The Islanders opened the season with a franchise-record, 13-game road trip to allow time for the $1.1 UBS Arena to be completed. It was nearly a longer trip.
Oak View Group CEO Tim Leiweke, the arena developer, told Newsday on Sunday his company and Islanders’ ownership paid “a significant, multi-million dollar fee (to general contractor AECOM Hunt) to accelerate the schedule to try to keep the guys off the road.”
“When we did it, we knew we were going to be in a position where we didn’t have what you would love, the luxury of two weeks to train everybody,” Leiweke said. “We had one night to train everybody.”
The Islanders opened UBS Arena with a 5-2 loss to the Flames on Saturday night. Leiweke rated the smoothness of operations as a “five” for the opener and was hoping for a “seven or an eight” on Sunday.
Leiweke reported UBS Arena concessions did a remarkably, high-volume of nearly $1 million for food and beverage on Saturday. He anticipated that number would be lower after the first game and that would help with the long lines on Saturday.
He said there are already discussions to open a third stand for the Shaquille O’Neal-owned Big Chicken to meet demand.
Leiweke also addressed the long lines at the Islanders’ team store, which he said flows better when there are buyers and not browsers. Simply, he said there were too many browsers on Saturday.
As for the parking and traffic issues at UBS, Leiweke said much of that will be alleviated when drivers become more familiar with the directions and arena staff begins to better direct parkers to the correct lots.
“We’ll learn a lot more (Sunday),” Leiweke said. “It’s a better night for us to really test that system because at least they’ve had one game under their belt. If we still are having congestion problems getting the parking lot emptied in two weeks then we’ve got to keep on dreaming up some additional solutions. We’ll know in two weeks, but we’re keeping an eye on it.”
Andrew Gross joined Newsday in 2018 to cover the Islanders. He began reporting on the NHL in 2003 and has previously covered the Rangers and Devils. Other assignments have included the Jets, St. John’s and MLB.
