Islanders great sign for UBS Arena with strong season ticket sales

This is the last season for the New York Islanders at the Nassau Coliseum. It’s been home to the team for the majority of its existence since they came to the NHL in 1972. In 2021-22, the Isles will move to their new home at Belmont Park.

The UBS Arena is a $1.5 billion project with a hotel, shopping, dining, and even have what is called an entertainment village. But the key aspect of that project is the home of the Islanders. The 17,000+ seat arena will be a state of the art purpose-built home for the Islanders on Long Island.

The fan base seems excited, but as with just about everything, the NHL is a business and money talks. Is that excitement translating into sales? According to the Sports Business Journal, it is. Season ticket sales are going very well for the Islanders new home.

New York Islanders fans buying up season tickets

VP of Sales, Service, and Business Intelligence Michael Consentino told SBJ that the Islanders season tickets in the upper bowl should actually sell out within weeks. That’s nine months before the doors are scheduled to open.

Consentino: “season tickets in the upper bowl are down to the hundreds and should sell out in the next two weeks”

That’s an encouraging sign. And it goes beyond that. Consentino would add that sales are way up in Westchester, NY, and Connecticut thanks to the arena’s location in Queens.

Cosentino said that season ticket sales to fans from Westchester, N.Y., and Connecticut are up 45% and 28%, respectively, due to the new arena’s location.

This fanbase has desperately needed this type of growth. The Islanders are seen as a small market team even though their home (Long Island) has a population of 7.647 million people. That’s a huge market to pull from.

There is loads of untapped potential for the Islanders. Growing the fanbase was always possible. Winning combined with a new home in a great location is doing that.

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Those who are already fans know the strength of the fanbase. I’m all the way in Ottawa some 470 miles from Long Island and I constantly feel connected to the fanbase because of how vocal they are over social media and how they make you feel part of it all, even from a distance.

When Michale Consentino spoke to James Nichols of The Hockey Writers he mentioned that he and his team like to use “family” as a way to describe season ticket members and the fanbase is on point. That’s spot on. It’s how it feels.

Some of these new season ticket holders may not be new fans, but some will, and to those just getting in, welcome. You’re gonna love it here.