saw that people were sharing it on social media, I realized that this could actually go somewhere. The support has been amazing, and I hope it continues because if it does, this petition can actually do something."

What happens with the Nassau Coliseum is still uncertain. While Onexim will shutter the building indefinitely. There are still a number of key players that have yet to weigh in on the subject.

Key players like Governor Andrew Cuomo. At the end of February, Cuomo came to Long Island to announce that the Isles would play all of their remaining games at the Nassau Coliseum as they wait for Belmont to be constructed.

So you can imagine he might have something to say about the surprise change in plans.

As we all wait for news on where the Islanders will play home games for the 2020-21 season, Cole is still optimistic that the Islanders will return to the Coliseum before eventually moving to Belmont.