Former Islanders General Manager: the Barclays Center was a crucial fallback for the team, but "logistically it was a hot mess"

It's not necessarily new, but an 8/19/23 New York Post interview with former New York Islanders General Manager turns up some frustrated feelings about the team's ill-fated and temporary relocation to the Barclays Center in Brooklyn.

“If [owner] Charles [Wang] didn’t go to Barclays Center, the Islanders wouldn’t have remained on Long Island," Garth Snow said, referring to the failure of Nassau County voters to approve a new arena project, known as Lighthouse. "But logistically it was a hot mess.”

So they moved in 2015-16 and got some buzz, but saw fans alienated by the commute, the lack of parking (and tailgating) and arena managers' willingness to mess with traditions, like a goal horn and the opportunity to watch practice up close.

So the team moved back to the downsized Coliseum for two seasons before the new UBS Arena was built.

From the Post:

“I think our winning percentage was pretty good at Barclays,” Snow said jokingly. “Maybe the opposing team was having the same issues trying to get into the rink that we were.”
... the commute from Northwell Health Ice Center, their practice facility, was disastrous, some fans could not see the whole ice from their seats and the playing surface was shoddy.
“Just the game days were not appealing to really anyone,” Snow said. “It was hard on the coaches, it was hard on the trainers, with the equipment, it wasn’t an easy situation. There were obviously issues with the ice.”

Yes, Barclays used PVC pipes, not league-standard metal ones, so the ice was choppy.