Looking back on the Isles' "ill-fated" Barclays Center sojourn; at least it kept them in New York

Islanders’ ill-fated Barclays Center tenure had big silver lining, the New York Post's Brett Cyrgalis wrote 4/13/20, suggesting that the team's Brooklyn sojourn, however "forced," at least prevented the team from moving to beckoning cities (with arenas) like Seattle, Kansas City, or Quebec City.

Cyrgalis notes the problems: alien "black and gray" design, too little parking but too much traffic, a long car service ride for players, obstructed views (more than 400, actually), an off-center scoreboard, and "atrocious" ice:

Soon it became common knowledge that the pipes used to make the ice were plastic, unsuitable to maintain an NHL-worthy surface. Replacing them with metal would be too costly, both in terms of construction and shutting down the arena for months. Star center John Tavares had his heel dig into the soft ice on March 31, 2017, and he suffered a hamstring injury that ended his season. “That doesn’t happen in other places,” alternate captain Cal Clutterbuck said. [That quote is from a 4/1/17 Newsday article.] When Tavares became a free agent in the summer of 2018, he left to sign with his hometown Maple Leafs.

That meant Tavares would miss part-time play at Barclays.

The article rather generously describes the new Belmont arena project as "privately funded," putting aside the considerable governmental assistance, and suggests that, despite the pause in arena construction, "most involved believe the timeline for opening [in 2021] remains intact."

We'll see. Optimism bias plagues lots of big sports facility projects.