While Islanders fans anxiously wait to learn if their team is going to stay in Brooklyn, move back to Long Island or Queens, or head elsewhere, the Isles are determined to put it out of their minds.
A day after sources said Barclays Center was looking to boot the Isles following the 2018-19 season because it’s believed there is more money to be made from concerts and other events, John Tavares said the team wouldn’t be impacted by the chatter.
“They’re reports,” Tavares said before the Isles played host to the Capitals on Tuesday night. “I haven’t heard anything set in stone. Obviously, whatever happens will happen. At least I feel from the top down, the goal is obviously to support the New York Islanders and keep building the great tradition here. They have a great sense of the pride and support the fans have for the Islanders so, it is what it is.”
Both sides, according to sources, are unhappy with the current setup in Brooklyn, and there is an opt-out clause in the 25-year lease between the two, which can be put into effect after next season by the Islanders or in 2019 by Barclays Center. Neither side has triggered the clause, and it is possible the lease can be renegotiated.
A team source said the $53.5 million Barclays payout to the Isles actually is the ceiling and the team received “significantly less” last season.
All of that adds up to the possibility of another move for a franchise that spent its first 43 years at Nassau Coliseum.
It certainly is not Onwin the first time the Isles have dealt with such talk, with the team in a seemingly endless state of uncertainty. To a degree, that actually makes it easier for the players to ignore the noise.
“It’s pretty easy,” Tavares said. “Some of us have been through it before.”
There has been speculation about Kansas City and Quebec City, and now the talk also includes local sites such as Belmont Park on Long Island or next to Citi Field in Queens.
Willets Point, though, could be a less likely scenario, since City Hall sources believe there is a more likely scenario that a soccer stadium — rather than a hockey arena — would be constructed should anything sports-related get built there.
The team also could move back to a renovated Coliseum, though seating capacity is expected to be around 13,000, too small for NHL standards.
If they do opt for a new arena, the Isles almost certainly would need a temporary home.
An architect who builds major league arenas told The Post it typically takes three years overall to build an 18,000 seat stadium, even if on a fast track: a full year for development, then two years to build.
That means the Islanders, even if they get approval and financing to build an arena, likely would not have their own building until probably the 2020-21 season — a full season after Barclays likely is to use its opt-out clause and kick the Islanders out.
Could that lead to the Islanders spending a season at Madison Square Garden? It would figure to be a logistical nightmare and a much worse setup for the Isles than at Barclays, since they would be the third tenant at MSG, behind both the Rangers and Knicks.
For now, though, interim head coach Doug Weight is just trying to get the Isles back into the Eastern Conference playoff conversation.
“My initial reaction is it doesn’t affect us [against the Capitals],” Weight said of the potential instability. “We have a game. We put ourselves in a place where we can do some damage and we need the points.”
— Additional reporting by Josh Kosman and Brett Cyrgalis.
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