Islanders fans excited for UBS Arena with home opener sellout

It only took minutes for tickets to sell out for the New York Islanders home opener this November. On Friday, individual tickets went on sale for the Isles home opener on November 20 against the Calgary Flames and they were all gobbled up almost immediately by the public.

If you didn’t think Islanders fans were hyped to get into their new hockey-first and state-of-the-art arena now you know they definitely are.

New York Islanders eager to get into their new arena

And look, yes, all home openers are sellouts typically for the Isles. At least they have been recently. Everyone wants to be there on opening night. But this is different. Usually, we don’t hear about a home sellout two months before it’s scheduled to happen.

The opening of the UBS Arena is years in the making. Much longer than when the Islanders won the RFP to develop that parcel of land at Belmont Park back in 2017. This goes back all the way to the Lighthouse Project and its conception all the way back in 2007.

Since 2007, Islanders fans have been waiting for a modern arena. Everyone loved the Nassau Coliseum, but it was quite old and falling apart. Even then, 14 years ago. Since, the team was forced to play at the Barclays Center – which wasn’t a hockey-first venue – before eventually returning to the Coliseum.

And while that stop in Brooklyn didn’t work out and was full of problems and issues it was a necessary step that allowed the team to stay in New York while a more permanent solution was found. That, eventually, became the UBS Arena.

Islanders fans have been waiting some 14 years for a modern hockey first arena. They are excited and it showed with how quickly those tickets for the opening night at the UBS Arena sold out.