New Islanders owner still trying to figure out Brooklyn

New York Islanders co-owner Jon Ledecky, who along with Scott Malkin formally took over the team at the beginning of July, says a lot of things you want to hear.

Like how he physically reacts to reading complaints from players’ wives about Barclays Center. Like being an owner who won’t simply plant himself in the owners’ box during games, but be among the fans. About bringing back Sparky the Dragon mascot to regular appearances in games. About those obstructed, embarrassing-they’re-even-sold seats: “If a seat doesn’t have a full view, we’re going to make sure that fan has an unbelievable experience sitting in that seat as well.”

You can read more from Ledecky with the Daily News and Newsday, as he held some media availability this week. But one thing was clear from his comments: The Islanders are still trying to figure out their geographic identity.

From Newsday, Ledecky on trying to improve the regular experience in Brooklyn:

“Why shouldn’t every game be a playoff game in terms of the experience, in terms of the atmosphere? Why can’t the Long Island Rail Road run the same number of trains for regular-season games as they ran for the playoffs? That’s affecting our fan base. Make that fan base feel that they’re the most important thing.

“If I can get those hockey fans to Barclays and they see that the lower bowl seats are better than the seats in the other arenas locally you’re starting to think about adopting Islanders hockey, because they love hockey. And they’re getting a better seat and a better price, quite frankly. All of that goes into the mix of putting together a winning team.”

And on connecting fans from the fan base’s former home to Brooklyn:

“If the excuse is the Long Island Rail Road is not providing optimal service, I’ve got to fix that. If the suggestion is to run buses from the parking lot of the old Nassau Coliseum, I have to look into that. What I love is the fans come to me with all of these ideas, and I try to run them down.

“But we are meeting consistently with Barclays and the Long Island Rail Road. They ran extra trains for the playoffs. I said to the head of the Long Island Rail Road, ‘How come you can’t do that during the regular season?’ He said, ‘Maybe we can.’ A brick at a time. We’re trying to build things to transition the fans and transition the notion that Nassau is wonderful in history, but we’re building new history in Brooklyn.”

Meanwhile, in the Daily News, the elephant in the room:

As for Barclays Center, both the arena and the team have the ability to opt out of their 25-year lease agreement after the 2018-19 season, but neither Ledecky nor arena management have given any indication of such plans. Ledecky also downplayed the possibility of playing up to six games at the renovated Coliseum in the future, calling it “an NHL-level decision” and a deal struck by “those no longer involved” (i.e. Wang and Coliseum developer Bruce Ratner).

“I consider us a New York metropolitan area team. We’re not the Brooklyn Islanders, we are the New York Islanders,” said Ledecky.

That last line really cuts to the problem with the Islanders right now, as far as outreach and its fan base.

It’s essential that the Islanders grow new fans in Brooklyn. There’s no getting around the geographic hassle that exists for the team’s fans back near Nassau, no matter how many trains or buses or hovercrafts or whatever you want to put into service on a game night. It’s like if when the Nets moved they were like, ‘oh, most of our fan base will just come from Central Jersey 40 times a year.’ It’s not a reality.

As he said: Winning is going to create those new fans. Winning is going to create demand for tickets, and is going to have fans overlooking many of the constant points of contention about the building. To that end, the best thing that Ledecky said:

“There are no financial constraints on [GM Garth Snow] and the team. So if we need to be cap-max to compete for a Stanley Cup, we will be cap-max. If there are other places we need to spend money…there are no constraints.”

Music to the fans’, and John Tavares’s, ears, we imagine.

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Greg Wyshynski is a writer for Yahoo Sports. Contact him at puckdaddyblog@yahoo.com or find him on Twitter. His book, TAKE YOUR EYE OFF THE PUCK, is available on Amazon and wherever books are sold.