{"id":555875,"date":"2026-04-19T08:49:30","date_gmt":"2026-04-19T08:49:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/555875\/"},"modified":"2026-04-19T08:49:30","modified_gmt":"2026-04-19T08:49:30","slug":"n-y-islanders-see-year-over-year-increased-attendance-for-first-time-at-ubs-arena","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/555875\/","title":{"rendered":"N.Y. Islanders see year-over-year increased attendance for first time at UBS Arena"},"content":{"rendered":"

Attendance for Islanders games \u201cincreased year-over-year for the first time in the five-year history\u201d of UBS Arena despite the team\u2019s \u201clate-season collapse and failure to make the playoffs\u202ffor the second straight season,\u201d according to Ben Dickson of NEWSDAY. Fans and team officials said that the boost is \u201cdue to the arrival\u201d of rookie D Matthew Schaefer<\/a>, a \u201cfeeling of hope for the team\u2019s future and new management.\u201d The Islanders averaged 16,439 fans per game during their 41-game home schedule at the 17,255-seat arena this season, a 2.87%\u202fincrease from\u202flast season\u2019s average of 15,979, which was the \u201clowest total of the team\u2019s five seasons in Elmont.\u201d The Islanders sold out 21 of their final 24 home games and had 26 total sellouts. UBS Arena opened in November 2021 and averaged 17,085 fans per game\u202fin the first season, but the Islanders \u201cexperienced annual drops over the next three seasons.\u201d Fans attributed that to the team\u2019s \u201clackluster play and\u202ftraffic and transportation problems that have plagued the area.\u201d But fans said that they are \u201cgetting used to the commute and are more likely to tolerate the traffic to watch Schaefer and a winning team.\u201d Islanders President of Business Operations Kelly Cheeseman said that the combination of Schaefer and an improved team have \u201chelped reverse the downward attendance trend.\u201d Dickson notes GM Mathieu Darche also has been taking a \u201cmore fan-facing, personable approach to how he runs the team\u201d (NEWSDAY, 4\/16<\/a>).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Attendance for Islanders games \u201cincreased year-over-year for the first time in the five-year history\u201d of UBS Arena despite…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":487413,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5110],"tags":[4790,5,122,3328,159,5190,5189,4,5463],"class_list":{"0":"post-555875","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york-islanders","8":"tag-fan-experience","9":"tag-hockey","10":"tag-islanders","11":"tag-new-york","12":"tag-new-york-islanders","13":"tag-newyork","14":"tag-newyorkislanders","15":"tag-nhl","16":"tag-ticketing"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116430514929720637","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/555875","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=555875"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/555875\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/487413"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=555875"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=555875"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=555875"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}