(Updated) New York Islanders May Already Be Done With Brooklyn: Report

PROSPECT HEIGHTS, BROOKLYN — In April, the New York Islanders won their first playoff season since 1993. It was also their first year playing in the Barclays Center, after moving there from Nassau Coliseum.

And now, they may be leaving.

Bloomberg, citing unnamed sources, reported Thursday that the team is in talks with the owner of the Mets to build a new arena in Queens near Citi Field.

In response to the report, Barclays Center spokesman Barry Baum offered the following statement:

"Last week, [Islanders owner] Jon Ledecky said to media and later to fans that, 'Barclays is our home.'"

Baum said the comments were made on July 13 in Manhattan, adding that "any other questions" needed to be directed to the "Islanders' ownership."

The Islanders didn’t immediately return Patch’s requests for comment on Thursday.

News about the possible move isn’t a surprise to those following the team. As early as February — just months after moving to Barclays — The New York Post reported that the team and Barclays were jointly exploring whether to cut ties after the fourth year of their 25-year lease agreement, as permitted under their contract.

Complaints about the Barclays experience have been consistent. Players have described its ice as “awful,” “horrendous,” and “like skating in mud.”

And the players haven’t been the only ones who are unhappy.

“Although the Islanders own one of the NHL’s top home records,” the Post wrote in February, “their fans have been quite sour about the move, complaining about obstructed-view seating, jacked-up ticket prices, the nixing of longtime team traditions and feeling like second-class citizens in a building monopolized by the NBA’s Nets.”

As an example: inside Barclays, numerous seats prevent spectators from seeing one of the arena’s two goals, as reported by Business Insider. Even so, in February, Brett Yormark, the CEO of the Barclays Center, told ESPN that “There's really nothing we're going to do from a capital improvement standpoint” to fix the seating situation, arguing that fans have many other seats to choose from, and other ways to enjoy the game (including watching online).

According to Bloomberg, despite their historically good season, the Islanders’ attendance was 28th out of 30 National Hockey League teams last year.

We’ll update this post when we learn more.

Top image courtesy of Google Maps