Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum, which is popularly known in simple terms as the Nassau Coliseum, is a multi-purpose indoor arena found in Uniondale, Nassau County, New York, to the east of New York City. This amazing Long Island venue is roughly 7 miles east of the Queens eastern limits of the New York City Borough and is also conveniently located just next to the Meadowbrook Parkway.
Nassau Coliseum was opened back in 1972, and it sits on 63 acres on Mitchel Field, which was initially an Army airfield, before it became an Air Force base in later years. This facility is found in the beautiful town of Hempstead, which is within the Uniondale 11553 ZIP code. The Nassau Coliseum is used for concerts, shows, sporting events, trade shows as well as large exhibitions. The main arena features 4,000 square feet while the expo center sits on 60,000. In 2015, the arena space was closed temporarily to face a serious renovation which was completed in 2017.
The New York Islanders of the National Hockey League played at the Nassau Coliseum from the year 1972 all the way to 2015, before they moved to Barclays Center in Brooklyn. After the move proved to be commercially unsuccessful, the team split its home schedule between Barclays and the renovated Coliseum from 2018 to 2020 with plans to play the entire home portion of their 2020–21 season at the Coliseum. It was also the home of the New York Nets of the American Basketball Association (ABA) and National Basketball Association (NBA), now known as the Brooklyn Nets, from 1972 to 1977. In 2017, the venue became the new home of the Brooklyn Nets’ NBA G League team, the Long Island Nets.
In June 2020, Nassau Coliseum was closed indefinitely as its owners sought new investors, putting the Islanders’ plans to return to the arena full-time for the 2020–21 season in doubt. In August 2020, a new leaseholder took over the arena who also agreed to let the Islanders play their home games in the arena. The team plans to move to UBS Arena at Belmont Park upon its completion.
Depending on the event, the Nassau Coliseum had a capacity of 13,000 to 15,000, and in the early 1980s the maximum capacity was increased to around 18,000. Before closing for renovations in 2015 the Coliseum seated 16,170 for hockey, up to 18,511 for concerts and 17,686 for boxing. Those renovations resulted in drastically reduced capacities: 13,917 for hockey and 14,500 for basketball.
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