 |
| It has a weird spaceship look on the outside. That probably cost a whole lot of money and serves no purpose, but okay. |
First was a MAAC tripleheader. It caught my attention because Fairfield was playing and my dad went there. They were the first game. We only stayed for that game and half of the second game. It was a very small crowd and you could just sit wherever you wanted. We sat right at mid-court at a little bit of an elevation. Great seats. It was Fairfield against Quinnipiac. Quinnipiac led for most of the game. Fairfield tried to make it interesting late, but Quinnipiac held on for the win 75-70. I was interested in checking out the concessions. A lot of them weren’t open, which wasn’t surprising with such a small crowd. There was a barbecue concession stand. I had a brisket sandwich that was solid. They have a little beer garden/Umberto’s Pizza. I didn’t feel like drinking. Umberto’s Pizza in New Hyde Park is excellent. I feel like the personal pizza that’s being made at Nassau Coliseum is not going to match the quality of the real thing. Also, I don’t feel like paying $14.50 for it. I don’t know what the attendance was, but it wasn’t a lot. If they do an event like this next year, I think a MAAC-CAA Challenge would be an idea. Do Fairfield vs. Northeastern, Iona vs. Hofstra, and Manhattan vs. Delaware (or something like that).
 |
| Our view for Fairfield-Quinnipiac |
 |
| Brisket sandwich |
 |
| I took a walk around after the first game. You can see the Nets ABA banners. |
Then we went the other night for NBA G-League. It was the Long Island Nets against the Maine Red Claws. We went because the Red Claws are the Celtics’ affiliate. We had the same view of the action as we did for the college basketball, just on the other side of the court. It was a good game to go to since it’s the NBA All Star Break. The Celtics had Guerschon Yabusele playing with the Red Claws to get some playing time. The coach of the Nets is Ronald Nored. You probably don’t remember that name, but I do. He was on Brad Steven’s teams at Butler. I loved those teams. I remember at one point Mike Brey was rumored to go to Maryland and I came up with the idea of Brad Stevens going from Butler to Notre Dame. It worked out much better than that for me. Mike Brey stayed at Notre Dame and Brad Stevens went to the Celtics. The Nets controlled the game the whole way. At one point they led by 30. The Red Claws cut into to it, but the Nets won by seven (which I think was as close as it got in the second half). Yabusele had 24 points, but he wasn’t dominant or anything. The last time these two teams played on Long Island, Kadeem Allen scored 46 for the Red Claws. This time he had 14. The Red Claws also have the number 1 overall pick in the 2013 NBA Draft, Anthony Bennett. He didn't play. The box score says "NWT - Canada National Team." The box score said that there were 1,710 people there, but my dad didn’t believe it.
A few other thoughts. The G-League uniforms were pretty bad. The Red Claws’ uniforms were particularly bad. Red and green together works at Christmas. They don’t work together for anything else. The halftime entertainment made me think of this (except these performers actually weren't white):
The concessions were very limited at the Nets game. I ended up just having a hot dog because, again, I’m not paying $14.50 for imitation Umberto’s. The mustard selection was lacking. I mean, this is New York, you have to have real mustard. Cosmo Kramer has some thoughts:
Before I get to my overall Nassau Coliseum thoughts, I have to mention that the Brooklyn Nets have the worst name in the NBA. They’re named for an inanimate piece of basketball equipment. And there’s no way they would have been named the Nets if it didn’t rhyme with Mets and Jets. My idea is that the Brooklyn Nets should change their name (I don’t have a name in mind, but they can come up with something better) and the Long Island Nets should stay the Nets.
As for the renovated Nassau Coliseum, it’s not bad. I was told before going there that it was like a mini Barclays Center. That seems like an accurate description. The seating and the concourse definitely remind me of the Barclays Center. It went from being the worst arena in major North American professional sports to being a solid arena that doesn't host major North American professional sports anymore. It’s no Madison Square Garden. And it doesn’t have the size or the capacity of the Barclays Center, but it serves a purpose.
It would be cool if some minor college basketball conference had their tournament there. I was thinking about possibilities. The America East Conference would be one, but it seems a little too far south since that’s mostly a New England/upstate New York conference (Stony Brook and UMBC are the exceptions). The CAA isn’t a bad option. You’d definitely get some Hofstra people to go. I just check on where they’ve had their tournament in the past. It’s always been Baltimore or farther south, but why not bring it to Long Island for a year or two? The MAAC Tournament has mostly been in Albany. You could put it on Long Island, but I don’t know if you’d draw better on Long Island than Albany. Apparently the Nassau Coliseum is being considered for the 2020 MAAC Tournament. The conference commissioner said he was hoping for 6,000-7,000 people for the tripleheader. Maybe a bunch of people showed up late (Iona-Manhattan was the last game and that was the best game of the day), but there were nowhere close to 6,000 people there when we were there. Most people aren’t going to go to the MAAC Tournament unless they have a connection to one of those schools and Albany is more centrally located for that conference (it’s Siena’s home court). You could put the NEC Tournament there, but you’d be getting some really tiny crowds for those schools. The Patriot League is a conference that goes from Boston to Washington, DC, but it doesn’t have any school that’s all that close to the Nassau Coliseum. Some of these minor conferences are probably better off just sticking with campus sites. I love neutral sites for conference tournaments because I love the idea of four basketball games at the same place on the same day, but they’re probably better off with some energy with a game on campus rather than playing in front of 750 people in Nassau Coliseum. The Atlantic 10 would probably be the dream scenario for the Nassau Coliseum, but I don’t see them going there when they’ve kind of made the Barclays Center their home (when they’re not getting kicked out by the ACC). Of all the realistic possibilities, I think the CAA would be the best option. It’s probably the best of the conferences I mentioned and I think it would draw the best.
When I went to the college tripleheader on January 27, I thought about the Islanders. Their new Belmont arena had recently been announced, but it’s not going to be done for a while. The Islanders are last in attendance at just over 12,000 fans per game. Barclays Center wasn’t built for hockey and their fans don’t like it. With the reduced capacity after the renovation, Nassau Coliseum now holds 13,000 people for hockey. I thought why not just play there until the new arena is built? Two days later it was announced that they’re kind of doing that. They’re going to play 12 home games there next year and then a total of 48 over the following two seasons. I assume they’ll draw very well next year with 12 home games there. Depending on how the Islanders are doing, there might not be as much excitement there after that (it won’t be new anymore and the supply will increase greatly). If tickets aren’t too expensive, I’d definitely be up for going to an Islander game or two. I just wonder how the new arena will impact Nassau Coliseum once it’s done. You won’t have hockey there anymore. I would assume that the Long Island Nets will stay because it’s not like they need a bigger/nicer arena. But what about concerts and college basketball? Villanova played Hofstra and Maryland played Stony Brook in the Nassau Coliseum this season. Are those games going to be played at Nassau Coliseum when there’s a newer/bigger/nicer arena on Long Island? Anyway, I don’t know how often I’m going to be back at Nassau Coliseum, but I guess it’s good to have a nice Nassau Coliseum instead of a really crappy Nassau Coliseum.
No comments:
Post a Comment