A few weeks ago, it was reported that the NYCB LIVE, home of the Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum presented by New York Community Bank would be temporarily shutting its doors until it finds new investors. Former Nets owner Mikhail Prokhorov decided he wanted nothing to do with the barn and began searching for new owners to inherit the building.
Obviously, due to the current situation the world is enduring right now, there will likely be no games in the Nassau Coliseum any time soon and there have been numerous reports stating that once the Islanders are able to return to playing hockey in New York, it will be in Nassau County. But if the Islanders arena situation has taught us anything, it’s that anything is possible.
Let’s take a minute to play the what-if game. If the Islanders were unable to return to the Nassau Coliseum, you would obviously think that they are going back to the Barclays Center for another year.
However, the Barclays Center wants just about as little to do with the Islanders as we do and they may opt-out. So this poses the question, in the extremely unlikely yet possible occurrence that neither Fort Neverlose or Barclays Center are options, where could the Islanders play?

1: Madison Square Garden

Imagine this: in the Islanders final year before making the long-awaited move to Belmont Park, the Islanders find themselves playing their home games in the World’s Most Famous Arena, Madison Square Garden.
Home of the New York Rangers.
As crazy and insane as this sounds, it’s probably not possible for a number of reasons. Number one, MSG already hosts the Knicks and Rangers, as well as a number of concerts during the NHL season and scheduling in another hockey team on top of that could cause problems. And secondly, no two NHL teams have ever shared an arena. Ever. And it really doesn’t make sense for the Islanders either.

2: XL Center

This would be a wacky scenario, but not an impossible one. Hartford XL Center currently plays host to the AHL Affiliate of the Rangers, the Hartford Wolfpack. And believe it or not, the XL Center is the same arena that once hosted the Hartford Whalers.
At its current state, the XL Center can only host just over 9,000 people for hockey games. But the capacity of the arena could go as high as 15,000. But, due to the arena not having hosted an NHL game in over 20 years and Hartford being a two hour plus drive from Nassau County, this does not seem like a likely option.

3: Webster Bank Arena

The current home of the Bridgeport Sound Tigers is the third and final venue. And I’ll keep it short. It’s too small and not in an ideal area.

Conclusion

If neither NYCB Live or the Barclays Center are available for the Islanders when fans can be in attendance, it would be a crazy and scary scenario. But crazier things have happened.

David Lazar