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Islanders Puck Talk – Why has Islanders’ attendance been down?

The New York Islanders have won nine games in a row but it’s as if no one is noticing.  Both the fans and media have largely ignored by far the best team in New York.  In fact despite being a top team in the NHL, the Islanders are 30th in attendance at just over 11,431 fans per game.  They’re at 72.3% while playing all their home games so far at Nassau Coliseum.

How can the hottest team in a sports crazy market be completely ignored?  Well it’s simple.  There are two main reasons for the shockingly low attendance figures.

The first is easy.  The Islanders’ attendance percentage is based off of the Barclays Center, not Nassau Coliseum.  Barclays Center holds 15,745 seats, with almost 2,000 of them being obstructed view seats.  Trying to fill that place up on a Tuesday night against the Ottawa Senators is almost impossible.  It’s not a hockey arena so it’s not surprising.

As for the attendance at Nassau Coliseum, it’s on the fans.  Unfortunately the Islanders don’t have a large fan base, and there’s no excuse for not filling up the barn every night.  Tickets are cheap, the capacity crowd is under 14,000 and Islanders fans are the loudest and proudest.  The lack of accessibility to the arena by anything other than car doesn’t help, but it’s just a product of fans losing interest after decades of futility.

Fortunately Jon Ledecky, co-owner of the Islanders, has made sure to not only build the team on the ice, but off it also.  The Islanders are much more involved in the community, they do many more events and are more accessible than ever.  The alumni group is growing and people are once again proud to be Islanders and Islanders fans.

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