The New York Islanders are a team that struggled financially for a very long time. Finally, under the ownership of Jon Ledecky and Scott Malkin, it seems like that is less of an issue. But what about compared to the rest of the league?
A study done by bookies.com projected the richest teams in the sport in 2025. On this list, the Islanders are projected to have a predicted revenue of just over $172 million, which would rank them 23rd in the league.
They are in front of only Winnipeg, Calgary, Carolina, Columbus, Ottawa, Florida, Arizona, and Vegas. The top five teams in the sport in terms of revenue are expected to be Montreal, the Rangers, Boston, Toronto, and Chicago in that order.
We do see year-over-year growth for the franchise though, and looking at what the Islanders revenue was in 2012 vs now is a big difference. In 2012, the first year of data provided in this study, the Islanders made $66 million.
That was dead last in the league by a wide margin. The next closest was Arizona at $83 million. Then in 2019, the second set of data in this study, the Isles were up to $115 million which was 29th in the NHL.
So while 23rd doesn’t sound that great, it’s a big improvement in just 13 years time from 2012 to 2025.
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New owners, six trips to the playoffs, and a new building certainly help that cause. I’m curious to see in another five years how much further the Islanders climb the list. It’ll likely be tough to be a top-10 team in revenue but the top half of the league is definetely not out of reach.