The Belmont Arena: Shovels and Lawsuits, a Long Island Tale

[periferal]

Hey Floral Park, **** . . . and remember, NY State can use eminent domain and make your downtown a prison location

And if they waste their 50K on a lawsuit now, they'll have none later to prevent that prison.

Speaking of, not sure I could post a more apropos video than this one right now. I'd say no matter what you are doing and given all we've been through, YOU SHOULD WATCH THIS...

 

[nyisles]

What is "AHU" in the photo above?

Assclown Holding Unit. It's where they will be sequestering Matt Sexton and Tammie Williams once the arena opens.

 

[MJF]

Bye bye loser.

 

[Lame Lambert]

Bye bye loser.

I can hear the Barclays Brigade crying

 

[MJF]

I can hear the Barclays Brigade crying

All 6 of them.

 

[WagnerGrad96]

I know what you're saying, but in this instance he's right. There's been a chicken/egg argument about attendance and the team being good going on for a long time, if we finally fix the arena issue and the team is in the playoffs but doesn't sell out consistently...that won't be good.



I know we've talked about this before, but there's no way a brand new arena would seat that few. The idea is to grow the fan base, not manipulate sellouts by having less seating.

I know we've gone over it. I'm just not convinced that we can consistently sell that many tickets.

I also don't consider selling out 14,500 as "manipulating" anything.

Winnipeg has a capacity of 15,200.

We have 3 teams in this area. Averaging 15,200 would be doing quite well in my opinion. Nice and intimate and loud.

Just nit picking. All is well and I'm very excited!

 

[Strummergas]

I can hear the Barclays Brigade crying

You're just fantasizing because you need spank material. f*** that guy.

 

[PK Cronin]

I know we've gone over it. I'm just not convinced that we can consistently sell that many tickets.

I also don't consider selling out 14,500 as "manipulating" anything.

Winnipeg has a capacity of 15,200.

We have 3 teams in this area. Averaging 15,200 would be doing quite well in my opinion. Nice and intimate and loud.

Just nit picking. All is well and I'm very excited!

Winnipeg has a low capacity because that arena was already there, no? Has any team built a new arena for their team with such a low occupancy?

 

[Costigan77]

Winnipeg has a low capacity because that arena was already there, no? Has any team built a new arena for their team with such a low occupancy?

Yes, that is Winnipeg's old arena, just with a face lift.

I'm surprised the Shark Tank has 17,500. I've been to a game there, low ceiling and has a brighter coliseum feel to it. I was expecting much lower capacity

 

[PK Cronin]

Yes, that is Winnipeg's old arena, just with a face lift.

I'm surprised the Shark Tank has 17,500. I've been to a game there, low ceiling and has a brighter coliseum feel to it. I was expecting much lower capacity

The difference in seats isn't really that much when you think about it (visually or space), there's 20-ish seats per row in each section and there are how many sections? It only takes a few extra rows to make up the difference.

 

[The Lighthouse]

With @nyscene's info about the non-suite capacity being a little over 16,100, I'm not worried about the capacity too much.

 

[Doshell Propivo]

Belmont will draw the same as the Coliseum and Barclays drew/draw. The fanbase is what it is (small). Winning will wake up the dormant fans and attract the casual fan. Consistent winning can expand the fanbase.

Hopefully by 2021 the team has a couple of deep playoff runs under their belts and is ready to compete for the cup. Add a big time UFA acquisition the summer before Belmont opens and it should be an fun inaugural season at thew new arena.

 

[crasherino]

Bye bye loser.

In retrospect, its pretty clear that the move to Barclays was destined to fail but with Yormark at the helm, he pretty much made it as bad as could be. From day 1, it was all about him. The bone headed decisions on seemingly easy issues, the tone deaf communications.....he really tried to make it the Brooklyn Yormarks. And who was he? He was the guy in charge of operations. Not the owner. Not the GM. I doubt it would ever have been a permanent home, no matter what could have been done, but he ensured that we are as not-welcomed as possible.

Later fella.

 

[MJF]

In retrospect, its pretty clear that the move to Barclays was destined to fail but with Yormark at the helm, he pretty much made it as bad as could be. From day 1, it was all about him. The bone headed decisions on seemingly easy issues, the tone deaf communications.....he really tried to make it the Brooklyn Yormarks. And who was he? He was the guy in charge of operations. Not the owner. Not the GM. I doubt it would ever have been a permanent home, no matter what could have been done, but he ensured that we are as not-welcomed as possible.

Later fella.

It was always about Yormark leaving his mark on everything. Another guy who thought he was the smartest one in the room.

He was always all about himself.

Remember, this is the guy who, before Game 2 against the Penguins had part of the Coliseum parking lot closed for 2 hours so his helicopter had a place to land and drop him off. Sitting in traffic on the Northern State wasn’t his cup of tea.

 

[Doshell Propivo]

It was always about Yormark leaving his mark on everything. Another guy who thought he was the smartest one in the room.

He was always all about himself.

Remember, this is the guy who, before Game 2 against the Penguins had part of the Coliseum parking lot closed for 2 hours so his helicopter had a place to land and drop him off. Sitting in traffic on the Northern State wasn’t his cup of tea.

LOL! Is that true?? What a tool. For a marketing professional, he sure was a PR nightmare to his organization.

 

[PK Cronin]

I want them to expand the branding around this team. When they moved to Brooklyn there was a huge push towards a more professional quality and feel, even if fans weren't receptive to it. Now that there's another new home and it's back in Nassau, now is the time to push the branding again.

 

[Doshell Propivo]

I want them to expand the branding around this team. When they moved to Brooklyn there was a huge push towards a more professional quality and feel, even if fans weren't receptive to it. Now that there's another new home and it's back in Nassau, now is the time to push the branding again.

All I want are black third jerseys.

 

[MJF]

LOL! Is that true?? What a tool. For a marketing professional, he sure was a PR nightmare to his organization.

The guy was tone deaf.

 

[crasherino]

I want them to expand the branding around this team. When they moved to Brooklyn there was a huge push towards a more professional quality and feel, even if fans weren't receptive to it. Now that there's another new home and it's back in Nassau, now is the time to push the branding again.

There was definitely a push to move the team from an amateurish, small family run type business (where a good % of their tickets - the good ones anyway - were distributed by a dude sitting in his white Beemer in the parking lot) to having a more streamlined, corporate structure with an overarching business plan in place. To a certain extent, that was good. They needed some structure and long term plan. But it was pretty tone deaf to what the core values and demographics of the team and the team's fans.

 

[The Lighthouse]

There was definitely a push to move the team from an amateurish, small family run type business (where a good % of their tickets - the good ones anyway - were distributed by a dude sitting in his white Beemer in the parking lot) to having a more streamlined, corporate structure with an overarching business plan in place. To a certain extent, that was good. They needed some structure and long term plan. But it was pretty tone deaf to what the core values and demographics of the team and the team's fans.

To the extent there was any kind of push at all, it seemed dead by the end of the first season at Barclays. We moved radio stations and introduced black jerseys. Those are the two most significant things I can recall.

The team, just like in Nassau, was never marketed enough. It still feels non-existent. The marketing is in desperate need.

 

[crasherino]

To the extent there was any kind of push at all, it seemed dead by the end of the first season at Barclays. We moved radio stations and introduced black jerseys. Those are the two most significant things I can recall.

The team, just like in Nassau, was never marketed enough. It still feels non-existent. The marketing is in desperate need.

I think you're right about the push being at the outset of the move and may have tapered. But it was a real push. There was an outreach to build fans in the 5 boroughs (the team going to schools in Brooklyn, etc.). You saw billboards and ads on buses. All that stuff was good, and somewhat effective.

There are enough people living in the city that aren't necessarily Rags fans but would consider going to a hockey game and perhaps even jumping aboard a bandwagon....if there was one. I was living on the West side at the time and I know of a number of people who were casual to strong sports fans who fell into cheap or free tickets and gave the Islanders a shot. Several of them have stayed aboard as it was about the time when their kids were most impressionable.

 

[The Lighthouse]

I think you're right about the push being at the outset of the move and may have tapered. But it was a real push. There was an outreach to build fans in the 5 boroughs (the team going to schools in Brooklyn, etc.). You saw billboards and ads on buses. All that stuff was good, and somewhat effective.

There are enough people living in the city that aren't necessarily Rags fans but would consider going to a hockey game and perhaps even jumping aboard a bandwagon....if there was one. I was living on the West side at the time and I know of a number of people who were casual to strong sports fans who fell into cheap or free tickets and gave the Islanders a shot. Several of them have stayed aboard as it was about the time when their kids were most impressionable.

As an aside, it seems to me that what likely happened, based on some of the reports of the parties' friction as soon as early 2017, is that Barclays quickly realized that in order to make this worthwhile, including that payment to the Islanders in the lease contract, the marketing would need to be long-term and intense... years and years. Even winning the first playoff series in decades didn't really create a frenzy there.

 

[Doshell Propivo]

As an aside, it seems to me that what likely happened, based on some of the reports of the parties' friction as soon as early 2017, is that Barclays quickly realized that in order to make this worthwhile, including that payment to the Islanders in the lease contract, the marketing would need to be long-term and intense... years and years. Even winning the first playoff series in decades didn't really create a frenzy there.

The lease terms were incredibly favorable to the Islanders. Barclays drastically overestimated the short term economic impact the Islanders would have.

 

[The Lighthouse]

The lease terms were incredibly favorable to the Islanders. Barclays drastically overestimated the short term economic impact the Islanders would have.

They made a bad bet on a move to the city being enough to raise attendance and maybe merchandise sales to make up the amount they were paying the Islanders just to be there.

 

[crasherino]

They made a bad bet on a move to the city being enough to raise attendance and maybe merchandise sales to make up the amount they were paying the Islanders just to be there.

Barclays opened up with a bang and was incredibly successful off the bat. Most of that, however, had to do with the Garden being renovated and not available to take on shows. Barclays reaped the benefit of that. When their revenues tailed off, I think they saw the Islanders as another anchor tenant that would bring in consistent cash so they were eager to land what they saw as a big fish, not fully realizing what the impact of moving the arena 20 miles physically, but a lot further, in the eyes of the fans.