Navigating the Street Life

By RJ Ciancio
​Director of NAL Coverage 

With the New York Streets standing at two wins on zero losses after they demolished the Orlando Predators the main talk about the team is venue choice. In lieu of a lopsided game summary I figured now would be a good time to give my top five options for where I think the Streets could play in a personal worst to the best list. I don’t know about the team finances but, nevertheless here are my top five venues the New York Streets could play at.

At number five we have the Barclays Center. Currently the arena holds around 15,795 for hockey games and 17,732 for basketball. With the New York Islanders, Brooklyn Nets and the Long Island University Blackbirds (who use this as an alternate venue) as tenants it’s clear to say that this relatively new venue is a popular one. With the Streets practice facility in Brooklyn, some people would advocate for this to be higher on the list. I think that since the facility has no past of hosting an arena football team before combined with the fact the Streets don’t have a deal with them and the large capacity that could plunge the team into debt if they don’t draw well is reason enough to not play at the venue for a bit.

For number four we have the Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum, a very well respected venue in the arena football world. The venue hosted the New York Dragons from 2001-2008 and currently hosts the New York Islanders, Long Island Nets, New York Open tennis tournament and will start playing host to the New York Riptide of the National Lacrosse League (NLL) next season. With around 16,170 seats for hockey the venue might be to big for the Streets for now.

Number three is a true oddball as I’ve chosen the Staten Island Pavilion. The Pavillion hosted the Staten Island Xtreme of the National Indoor Football league in 2004, giving and example of a past team playing arena ball in the facility. With 3,000 seats (around the same amount the Westchester County Center currently has for team games) this could be a nice stepping stone venue so the team can get acclimated to playing in the Big Apple.

At number two we have the granddaddy of all sports arenas in the world, Madison Square Garden (MSG). The venue holds approximately 18,006 seats (for hockey) and is the current home to the New York Knicks, New York Rangers and St John’s Red Storm. With the team already agreeing to play multiple games in MSG this season and with MSG Network covering the games the Garden seems like a natural fit. The big question is will the Streets be able to afford the venue full-time? Maybe if they draw well when they play there this year we will have a better idea of how it all works.

My top pick for where the New York Streets should play their home games is the Westchester County Center. I imagine some people aren’t happy about this pick. My big question is why would the team switch venues so quickly. They are already playing in MSG this season and they are under contract to play In Westchester. Unless there is a buy out clause (and we don’t know how much that would cost) why not let it be for a bit as the team grows? I imagine we all want them in the Big Apple but patience is key when running a business and that’s what we need to have with the Streets.

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