UBS Arena New York
Flyctory.com Pros
- Very modern arena with wide aisles and good routes
- Very good ticket price / situation
- Good food options (even though expansive)
Flyctory.com Cons
- Traffic situation is still not ideal (but will be improved)
- Too few hotel capacities and similar facilities around
Already right on the very first day of my Pittsburgh Penguins trip in March 2022, I visited the new home venue of the New York Islanders, the UBS Arena in Queens. The match on 10th March 2022 has originally been scheduled to be a battle between the Islanders and my beloved Pittsburgh Penguins. Covid-19 required some schedule shifts and so the Islanders faced the Columbus Blue Jackets the same day. Here are my thoughts about the arena.




UBS Arena – Location & Traffic
UBS Arena is located on the Queens side of New York City, in the Borough of Elmhurst. The brand-new arena opened in late 2021 has been built right south of the horse racing track Belmont Park. At my time of visit, important infrastructural sites of the arena have not yet been fully completed. This also includes a car parking garage and a hotel, which will open right next to UBS Arena. At the moment of writing, there is no major accommodation (apart from some Airbnb options and very few places with obscure ratings) around the arena. You even won’t find some sensible place to sleep roughly in a two mile distance. Elmhurst is majorly a residential area – there are also very few bars or place to hang out before / after the match.
You will find a lot reports about chaotic traffic around UBS Arena, especially during the first weeks after opening. In early March 2022, there were only three parking lots in place, Emerald Parking (North), Silver Parking close to the arena and South parking, all fed by different exits of the Cross Island Parkway. You have either a some ten minute walk from Emerald Parking to the arena or a shuttle bus service. In addition, that was the only parking lot I could book a spot for in advance. The shuttle buses worked rather well – there seemed to have been major issues at the first matches, though. Needless to say that going to UBS Arena by car will likely expose you to New York traffic jams.
Incomplete Public Traffic Connection
At my time of visit, the public transport situation was poor. The Long Island Railroad (LIRR) has been serving Belmont Park, but there were issues with trains only stopping at certain stations, depending on the direction of traveling. This is about to be solved in the near future, so that the connection to Manhattan should improve significantly. There are also bus connections (Q2/Q110). At the moment, taxis / ride shares feel to be the only alternative to driving by car, especially for late evening matches.





UBS Arena – Arena & Ticket Situation
Even though the Islanders are the key renter, the UBS Arena is a multi-purpose arena and is also very frequently used for concerts and other entertainment. For the ice hockey team, UBS Arena replaces the Nassau Coliseum and the Barclays Center as a home venue. The arena has been opened on 19th November 2021, having a capacity of 17,255 (for ice hockey) / 18,500 (concerts). What I especially liked is that the routes through the arena are very efficient, the aisles are comparably wide. There is a lot of club and suite seating, especially in the lower rink.







It might be also due to the rather incomplete traffic situation, but I was quite surprised about the ticket pricing at UBS Arena. My ticket for a lower ring seat behind the goal was 86.70 USD only. The initial ticket for the Penguins match (which is likely a more attractive opponent) was just slightly more expansive before I had to refund it due to the schedule change. Generally, most Ticketmaster tickets are mobile tickets only. This may be unfortunate for foreign country visitors in case of WiFi/internet issues. If you care for your ticket early, the ticket situation is absolutely fine for single match purchases.
UBS Arena – Atmosphere
I have been to New York Islanders matches at their previous arenas already – and one thing I absolutely love is that they are comparably close to European ice hockey experience. The Islanders fans are still quieter than their European peers. However, there are people (not displays) who are supporting their team and cheering for their team without being told to do so. This leads to a very fun experience. One very special thing is that the Islanders fans raise the US flag over the heads of their fans while their anthem is played before the match. That almost leads to some sort of “choreography” feeling.










UBS Arena – Food & Shopping
There is a wide range of food available. Like most arenas nowadays, they have snack bar services as well as supermarket-alike food shopping available. The food was rather pricey, but I appreciated that there was a soda flat fee coming with a souvenir mug (14 USD). I just arrived from JFK Airport and had quite a hurry so that I definitely did not drink enough that day. The organisation around food is very good. Nonetheless, I just felt that there could be more spaces where you can have your bite in the aisles of UBS Arena. I am just not sufficiently “Americanized” to consume all my food and drinks at my seat.







The is, of course, sufficient opportunity to invest your credit card balance in souvenirs rather than in edible items. The souvenir store is quite large and offered a nice range of items.



UBS Arena – My View
Apart from the public transport situation, I really enjoyed visiting UBS Arena. The connections, however, caused a lot of organizational work for my trip (hotel location, getting around). You see that the venue is built on latest standards. Unfortunately, that also means that a lot of good seats are business seats and loges. Single match visitors may hardly sit in the middle of the lower rank, for example. The infrastructure is the biggest issue of UBS Arena. Currently, I don’t believe this will really fully change after all changes (like the hotel) envisaged. You simply need more hotels and more connections in walking distance to be able to escape the heavy New York traffic.
Flyctory.com about Ice Hockey
Here are all ice hockey postings on Flyctory.com:
Going to Pittsburgh is always very special to me. Typically, this means that there is a home match of my ...
Read More
In mid May 2022, my wife and I went to Helsinki for the IIHF Ice Hockey World Championships. The organizers ...
Read More
No concert... But this trip is just not complete without a venue. On Day 4 of my trip following the ...
Read More
Apart from visiting Pittsburgh itself, seeing a match at the Bridgestone Arena was likely the highlight of my Pittsburgh Penguins ...
Read More
Visiting the Gateway Arch and having the last NHL ice hockey match of the trip: the eighth day of my ...
Read More
No flight this day, but therefor, the match I was likely looking forward to most on this Pittsburgh Penguins March ...
Read More
A very interesting direct return flight and the second Pittsburgh Penguins match - Sunday in Pennsylvania felt to be a ...
Read More
Day 2 was just so exciting to me: the first time being back in Pittsburgh since two and a half ...
Read More
Time to see my hockey team again! The first day of my Pittsburgh Penguins trip to the States did not ...
Read More
The DFEL (German Women Ice Hockey League) leader traveling to the bottom team of the table (which had, to be ...
Read More
Apart from visiting a Toronto Maple Leafs match at Scotiabank Arena, my wife and I also headed to the Ontario ...
Read More
It is time for the final posting of the years, simply named The Best Ones 2021. After looking into my ...
Read More
Even though their ranking the the NHL is not always reflecting it, the Toronto Maple Leafs are likely the biggest ...
Read More
Some 300 inhabitants, but more than 6,000 spectators (if Covid-committing) at an ice hockey home match - there is likely ...
Read More
One of the venues of the Floorball World Championships, which is going to happen during the week of publishing this ...
Read More
Relative to their population, Iceland is the sixth biggest ice hockey nation in the world. Out of 100,000 people, some ...
Read More
The last match with the Pittsburgh Penguins on my 2020 trip along the West Coast was at the San Jose ...
Read More
The match between my Pittsburgh Penguins and the Los Angeles Kings was the first one on my West Coast hockey ...
Read More
When I came back from my West Coast Tour with the Pittsburgh Penguins in early 2020, I hoped that the ...
Read More
The final ice hockey match on my February 2020 trip following the Pittsburgh Penguins to their West Coast matches was ...
Read More
Waking up in Anaheim, cheering fpr the Penguins in Staples center - that was roughly the plan for Day 2 ...
Read More
California, here I come. The first trip report of 2020 will bring me to California, where my ice hockey team, ...
Read More
Visiting Pittsburgh and especially my hockey team, the Pittsburgh Penguins, is always something very special to me. Even though Pittsburgh ...
Read More
The Pittsburgh Penguins versus the Philadelphia Flyers - the Keystone State Rivalry was taken to its second stage in February ...
Read More
If you are a puck-addict, Toronto is your Mecca - and the old-fashioned looking building at the crossing of First ...
Read More
Postings about Canada
Here are all Flyctory.com postings dealing with Canada:
During my trip to Canada right after the borders have been opened again in September 2021, I visited a very ...
Read More
I had a long list of songs for my Songs of the Week... and after I composed a nice order of ...
Read More
I had a quite long list of songs for my Songs of the Week this time. The 20th May 2022 list is ...
Read More
During my September 2021 trip to Toronto, I also spent an evening at the beautiful historic district of Streetsville. The ...
Read More
New tunes by Tenille Townes. Some two years after the release of the The Lemonade Stand album, the Canadian country artist ...
Read More
A debut album on Easter weekend: I simply enjoyed the voice and the very special sound of Sophia Bel, when ...
Read More
Oh, I feel that the Songs Of The Week are really a tradition on Flyctory.com now. More than three months since I ...
Read More
PUP, formerly Topanga, have established in the punk rock business during the last years. The Toronto band releases their fourth ...
Read More
While the last week's edition solely covered a few songs, my 25th March 2022 version of the Songs Of The Week ...
Read More
Not really sure whether it is my March 2022 trip with the Pittsburgh Penguins or other influences, but this time, ...
Read More
Thunderor are a relatively new band from Canada. They have been founded during the pandemic. On 25th February 2022, they ...
Read More
A new week, a new edition of the Songs Of The Week. This time, I ran into a lot of rocking ...
Read More
The Canadian country recording artist and songwriter Jesse is about to release a new single this week: On Friday (4th ...
Read More
After I have already been struggling with the idea of the Songs of the Week, the feedback on my previous edition ...
Read More
The indie-rock trio jackie from Toronto break the traditional release calendar: while most singles and especially albums and EPs are ...
Read More
Ontario, Nashville, Scotland - Brittany Brodie is home somehow in many places in the world. I have been in contact ...
Read More
Kiefer Sutherland is a world-famous actor since many years, but since quite a while, he is also growing a fan ...
Read More
Right after arriving at Toronto-Pearson Airport (YYZ) in November 2021, my wife and I headed to the TownePlace Suites Mississauga-Airport ...
Read More
Billy Talent is nowadays one of the very big names of the alternative rock music scene. The Canadians are about ...
Read More
Flying from Toronto City - or: Billy Bishop - Airport (YTZ) during my September 2021 trip was definitely one of ...
Read More
My Songs Of The Week slowly turn into a tradition. This week, I definitely saw that the number of releases massively ...
Read More
Apart from visiting a Toronto Maple Leafs match at Scotiabank Arena, my wife and I also headed to the Ontario ...
Read More
It is time for the final posting of the years, simply named The Best Ones 2021. After looking into my ...
Read More
2021 definitely lifted Flyctory.com to another level. The community is steadily increasing - days with less than 2,000 page hits ...
Read More
Year-end is the time to look back to all the stuff what happened to you. Ideally you rather remind the ...
Read More
ByWard Market in Ottawa is a beautiful entertainment, shopping and relax district in the heart of the Canadian capital. During ...
Read More
Even though their ranking the the NHL is not always reflecting it, the Toronto Maple Leafs are likely the biggest ...
Read More
Okay, I give in. In the world of country music, Christmas starts in early September. That's when the first song ...
Read More
After two rather average nights in the InterContinental Toronto in the heart of the largest Canadian metropolitan area in September ...
Read More
In October 2021, on a flight from Munich (MUC) to Keflavik Airport (KEF), I decided to go for a new ...
Read More
In early November 2021, I received a promo EP from a folk music duo from Berlin, Flora Falls. A bit ...
Read More
With a large concert stage and two main attractions on the ground, the Jubillee area on the Expo 2020 grounds ...
Read More
Honestly, when I received the promotion material for AHI's fourth album Prospect, this did not read overwhelmingly promising. Having a ...
Read More
I definitely love Tenille Arts and her music. The more, I was looking forward to listening to her 2021 album Girl ...
Read More
As part of my Condor Business Class experience from Toronto Pearson (YYZ), Terminal 3, to Frankfurt (FRA), I also had ...
Read More
Summer feels to be over - Fall 2021 is coming. Finally, I had much more - and better - trips ...
Read More
After flying with Porter Airlines from Toronto Billy Bishop Airport (YTZ) to Ottawa, my return trip was on rails. For ...
Read More
Flights directly from city to city - needless to say that one key driver of success of Billy Bishop - ...
Read More
For my trip to Canada on the day they re-opened their borders after Covid-19 restrictions I went for Condor. I ...
Read More
After a couple of albums with his band, Canadian Adrian Sutherland is trying to do his first solo steps. His ...
Read More
For my trip to Toronto in September 2021, just after the re-opening of Canadian borders, I needed a hotel centrally ...
Read More
There have been rumors about that for months - but when Canada finally announced that they will accept fully vaccinated ...
Read More
Hard riffs from Canada: Danko Jones is active since a quarter of a century already and have fans worldwide. Their ...
Read More
Almost five years after her previous album Goodnight City, Martha Wainwright is back in the record stores. On 20th August ...
Read More
Third studio album by Alee: I recently ran into the music of the Canadian country artist and was really looking ...
Read More
I am a bit of jealous of Alexis Taylor. Not (just) because her Facebook and other social media accounts are ...
Read More
I had the female country music trio The Heels in my playlists a couple of times. I really loved their ...
Read More
Quite a while since Meghan Patrick was part of my Flyctory.com coverage. In September 2019, I reviewed her EP debut Wild ...
Read More
After quite a hiatus - the last regular Country Music Picks edition is as of November 2020, I felt it ...
Read More
Jim "Kimo" West is already a quite frequently featured artist on Flyctory.com. "Kimo" is more and more emancipated from being ...
Read More
Hard rock from Canada: with Bummer, the band Cleopatrick is releasing their first-ever album on 4th June 2021. The album ...
Read More
A Viking doing modern country? Sounds like a weird Scandinavian story - but in fact the artist is a Canadian actor, ...
Read More
Allison Russell's album Outside Child is in fact a debut. But the singer songwriter is already quite established in the ...
Read More
Even though her debut EP has just been some two years ago, JJ Wilde already got quite some attention, especially ...
Read More
Folk music with a touch of rock and reggae: Jon and Roy is a West Coast Canadian band, who are ...
Read More
Some fifteen months after his previous album, Now or Never, Brett Kissel is back on Flyctory.com with an album. On ...
Read More
"We wanted to do music to raise the mood of the people" - that's quite a promising statement in Covid-19 ...
Read More
After ten years of band history, The Blue Stories release their second album on 19th March 2021. After the blues ...
Read More
One of my favorite franchises when being in the United States is undoubtedly Dave & Busters. It has been part ...
Read More
New songs by Jess Moskaluke: one of the big names of the Canadian female country music scene is adding The Demos ...
Read More
A brief debut album from Ontario: Canadian Dustin Bird is releasing Unscripted on 5th February 2021. The eight track debut ...
Read More
It started on 27th July 2018 with Talk of This Town by Catherine McGrath. Last weekend, I reached another milestone: with Immortal ...
Read More
Third studio album or third EP? Especially due to the fact that Tebey's social media was not overwhelmingly active regarding ...
Read More
Just a week before Petric released their album Flashbacks on 15th January 2021, I ran into their single Kids and really ...
Read More
After I interrupted my "regular" series of Songs of My Life for the Christmas edition with Tiny Tim, the first posting ...
Read More
292 Media Review postings - looking into new music (and a few other) releases was definitely some sort of core ...
Read More
2020 is about to come to an end - and the last three posting of the years re about to ...
Read More
Plastic Bouqet is quite an interesting musical collaboration: while two of the artists, Kacy & Clayton are from Canada, they are ...
Read More
Doing things once is an innovation, doing it the second time makes it turn into a tradition: after I did ...
Read More
I typically aimed to publish my Country Music Picks every six to eight weeks roughly - but after my last edition ...
Read More
Indie rock made in British Columbia - Yukon Blonde are part of the Canadian music scene for 15 years already ...
Read More
Debut album after two EP releases, made in Canada - when I scanned the new country music releases as of ...
Read More
Third seeded Dennis Shapovalov (Canada) had a tough time in his Cologne debut appearance: against Gilles Simon (France), he struggled ...
Read More
This week, I am gifted to have very interesting interviews again in my Flyctory.com Spotlight section. Just a few days ...
Read More
Don't you feel the urge as well to talk about trees, angels, presents and Santa Clause? While I had four ...
Read More
After his 2015 album Guitar Stories: Slack Key & Beyond, Jim "Kimo" West is back in the virtual record stores with ...
Read More
Lindsay Ell is definitely one of the finest Canadian artists in the country music scene. After releasing some of the ...
Read More
Just in time: one day before Jim "Kimo" West will release his new album More Guitar Stories, I had the opportunity ...
Read More
After a couple of single releases, Cory Marks is going for the next step: the Canadian released his first album ...
Read More
When you think about Alanis Morissette, you think about Ironic. However, the Canadian artist is definitely not a one-hit wonder ...
Read More
Not just because of some songs The Reklaws already placed in my Country Music Playlist, I really enjoy the straight ...
Read More
Call it an appetizer, a preview or whatever you like - Tenille Townes released her EP Road To The Lemonade ...
Read More
Neil Young - one of the very big names in music business. Whenever Young is releasing new music or a ...
Read More
I unfortunately did not make it to follow one of the Matt Lang shows during the Country to Country in ...
Read More
After six studio albums and two EPs, the Canadian country music duo High Valley is back with another EP. Their Grew Up ...
Read More
Even though Lennon Stella is quite a well-known person in the music and entertainment industry, it is quite surprising that ...
Read More
The Canadian West Coast trio The Washboard Union is quite established in the country music scene of their home country. Though ...
Read More
This is likely the first time I review an album, before its publishing date, even though it has been published ...
Read More
Rhett Akins once said about Sykamore "I read her name, I was curious...I saw her face, I was intrigued...I heard ...
Read More
Some five years after his solo debut album, William Prince is back in the list of country music album releases. Reliever has ...
Read More
Not just because Tenille Townes will be part of the European Country 2 Country festivals in March 2020, she is ...
Read More
Her first album release under a record deal - I was very curious about Tenille Arts's second album Love, Heartbreak, & ...
Read More
The likely first major country music album release of the year 2020 is by Brett Kissel. The Canadian published his ...
Read More
Due to my passion for Weird Al Yankovic, I know Jim "Kimo" West for a couple of years now. Kimo ...
Read More
2019 has come to an end - and music has been one of the key topics of Flyctory.com in 2019 ...
Read More
December - Christmas time! Especially after I had so many postings about Christmas markets in here, I felt to add ...
Read More
After I visited a couple of Sound of Nashville shows in Cologne and surroundings, I felt lucky to do my ...
Read More
I had a quite unfortunate timing with the debut of the German Country Music week. I missed some shows due ...
Read More
When my appetite for country music intensified some three years ago, I also ran into the music of Meghan Patrick, ...
Read More
After I mentioned the Air Canada Lounge at Frankfurt Airport already in my love letter posting to LATAM flight 705, ...
Read More
After my posting in April, which was already speculating about a country music boom in Germany and Central Europe, a ...
Read More
The Ontario-based James Barker Band was one of the crowd's favorite at the 2019 Country 2 Country festivals in London ...
Read More
How to spent the time best between Country 2 Country 2019 in Berlin and Amsterdam and the "main events" in ...
Read More
Just being a short walk away from Toronto Union Station, which perfectly connects to Pearson airport, the Novotel Toronto Center felt ...
Read More
If you are a puck-addict, Toronto is your Mecca - and the old-fashioned looking building at the crossing of First ...
Read More
Casa Loma in Toronto is North America's only full sized castle. Though it might not be that well-known here in ...
Read More
The Royal Ontario Museum just feels like an amazing wonderland of topics, a bit of "something for everyone". Did you ...
Read More
The Ripley's Believe it or not Museums are quite well known. As I never visited one so far, I was even ...
Read More
Just some sneakers and high heels? The Bata Shoe Museum in Toronto promises much more than that and wants to ...
Read More
"Flying Rouge" becomes quite a success story for Air Canada. Just having started five years ago in 2013, the Maple ...
Read More
As part of my summer vacation, I spent some 24 hours in Niagara Falls, ON (means: on the Canadian side) ...
Read More
Yeah, I have to give in: as a German, you just hated when there has been a race with our ...
Read More
Post Views:
327