It was a like a day of optimistic precognition, a holographic view of how gosh darn happy everyone will be when the Islanders finally call Brooklyn home.
Yet Thursday’s opening of training camp at Barclays Center, with the 1-year-old, $1 billion arena shining bright along with the glare from everyone’s wide smiles, was nothing more than a tease.
The players were on the ice, the Islanders’ four consecutive Stanley Cup banners were hanging from the rafters, and signs flashed for the next upcoming game, Saturday, Sept. 21, against the Devils. That preseason contest will be the first NHL game played in Brooklyn, at the arena that will hold 15,813, more than what was first anticipated.
“It feels really new,” said superstar center John Tavares. “It’ll be good to play a game here, get a feel for what it will be like. In a couple of years, it’ll be a nice home.”
But there is no getting around the fact that regardless of continuing efforts to get the franchise to move to this outer borough before its set opening date of the 2015-16 season, the Islanders are still tenants on Long Island, where reality will begin to settle in Friday, and the days, weeks, months and years still to come.
Although Islanders owner Charles Wang said there have been “no discussions” yet concerning an early move, he was not ruling anything out.
“Our plan, as I said from the very beginning, is to stay committed to the lease,” said Wang, whose money-hemorrhaging endeavor is under contractual obligations with Nassau County to stay in the crumbling Coliseum for another two seasons.
“Obviously, we’re looking to do what’s best for everyone involved,” Wang continued. “I think we always wanted to get here [Brooklyn] as soon as possible, but we’re living up to our lease, honoring our lease.”
Because Barclays Center developer Bruce Ratner and his company won the bid to redevelop the Coliseum site last month, an early move would now seem easier to accomplish. But that would mean expediting the process of construction permits in the bureaucratic wasteland of Nassau County and the Town of Hempstead, something that seems unlikely.
Yet what was made clear Thursday was how marvelous the facilities will be — just ask Ratner and his CEO, Brett Yormark, who sat in every single seat in the arena leading up to the media tour, calling 416 of them unsuitable for hockey viewing and not counting them toward the 15,813 total, which still does include some partially obstructed views.
With some minor construction, it seems hockey could be ready to move to Brooklyn as early as next season. If it’s not ready to happen full-time for an assortment of reasons, then a part-time plan of a handful of games is a distinct possibility, given the NHL allows for dual citizenship.
Asked if he was open to that idea, Wang didn’t hesitate.
“Oh yeah,” he said. “Sure.”
Yet now, the stark reality of the present awaits. That means the second practice of training camp will not happen in the plush digs of Brooklyn, nor even at the Coliseum, where “Sesame Street Live” has taken over (insert joke here). Instead, the team will be at IceWorks in Syosset, where the locker room is like the inside of cargo crate, with rubber floors and plywood dressing stalls.
With that humble home comes some serious expectations for a team that made the playoffs last season for the first time since 2007. Led by a Hart Trophy finalist in Tavares, the Islanders are hoping to continue to rebuild the franchise from the ice up, no matter the surroundings.
So it was just one day to glimpse into the future, yet there were no shortage of people who think the future looks bright.
“I think there’s one word for it — beautiful,” Wang said. “I’m very happy, as you can see from the smile.”