Skip to main content

Featured Post

Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park infographics: what's built/what's coming/what's missing, who's responsible, + project FAQ/timeline (pinned post)

From The Bridge: The Uneasy Future of Islanders Hockey in Brooklyn

I have an article in The Bridge, a new Brooklyn business publication, headlined The Uneasy Future of Islanders Hockey in Brooklyn, with the deck, "With disappointing crowds and an awkward fit, the team wants to depart for a new arena. Will Barclays, its bottom line suffering, make a new deal with them?"

The answer is we don't know, but it's getting down to decision time for both the Barclays-Islanders deal as well as the Islanders' bid for a new arena at Belmont. One key piece of new information is this:
The arena company’s recent fiscal-year 2017 financial results, not previously reported in the media, showed net revenues $18 million below estimates in a prospectus shown just last year to arena bond buyers. While the financial report didn’t name a particular cause, ratings agency Moody’s separately blamed lowered revenues and cash flow “caused by the attendance and related ticket sales decline” at Islanders games, plus the arena’s obligation to guarantee payments to the Islanders. The result: “a net loss from Islanders’ related business activities” in the last fiscal year, which Moody’s predicted would persist this season and next unless attendance picks up.
For the full article, click here.

Comments