Jon Ledecky, the New York Islanders co-owner and alternate team governor, emphasizes on the latest episode of Sportico Sports Business Presented by Genius Sports how his team’s UBS Arena, which opened in 2021, is “built for hockey, made for music.”
While the Islanders are the arena’s primary tenant, welcoming other performers and shows helps pay the bills. Ledecky says the Islanders’ ownership group, which largely funded the construction of the arena, paid $100 million to make sure the acoustics were ideal for performers, not just a hockey game.
The Islanders finished the 2024-25 season with a 35-35-12 record. The team won the 2025 NHL Draft lottery with just a 3.5% chance of doing so and selected 17-year-old Matthew Schaefer out of the Ontario Hockey League with the No. 1 pick. The Islanders opens their regular season on the road against the Pittsburgh Penguins on Oct. 9. They will host the Philadelphia Flyers in their first home game on Oct. 11.
Also featured on the episode is Carolyn Tisch Blodgett, an operating owner and the club governor of the NWSL’s Gotham FC. Tisch Blodgett, who has spent a lifetime in sports as part of the New York Giants’ ownership group, doesn’t shy away from the rising tides of women’s soccer, both within the NWSL and around the world. She points to Angel City FC, the most valuable team in the NWSL, and Kansas City, which recently built a women-specific soccer stadium, as two teams elevating the game.
“We see competition within the league and outside of the league as very much continuing to raise the bar,” Tisch Blodgett said. “If Chelsea competing for a player or Arsenal competing for a player continues to raise our bar, we think that’s great for women’s soccer globally.”
Gotham currently has a 5-3-5 record for the 2025 season.
Sportico Sports Business Presented by Genius Sports airs monthly on the YES Network and the Gotham Sports App.
