Is UBS Arena Really Ready for Saturday’s Home Opener?
It seems like an open secret that UBS Arena won’t be fully complete when fans enter the building for Saturday’s home opener.
MSG Network’s Shannon Hogan toured the arena this week and posted a video of her walking through the tunnel out onto the Islanders’ bench. She was wearing a hard hat and there was cardboard and construction tape everywhere.
Newsday’s Neil Best also took some pictures of the arena on Wednesday. He documented suites with unopened boxes and plastic-covered furniture. There were some construction lifts in front of the escalators near the team store. Heck, the construction workers were still working on those escalators. Andrew Gross tweeted from Thursday’s practice that the arena is still technically a construction zone.
Rather than take the time to label every picture I took of UBS Arena I am just going to dump them all into a thread. #Isles pic.twitter.com/yvIx2L13Se
— Neil Best (@sportswatch) November 17, 2021
But through it all, there was a ribbon-cutting ceremony on Friday, and there will be a game at UBS Arena on Saturday. The arena is opening, finished or not.
It’s a miracle that we even got here. The pandemic forced construction to stop in March 2020 and it didn’t resume until May of last year. That’s likely the reason the Islanders couldn’t open their building in October and had to play 13 straight games on the road. Still, the arena is opening relatively on-time and on budget.
Until Saturday’s home opener, no one will know for sure what the gameday experience at UBS Arena will be like. Will every concession stand be open? How will fans like the shuttle busses? Will all the technology work? We will see soon.
The biggest issue getting UBS Arena ready is… trash cleanup? @sportswatch joins @davidlazar100 on Bleav in Islanders to talk the latest arena updates!
Islander fans, hear what you can expect at the home opener Saturday night 🏒https://t.co/hC2j4DojwW pic.twitter.com/54GUiOm9Fi
— Bleav Podcast Network (@BleavPodcasts) November 19, 2021
Luckily, the NHL will take a three-week break in mid-February for the Beijing Winter Olympics, and the Islanders also have a seven-game, two-week road trip in April for some more potential touch-ups.
The players’ positive reaction to the building is certainly encouraging.
“It absolutely blew me away,” Mat Barzal told reporters after Thursday’s practice at the new arena. “I walked in, saw the gym, saw the eating area and I couldn’t wait to see more. The entire facility and the rink and how it was set up was so high end. I can’t even tell you how nice it is down here. We’re a real lucky group.”
None of the arena’s potential issues should take away from the excitement of Saturday’s game. The Islanders are coming home after a tiring road trip. They haven’t seen their fans since Game 6 against the Lightning (sorry, Newark does not count). They need to get back on track and the fans are ready to give them a boost. Knowing Islanders fans, they won’t let some arena imperfections get in the way of cheering on their team when they need it most.
It’s about to be a momentous week for the team. Saturday begins a four-game homestand to open the newest arena in hockey against the franchise they played to open Nassau Coliseum, John Tavares’ Toronto Maple Leafs, their arch rival New York Rangers and a recent playoff foe in the Pittsburgh Penguins. There hasn’t been a better time to be an Islanders’ fan.
Born and raised on Long Island. Isles fan since 2009. Studying journalism at the University of Maryland, College Park.
