November 20, 2021: The UBS Arena Opens

November 20, 2021: The UBS Arena opens in the Belmont Park complex, in Elmont, Long Island, New York, just over the City Line from Queens. It becomes the home of the New York Islanders.

The Islanders had played at the Nassau Coliseum, in the Town of Hempstead but with a Uniondale mailing address, from their 1972 inception until 2015, by which point the Coliseum had become obsolete. They played the 2015-16, 2016-17 and 2017-18 seasons at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, groundsharing with the NBA's Brooklyn Nets.

The players, the organization and the fans all hated it: The building was designed for basketball and concerts, and, in order to fit a regulation-size NHL rink in the place, about 2,000 seats had to be removed, thus giving them an even smaller seating capacity than they had at the Coliseum. The Coliseum was renovated, and they played a few home games there in the 2018-19, 2019-20 and 2020-21 seasons, and the even smaller seating capacity didn't matter, since they weren't selling out, anyway.

But, after years of trying to get a new arena approved at the Coliseum site, a deal was finally struck to build one next-door to Belmont Park, one of America's greatest horse-racing tracks. This led to the UBS Arena being nicknamed "The Stable." Lucky for them, the Islanders have been good since moving in, so there are few jokes about them being "horseshit."

Major League Soccer's New York City FC had wanted the site, and, backed with the money of their owners -- 80 percent the royal family of Abu Dhabi, and 20 percent the New York Yankees -- they could certainly afford it. But the State of New York, owner of Belmont Park and its operator through the New York Racing Association, chose the Islanders, who are more established than NYCFC, and, unlike the royal family of Abu Dhabi, don't have the taint of anti-Semitism, which is an issue in New York City and Long Island.

Ground was broken on September 23, 2019. UBS, the United Bank of Switzerland, bought the naming rights on July 22, 2020. The arena seats 17,255 for hockey and 19,000 for concerts. It opened on November 20, 2021. The Islanders did not live up to the occasion, losing 5-2 to the Calgary Flames. Brad Richardson of the Flames scored the 1st goal, while Brock Nelson scored the 1st Islander goal. The Islanders lost their 1st 7 games in the arena, finally getting their 1st win on December 11 -- unfortunately for me, over the New Jersey Devils.

On November 28, 2021, former One Direction singer Harry Styles hosted the Arena's 1st concert. Queens-based St. John's University, which uses Madison Square Garden for home games too big for its on-campus Carnesecca Arena, were a natural to host the 1st basketball game at the Arena. On December 3, 2021, they played the University of Kansas, and lost, 95-75. The loss didn't look so bad at the end of the season: Kansas won the National Championship.

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November 20, 2021 was a Saturday. There were 11 other NHL games played that day:

* The New Jersey Devils beat the Tampa Bay Lightning, 5-3 at the Amalie Arena (now the Benchmark International Arena) in Tampa.

* The Montreal Canadiens beat the Nashville Predators, 6-3 at the Bell Centre in Montreal.

* The Boston Bruins beat the Philadelphia Flyers, 5-2 at the Wells Fargo Center (now the Xfinity Mobile Arena) in Philadelphia.

* The Florida Panthers beat the Minnesota Wild, 5-4 at the FLA Live Arena (now the Amerant Bank Arena) in the Miami suburb of Sunrise, Florida.

* The Dallas Stars beat the St. Louis Blues, 4-1 at the American Airlines Center in Dallas.

* The Pittsburgh Penguins beat the Toronto Maple Leafs, 2-0 at the Scotiabank Arena in Toronto.

* The Arizona Coyotes beat the Detroit Red Wings, 2-1 at the Gila River Arena (now the Desert Diamond Arena) in the Phoenix suburb of Glendale, Arizona. Clayton Keller scored the winning goal, 25 seconds into overtime.

* The Vegas Golden Knights beat the Columbus Blue Jackets, 3-2 at the T-Mobile Arena in the Las Vegas suburb of Paradise, Nevada.

* The Edmonton Oilers beat the Chicago Blackhawks at Rogers Place in Edmonton.

* The Carolina Hurricanes beat the Los Angeles Kings, 5-4 at the Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles.

* The Washington Capitals beat the San Jose Sharks, 4-0 at the SAP Center in San Jose.

* And the New York Rangers, the Buffalo Sabres, the Vancouver Canucks, the Winnipeg Jets, the Colorado Avalanche, the Ottawa Senators, and the Anaheim Ducks were not scheduled.

There were 9 games played in the NBA:

* The New York Knicks beat the Houston Rockets, 106-99 at Madison Square Garden.

* The Boston Celtics beat the Oklahoma City Thunder, 111-105 at the TD Garden in Boston.

* The Washington Wizards beat the Miami Heat, 103-100 at the Capital One Arena in Washington.

* The Atlanta Hawks beat the Charlotte Hornets, 115-105 at the State Farm Arena in Atlanta.

* The Indiana Pacers beat the New Orleans Saints, 111-94 at the Gainbridge Fieldhouse in Indianapolis.

* The Milwaukee Bucks beat the Orlando Magic, 117-108 at the Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee. Giannis Antetokounmpo scored 32 points and had 20 rebounds, a pretty big rebounding number for his generation.

* The Minnesota Timberwolves beat the Memphis Grizzlies, 138-95 at the Target Center in Minneapolis.

* The Utah Jazz beat the Sacramento Kings, 123-105 at the Golden 1 Center in Sacramento.

* And the Portland Trail Blazers beat the Philadelphia 76ers, 118-111 at the Moda Center in Portland. Damian Lillard led all scorers on the night with 39 points.

This was the start of the 8-day rivalry week in college football. The games played on this day included:

* Number 1 Georgia warmed up for their rivalry with Georgia Tech by beating Charleston Southern, 56-7 at Sanford Stadium in Athens, Georgia.

* Number 2 Alabama warmed up for their rivalry with Auburn by beating Number 21 Arkansas, 42-35 at Bryant-Denny Stadium in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. Alabama beat Georgia in the Southeastern Conference Championship Game, but Georgia qualified for the National Championship Playoff anyway, and won a rematch against Alabama at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis for the title.

* Number 3 Cincinnati beat Southern Methodist University (SMU), 48-14 at Nippert Stadium in Cincinnati. Cincy won the American Athletic Conference Championship, and became a rare school from outside the "Power Five" conferences to qualify for the National Championship Playoff. But in their Semifinal, which also served as the Cotton Bowl, they lost to Alabama.

* Number 4 Oregon were upset by Number 24 Utah, 38-7 at Rice-Eccles Stadium in Salt Lake City. The schools had a rematch in the Pacific-Twelve Conference Championship Game, at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas, and Utah won again, to go to the Rose Bowl. Oregon lost the Alamo Bowl to Oklahoma.

* Number 5 Ohio State warmed up for their rivalry with Michigan by beating Number 7 Michigan State, 56-7 at Ohio Stadium in Columbus.

* Number 6 Notre Dame beat Georgia Tech, 55-0 at Notre Dame Stadium in South Bend, Indiana. (In odd-numbered years, due to the weather, Notre Dame and USC play each other in South Bend in the middle of the season. In even-numbered years, they play in Los Angeles on Thanksgiving weekend.)

* Number 8 Michigan warmed up for their rivalry with Ohio State by beating Maryland 59-18 at Maryland Stadium (now SECU Stadium) in the Washington suburb of College Park, Maryland. Michigan beat Ohio State for the 1st time in 10 years, beat Iowa in the Big Ten Championship Game, and lost the Orange Bowl to Georgia as the National Championship Playoff Semifinal. For once, the Rose Bowl was a consolation prize for the Michigan-Ohio State loser, and Ohio State beat Utah.

* Number 9 Oklahoma State warmed up for their rivalry with Oklahoma by beating Texas Tech, 23-0 at Jones Stadium in Lubbock, Texas.

* Number 10 Mississippi warmed up for its rivalry with Mississippi State by beating Vanderbilt, 31-17 at Vaught-Hemingway Stadium in Oxford, Mississippi. Despite not being SEC Champions, with the top 2 teams in the SEC invited to the Playoff, "Ole Miss" were invited to the Sugar Bowl.

* Number 11 Baylor beat Kansas State, 20-10 at Bill Snyder Family Stadium in Manhattan, Kansas, Baylor beat Oklahoma State in the Big Twelve Conference Championship Game in Arlington, Texas, then beat Ole Miss in the Sugar Bowl.

* Number 13 Wake Forest were upset by Clemson, 48-27 at Memorial Stadium in Clemson, South Carolina.

* Number 18 University of Pittsburgh beat Virginia, 48-38 at Heinz Field (now Acrisure Stadium) in Pittsburgh. Pitt won the Atlantic Coast Conference title, but lost to Michigan State in the Peach Bowl.

* Rivalry: The University of California at Los Angeles, UCLA, beat the University of Southern California, USC, 62-33 at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.

* Rivalry: Harvard beat Yale, 34-31 at the Yale Bowl in New Haven, Connecticut.

* Rivalry: Princeton beat the University of Pennsylvania, 34-14 at Franklin Field in Philadelphia. Technically, Princeton had won a share of the Ivy League title, but it was with Dartmouth, who had the head-to-head tiebreaker over them.

* Not a rivalry, but a novelty: Purdue beat Northwester, 32-14 at Wrigley Field in Chicago.

* Among the service academies, Army beat the University of Massachusetts, 33-17 at Michie Stadium in West Point, New York; Navy lost to East Carolina, 38-35 at Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium in Annapolis, Maryland; and Air Force had played the night before, beating Nevada 41-39 at Mackay Stadium in Reno, Nevada.

* And New Jersey's team, Rutgers, lost to their arch-rivals, Penn State, 28-0 at Beaver Stadium in State College, Pennsylvania.

And, in English soccer, Liverpool FC beat North London team Arsenal FC, 4-0 at Anfield in Liverpool. Much to my dismay.