NY Islanders Attendance Success At Barclay's Threat To NHL Media Balance in NYC

New York Islander Fan Central | 2/25/2016 04:17:00 AM |
The New York Islanders at Barclay's Center has worked out fantastic.
One or two articles articles have used the word "surprisingly" on increased attendance, more like amazing considering the media push since 2012 against it like no team has ever seen by a local media. 

Calling this anything but a success is biased journalism at any level.
The unobstructed seats are all sold.

Does that matter to a lot of media with their own agenda/narrative? Of course not, we have seen this act since 1970's which many of the old NYC/NJ/Westchester Ranger writers & today's generation love to push.

The Boston Bruins played with an off-center scoreboard/obstructed seats and 190x83 dimensions for generations, our team had to go win two Stanley Cups by winning at Boston Garden. How many times was it brought up by NYC or Boston media in those days? Never.

The New York Islander fan base expanded into NYC on free television in 1970', and then they won Championships in New York like no team ever seen.

Most of those writers never got over it with a lot of Filip Bondy's, Stu Hackel's, Steve Somers or Larry Brooks, bad actors still around with their own agenda.  Many of them stumble around cyberspace these days, desperate to find short-term work or stay employed anywhere.

The recent shots at Denis Potvin's comments about the Vancouver Canucks from many of them tell you nothing has changed. 

John Dellapina, Frank Brown were hired by the NHL. Neither were hired for fair coverage of New York hockey from the Daily News. 

Ed Koch/Msg-owner Sonny Werblin kept the Islanders out of lower Manhattan for parades after honoring the Rangers for beating the Islanders in 1979. The Cup winning New York Islanders went to the Reagan White-House twice, Bill Torrey took a dig at Reagan's friend, Sonny Werblin.

And as I wrote a few times the New York Islanders playing in NYC for some Ranger media is like Bryan Trottier coaching their team, they will never accept it, and do everything to defeat it. 

A day hardly goes by without pictures of Barclay's obstructed seats since 2012.  These are the same kind of media who go to New Jersey and call football teams NY since 1976/84 or cheer-lead for the forever pathetic Chase Knicks or Queens/Bronx losing baseball  because their job is to sell some teams/not others. 

Facts? They are usually lost somewhere in the Chase/taxpayer Garden's obstructed seats in same sections as Barclay's or on the trip from Greenberg NY when Knick/Ranger players go to their hotel for home games in Manhattan.

It's a narrative a lot of local media (who are forever Ranger fans or need Msg/business)  want no part of so they create their own despite the Islanders outdrawing the Devils most Oct/Nov games with the usual announced sellouts and empty seats in Manhattan.

That was why Islander fans took over the Knicks arena twice last season (as usual) despite their hockey team going to the finals.

What's funny is these same people sure claim to need the New York Islanders to sell hockey in NYC come playoff time which really tells you everything because Islander playoff games are better events with much louder fans while the same media is furious the Chase sponsored Garden is too quiet or a library long before Bruce Boudreau started mocking them.

Nothing I have not written before with media articles/tweets from writers to directly support it.

As for Barclay's they are getting these great numbers, no one reports the Islanders have not had the usual slate of Saturday games (they don't know or care) so people could drive or have had more Monday/Wednesday games in franchise history while the arena sits empty most Saturday's?

No one writes about the Sunday sellouts against the west or teams with no opposing fan support. I checked this last year, the Islanders had one Sunday afternoon/night game in about seven years when Wings visited in March 2015.

I was shocked seeing Barclays sold out against Toronto/Vancouver on a Sunday.

But that's not the narrative the NYC media wanted to tell the public or our fans about.  

28th/30th despite arena capacity is all they want to push with obstructed seats, they will not present this team as NYC despite the majority of season tickets coming from NYC. (40 percent in 2011)

Who cares if it's right or wrong? That was never the idea, it was to create a narrative.
And in this generation of amateur bloggers keeping dying media alive it filters everywhere and to Canada so someone can write anything to build their resume. 

For some Long Island only fans, of course it's something they love to read, it's back to usual plan of boycotting that contributed to everything that transpired since 1989 as they comically prepare their UFA spending list for ownership.

NY Post is owned by Rupert Murdoch. (Fox Sports Net old merger with Dolan) the television merger failed badly, but he still has a twenty percent stake in Chase Garden/both teams.

Murdoch also owns the Wall Street Journal, who are never shy about knocking the New York Islanders.

It's current business writer's comedy of blatant errors has been dismissed here since 2012 while their editorial board tells us (without disclaimer) the only private company in NYS not to pay property taxes since 1982 ("a deal is a deal") should continue receiving taxpayer money, while using the same political editorial board/sports department told the public vote NO in 2011 for the Nassau Coliseum referendum. (again without disclaimer or conflicting business interest)

I posted screen caps here in the past of the articles. 

As I have wrote recently nothing written has been a surprise in the least, expect more of the same, it's an act knowledgeable fans have seen since 1970's.

The only true surprise for me is the dead broke pay-wall NY Times sending Allan Kreda to most home games posting the crowd on his Instagram account, then not write any article afterward (besides negative features on Barclay's as a lead-up to October) or about opposing players since. (games receive AP coverage per the old Tom Jolly format)

Jack Capuano/Brock Nelson (this week) received the only Islander features from Kreda. 

Just like 1970's when the New York Islanders started winning + were on free television for road games, and getting headlines in regular season, this fan base grew all over Metro area,  when they started winning Stanley Cups (on channel 2 in 1980) & became very popular the long-suffering Ranger/NYC media guys would have none of it. 

What has not changed since 1970's is players play hockey, they don't know or care, they are polite and answer what's asked, they have no time for such distractions. Some Islander players recently said it's the same answers to the same questions.

Bill Torrey's job was to be President/GM, he was not a marketing expert, but to find talented hockey players for the New York Islanders/win games.

Barclay's since the ground breaking has been treated as hostile outsiders, Penn Station was not knocked down to construct an arena this time. Mr Yormark sadly has contributed to this issue not calling the Nets, New York, but the outsider narrative was coming from the sports media long before any shovel at Atlantic Yards.

I think Billy Smith said it best last year when he showed up for his day at Coliseum on Nov, 22, 2014 14:00.

On New York Islanders Long Island branding. "We kind of got that forced on us." Smitty was wrong on not getting the front page when they won cup in NYC, as Mike Bossy would later say they got their share, but not what they deserve.

It's 2016, the New York Islanders (like every season since 1972) are in New York, the fans are showing up, it's been a tremendous success, despite the same media again forcing something else on the New York Islanders.

The New York Islanders are home, now it's time our fans to force the New York City narrative on them.