\u201cNot having a construction zone there I think will help,\u201d Bettman said on Tuesday at the NHL office in Manhattan during a media session coordinated with the Associated Press Sports Editors.<\/p>\n
Fans interviewed by Newsday have said parking and transportation issues remain at UBS Arena, though many, such as Kelly Breslin, 52, of Medford, have gotten used to the situation.<\/p>\n
\u201cLike any Long Islander, we’re just so used to the traffic it’s par for the course,\u201d Breslin said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt’s gotten much better,\u201d Bettman said. \u201cObviously, the first season and the first few games needed some adjustment, but getting in there now has been fine. And people should be encouraged to use public transportation because part of what they’ve developed there is the station and UBS and the track.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Islanders just completed their fifth season at UBS Arena and attendance increased year-over-year this season<\/a> for the first time in the history of the $1.1 billion facility. 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% increase from last season\u2019s average of 15,979<\/a>, which was the lowest total of the team\u2019s five seasons in Elmont.<\/p>\n \n\tAndrew Gross joined Newsday in 2018 to cover the Islanders. He began reporting on the NHL in 2003 and has previously covered the Rangers and Devils. Other assignments have included the Jets, St. John\u2019s and MLB.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NHL commissioner Gary Bettman believes this year\u2019s reopening of Belmont Park will benefit Islanders\u00a0fans attending games at UBS…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":562025,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5110],"tags":[63289,5,63290,122,3328,159,5190,5189,4,44320],"class_list":["post-562024","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york-islanders","tag-belmont","tag-hockey","tag-horse-racing","tag-islanders","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-islanders","tag-newyork","tag-newyorkislanders","tag-nhl","tag-spadjacent"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116484716191340223","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/562024","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=562024"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/562024\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/562025"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=562024"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=562024"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=562024"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Andrew](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/1777415597_933_image.jpeg\"\/)
<\/p>\n