Opinion

Brooklyn power play

Sports in this city just got a whole lot more exciting — and so, too, did the economic prospects for a section of Brooklyn.

Yesterday, the New York Islanders hockey team announced that, come 2015, it will share the Barclay’s Center with the NBA Nets, setting up a Battle of the Boroughs in yet another sport.

“It’s a great day for our city,” said Mayor Bloomberg, quite rightly. If anyone thought the Ranger-Islander rivalry couldn’t get hotter, he said — well, it just did.

The one between Manhattan and Brooklyn sports fans did, too: They’ll now be sparring for bragging rights not only in basketball (the Nets open their season at the Barclay’s Center a week from today against the Rangers’ Madison Square Garden co-tenants, the Knicks), but also in hockey.

Yesterday’s news is a major-league coup for Brooklyn, the city and developer Bruce Ratner, who fought for a decade to get his Atlantic Yards vision built despite fierce Not-In-My-Back-Yard opposition.

Islanders owner Charles Wang, after all, had other options: Kansas City, Phoenix and Quebec were all said to be possible new sites.

Now, alongside the Nets, Ratner’s arena will host a second team — and with a fan base that can make ready use of a nearby LIRR station and 11 subway lines.

You sure got to love all the new competition — between the teams, the boroughs and even the sports themselves. It’ll help hold down ticket prices and keep up the quality of the sports-going experience — including the caliber of play by the teams.

Until now, MSG’s masters could all but ignore years of mediocrity by the Knicks and Rangers, when they were the only game(s) in town.

Plus, the recent Jay-Z and Barbra Streisand concerts suggest that the new jockeying for New York’s entertainment dollar will extend beyond sports.

Alas, the move is a blow to Nassau — and not just to the pride of residents who are Islanders fans, but also economically.

But let’s face it: The handwriting’s been on the wall for an Islanders departure ever since voters last year — quite wisely — nixed a $900 million public-financing scheme for a new facility to replace the decrepit Nassau Coliseum.

It’s past time officials came up with realistic new ideas for that site — ideas that reward residents rather than rob them.

Meanwhile, Nassau’s loss is Brooklyn’s gain. As the mayor put it, it’s a great day for New York City indeed.