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Stadium:
Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum
The Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum, commonly known as Nassau Coliseum (or simply The Coliseum), is a multi-purpose indoor arena in Uniondale, New York, on Long Island. The Coliseum is 19 miles (30 km) from New York City. It is home to the New York Islanders National Hockey League team and the New York Dragons Arena Football League team. In 2007 it will also be home to four of the New York Titans National Lacrosse League team's eight home games (along with Madison Square Garden). The Coliseum occupies 63 acres (255,000 m²) of Mitchel Field, site of a former Army and Air Force base. The New York Raiders, intended by the fledging World Hockey Association to be their flagship franchise, was initially slated to play in the brand-new Nassau Coliseum. However, Nassau County didn't consider the WHA a professional league and wanted nothing to do with the Raiders. Nassau County retained William Shea to get an NHL team to play in the new building. The NHL responded by hastily awarding a franchise to Long Island--the New York Islanders, which forced the Raiders to play in the Madison Square Garden under the shadow of the New York Rangers.

Seating Chart:
Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum Seating Chart

Team History:
With the impending start of the World Hockey Association in the fall of 1972, the upstart league had plans to place its New York team in the brand-new Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Nassau County. However, Nassau County officials did not consider the WHA a professional league and wanted nothing to do with the upstart New York Raiders. The only legal way to keep the Raiders out of the Coliseum was to get an NHL team to play there, so William Shea, who had helped bring the New York Mets to the area a decade earlier, was pressed into service once again. Shea found a receptive ear in league president Clarence Campbell, who did not want the additional competition in the New York area. So, despite having expanded to 14 teams just two years before, the NHL hastily awarded a Long Island franchise to clothing manufacturer Roy Boe, owner of the American Basketball Association's New York Nets. A second expansion franchise was awarded to Atlanta (the Flames) at the same time to balance the schedule. The new team was widely expected to take the Long Island Ducks name used by an Eastern Hockey League franchise; the "Islanders" name came as something of a surprise.

Season Preview:
Let's forget for a moment the boardroom fiasco of this offseason and look strictly at the hockey operations, and the results are the same: The New York Islanders are a team without a clue. Coincidence? We think not. In the new NHL, where teams can spend a finite amount of money on players, the good players are going to go where there is stability and a plan for the future. The bad teams will simply end up overpaying for lesser talent, which is why the future remains bleak for an Islanders team without a clue. The Islanders haven't won a playoff series since 1993. The fact that owner Charles Wang fired former Rangers GM Neil Smith a little more than two months after hiring him and then installed backup netminder Garth Snow as the new GM before signing netminder Rick DiPietro to an NHL-record 15-year deal will set the team's development back years. The one good thing about such colossal mismanagement is that the Isles will almost certainly be a lottery team. Of course, they're one of the only teams that is capable of screwing up a first overall draft pick.

Official Site:
http://islanders.nhl.com/team/app