Today it's a quick 'road trip' post; well, more like a quick 'railroad' trip post, as I review Friday night's trip to the Barclay's Center in Brooklyn to see the Islanders pre-season game.
Most of you know that my sons and I are the true definition of 'fans' of the Islanders (remembering that 'fan' is a derivative of 'fanatic'), we bleed orange and blue - which has our physicians greatly concerned!
Since this is the last year of a full regular season at the Nassau Coliseum, we wanted to see the new home ice before the team moves there, so we can decide if we take another partial season ticket plan next year. Doesn't make sense to spend big dollars on a place you've never seen. So thanks to 'Stubhub', we picked up three tickets at a reasonable price to the Islanders vs. Devils game last Friday. Here's the rundown:
The trip to Brook-A-Leen: Met Bill and Tom at the Hicksville LIRR station to catch the 5:29. Tom very thoughtfully had 3 24 oz. cans of Bud waiting for us, so that was a nice way to start the trip. The train was on time (well, at least according to the LIRR's definition of on time), we got seats and settled in. We noticed that there were a LOT of Islander fans on the train. Quick trip to Jamaica, change to the train to Brooklyn on track 3; LIRR had people on the platform directing us to the correct train. On to East New York, Nostrand Avenue, and finally Atlantic Terminal, Brooklyn. Less than an hour from when we boarded in Hicksville.
The walk to Barclay's: Up the stairs at Atlantic Terminal, hang a left, go half a block or so, and you're at Atlantic Avenue. Look across the street - there's Barclay's Center. 

Spotted lots of pubs, restaurants and other interesting places around Barclay's, it'll be an easy place to grab a bite before, or after, games. Cross Atlantic Avenue, and you're on a lovely, large spacious plaza leading up to the building. Plenty of room to meet your party, benches to sit on, food carts to grab a snack, a very well done approach to the building, and very different from the Coliseum, which sits alone in the midst of all those acres of parking. Speaking of which, we didn't see much parking near Barclay's, and would have to agree that driving there probably isn't the way to go.
Barclay's Center: Well, you're not at the Coliseum any more. Long line to get into the building at the main entrance, due to security screening. At Nassau, the security guys stand outside the building and use the 'wand' to clear fans to go in. At Barclay's, security is just inside the door, and consists of airport style walk through metal detectors. Each person has to empty their pockets and place their stuff in a basket, then walk through. A guard with a wand does a second check if you set the thingy off (as Bill's steel toed work boots did). Immediately beyond the security checkpoint is the ticket taker, who lasers your ticket and passes you in. Considering that we were at the entrance almost an hour prior to game time, and it was not a sellout, I wonder how long we'll be waiting outside in the cold of winter once the Isles move here and we get a big crowd?
Okay, inside we go, and it's quickly apparent that this place is NICE. Wide, spacious attractive concourse, loaded with all sorts of concessions and fan friendly kiosks. 

Got on line for food, and was impressed with the quickness of the service, the line moved very quickly. Three 'jumbo' Nathan's dogs, two orders of Nathan's fries, and three beers; $60. About what you'd spend at Yankee Stadium, but at the Stadium, the dogs are much bigger, and they give you about 3 times as many fries. Over to the condiment stand, disappointed with the 'Gold's' mustard, the same poor quality blend we get at Duck games; relish, ketchup, sauerkraut, and sliced banana peppers round out the choices. MINUS: one mustard pump already not working.
Off to the seats. Wow, there's an escalator up to our seats in section 221! Of course, as we rode it up, we realized that we're about three times as high off the ice as we'd be in the 300 section of Nassau. Walk three or four sections over, and we arrive at our section. Nice usher insists that he needs to see at least one ticket before he'll let us up to our seats. Lovely, but all three of us are juggling beer and food in our hands. Tom finally manages to get his ticket out, and up we go to aisle 12, seats 1, 2, & 3. Oh my, I wonder how many people will get nosebleeds up here? Yeah, it's one of those steep/high arenas, like so many others that we've been in (Dallas, Anaheim), but this one doesn't seem to be angled as badly as those are. Seats are nice, comfy, well cushioned, and we're in a section that has a good view of the goal the Isles will shoot at twice. 

Because Barclay's was built specifically for the Nets, it's a basketball arena, and the hockey rink has to be set up off center to fit within the footprint of the main floor. The result is that the scoreboard is slightly off center, and there are a LOT of seats behind the Isles goal that are very obstructed - you can't see anything between the end board and the face off circle without standing up - yes, that includes the goal.
Other than that, we find the acoustics to be worse than awful; we're catching one out of about every five or six words the p.a. announcer says, and the seating area is rather dark. A quick look around shows there are NO lights up above us as there are in the ceiling of Nassau, so even during intermission, you're in a very dimly lit area.
Game action is pretty good, despite rather chippy ice (it hasn't been down long), the scoreboard is huge, very clear, and really dominates the building. The crowd tries to get noisy a few times, but even though they claim 11,800 fans were there, the building swallows up all but the most hearty and loud chants - this place is cavernous, a dramatic change from the very low ceiling at the Coliseum.
Between periods we go out to the restrooms. The wide, spacious concourse is now a bad twin of the ones at the Coliseum, as the lines from the many concession stands have swelled to close down the walking space to one barely wide enough to accommodate one person at a time. It seems as if the service which we found to be quick and efficient at the stand downstairs, is not being maintained upstairs! The restroom however, is a pleasure. Large, well lighted, clean, and with no line at all. They appear to have more than 3x the number of urinals that the ones at Nassau have, which should make getting in and out somewhat faster.
Food stands we spotted included the typical hot dog/fries/pretzel/popcorn stuff, plus the following; Brooklyn Burger; Calexico (Mexican); David K's Deli; Fatty 'Cue BBQ; Paisanos The Butcher Shop; L&B Spumoni Gardens (!); Buffalo Boss; Junior's Cheesecake; Fresco by Scotto; Habana; Nathan's; Abigael's Brooklyn; Boomer & Carton Kitchen. Quite a selection, and all supplemented by many portable carts, selling everything from craft brew beers, to popcorn, peanuts, you name it.
Beer guy comes around, $9.50 for a 12 oz. Bud or Bud Light - same as the Coliseum last year, and .25c less than Yankee Stadium.
The game: Pretty good game, the Isles, as they usually do, get off to a 2 goal lead, then get caught from behind, and regulation ends 2-2. A scoreless overtime leads to a shoot out (which the boys and I decide we all HATE), and the Isles win it on Brock Nelson's goal. Success, we saw them win!
Going home: Out of the building, easy access through a staircase at the back of the concourse, and on to that great plaza. Now, at 10:15, there's even more activity there, as the number of food carts has increased, and with it being a lovely late summer night, it's more like being in a public park than coming out of an arena.
Quick two minute walk to the LIRR terminal (which also has the 2,3,4,5,B,D,N,Q,R subways), catch the 10:29 to Hicksville, and we're on our way. After having too few trains last year for the pre-season game, the LIRR has committed to adding several 'extra' trains to the schedule after Isles games. We get seats, there are lots of happy Islander fans on the train (and a few pissy Devil fans), and we ride straight through to Hicksville without having to change at Jamaica.
Overall? Well, as Bill said, after going to the game at Barclay's, he was even more irritated and annoyed that the local pinheads let this team get away. As nice as Barclays is, and it is indeed very nice, it's not 'our' building yet. And it's not truly representative of Long Island - which is where this team was born, raised, and lives. It's a shame that what once was the center of the highest level of professional sports, an arena that hosted one of the last great dynasties in the NHL, which was "major league" all the way, is now 'hoping' to get a minor league team. Really? Talk about lowered expectations and a real lack of commitment to excellence. Thank you Kate Murray and the rest of the two bit politicians who lost this team.
But I digress. Will we go back? Of course - we are fans (see above for what that means), and this is our team. Loyalties don't fade like the old felt pennants we buy and hang on our walls, instead, they grow stronger over time, and old memories fuel the hopes for the new season; something we share with our sons and daughters, and eventually grandchildren. The true fan never loses their passion for the game, and for their team, it becomes a lifelong endeavor, rooting for 'your' team. So yes, we'll be taking that partial plan at Barclay's, maybe not 22 games again, but something that will bring us to see Our Team on a regular basis.