PR Week salutes Barclays Center strategy to promote Islanders, ignores disappointing attendance

It's some kind of hall of mirrors, when you get a public relations publication to write positively about your public relations without mentioning where you screwed up.

So goes P.R. Week's article last week, Islanders take fans and team history to new digs in Brooklyn: It's game on as Barclays Center's comms team smooths the way for hockey fans to follow the puck to Brooklyn.

The summary:

The Barclays Center PR team developed a full communications plan that included all aspects of the team's move including a marketing campaign, media coverage, jersey launch, a successful transportation partnership with the Long Island Rail Road, and many other components.
..."The main goal of the overall campaign was to let the market know that the Islanders were coming to Brooklyn. The first marketing campaign was ‘Brooklyn Scores,’ which emphasized how Brooklyn had secured its second major sports team to play at Barclays Center," says Barry Baum, EVP and CCO at Barclays Center. "From a Long Island standpoint came ‘Tradition Has A New Home.’ This campaign was targeted at Long Island fans to let them know the long-standing traditions of the Islanders would move to Brooklyn."
Barclays chose to bring several nostalgic elements of the Islanders from Long Island to Brooklyn including the Islanders' organ and organ player, retired player jerseys, division title and Stanley Cup commemoration banners, and the longtime PA announcer.
In August 2015, Barclays Center teamed with the Long Island Rail Road to add more service before and after Islanders games..

Among the tactics cited was New York Times coverage of a star-studded "sponsorship and premium ticket holder dinner for 50 people at Fresco by Scotto in Manhattan" [operated by the family of Brett Yormark's wife, I might add], photos of custom black-and-white jerseys worn by celebrities like New York Mayor Bill de Blasio and Rosie Perez [who does work for the arena, I'd add].

They got Christie Brinkley in a jersey on opening night, plus some Brooklyn Nets players. No mention that the Nets were booed! They got some New York Mets to a game, which made Page Six.

The article says that the new Islanders jersey is the third highest-selling jersey in the league.

Ok, that's something. But there's no mention of the key fact: the Islanders attendance is a disappointment.