NEW YORK The eyes of the sports world were on the Barclays Center as it hosted All-Star Saturday Night during .For its next act, the 2-year-old arena will take on a much tougherchallenge: helping the NHLs Islanders challenge the Rangers for the wallets of Michael Pierce Jersey Big Apple hockey fans.Next seasonthe resurgent Islanders will move intothe state-of-the-art facilityfrom Long Islands dilapidated Na sau Veterans Memorial Coliseum. The NBA'sNets moved to Brooklyn from New Jersey in 2012 to challenge the Knicks in their own back yard.MORE: || Like the Nets, the Islanders will have to build a new fan base under the shadow of a long-established competitor. They hope to create a new Battle of the Boroughs competition with theRangers, who reached the Stanley Cup Final last spring, only to lose tothe LA Kings. Throwin New Jersey's Devils, who play acro s the Hudson River from Manhattan in Newark's Prudential Center, and three NHL teams will be fighting it out next fall for the same hockey dollars.Brooklyn is the most populous borough in the country's largest city.On its own, Brooklyns population of 2.6 million would make it the fourth-largest city in the U.S.,behind New York, Los Angeles and Chicagoand ahead of Houston and Philadelphia. But this is not the Brooklyn of Ralph Kramden and "The Honeymooners."The formerly blue-collar boroughhas been overrun by hipsters wearing blackand yuppies pushing baby strollers. The Barclays Center's surrounding neighborhoods of Prospect Heights,Park Slope,Boerum Hill,Fort Greene andWilliamsburg now boast some of the most expensivereal estatein New York City. Timemagazinerecently declared Brooklyn the housing market in the U.S.That's good news and bad news. Sure, these latte-drinkingnewcomers have plenty of money. Sure, theylove the brownstones and microbreweries. But will they come outfor the rugged sport of ice hockey?Thats the million-dollar question.There arelocalsentiments to consider, too. HatinganIslanders franchise that won four consecutive Stanley Cups from 1980 to 1983is a point of pridefor gritty Rangers fans in New York'sfive boroughs:Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, the Bronx and Staten Island.Witne s the chants by Broadway Blueshirt fans during home games. They're aimed at who retired in 1988.No matter how you slice it, Madison Square Garden is still the Worlds Most Famous Arena. MSG recently completed a three-year, $1 billiontransformation that replaced everything except the famous spoked ceiling. So the Barclays folks cant playthe new vs. old arena card as much as it would like. But they can Kris Boyd Jersey play up the rave reviews the buildinghas earned in hosting NBA andcollege basketball games and concerts. The arena's capacity for hockey will be 15,795.MORE: | So how do the Islanders plan to make it in The City ThatNever Sleeps? I asked Brett Yormark, CEO of Barclays Center and the Nets, wholl be overseeing the busine s side of the Islanders. The team hasalready played exhibitions at Barclays.Yormark ticked off his game planas the team begins selling general season tickets for next season:1. Zach Davidson Jersey Play up the current succe s of the Islanders. The good news for the team and the arena managers? Thewind is at their backs. The Isles are Stanley Cup contenders again after beingbottom-dwellers for a decadebecause of poor play and inept management.After , the Islanders were tied with the Predators for the most wins (39) in the NHL this season. They lead the Eastern Conference'sMetropolitan Division, ahead of, among others, the Rangers,Devils and Flyers.Winning is the best sales story.If they keep it up, the Islanders'newfound succe s should attract new fans in a borough thats been itchingfor pro sports since the Dodgers left forLos Angeles after the 1957 season, andlure current Islanders fans over the Na sau County line.You have to get lucky with the timing once in a while, Yormark said. The team is playing extremely well. So I think the team itself is going to (attract) some of the current fan base to come to Brooklyn."2. Start with theworst-case-scenarioapproach. Barclays Center and Na sau Andrew Booth Jr. Jersey Coliseum are just 28 miles apart, butthats some of the most congested, pothole-filled driving in the world, so the Islanders are a sumingup front they wont be able to draw a bigportion of their current fan base. In effect, they will try to build a new fan base in an established hockey market.To do that, Yormark will target hockey fans in Manhattan, Brooklyn and Queens. Last fall, the Islanders sent out 20,000 season-ticket mailers;75 percentof them went to Brooklyn.Theyve also launched a new ad campaign in the borough with theme of Brooklyn Scores. The me sage: Brooklyns about to winagainby adding a second pro sports team.The franchise's footprint is shifting west. On Long Island, thead campaign has a different theme: "Tradition Has a New Home."This will be the second time theIslanders haveshared an arena with the Nets. They were co-tenants at the Coliseum in the '70s.Yes, the Islanders current market in Long Island containsroughly 3 million people,mostly with high disposable income. But the Islanders can now target the 2.6 million residents of Brooklyn, plus another 2.1 million in Queens.Obviously, for us, we have to create a new fan base, Yormark said.Weve got to get Brooklynites to want to experience hockey. Weve also got to get some of the transplanted Islanders fans that are located in Manhattan to go to Brooklyn. And weve got to target some of the surrounding areas. Queens has 2.1 million people. We need them to embrace hockey.3. Create hockeys own 'Subway Series'. Yormark said the Islanderswont try to convert Rangers fans. Maybe. Maybe not. Every franchise says things like that, until it launchesad campaigns trying to convert the other teams fans.A few years back,Netsowner Mikhail Prokhorov threw down the gauntlet to the Knicks by erecting a billboard showing himself and part- John Randle Jersey owner Jay Z directly acro s from MSG with the saying, Blueprint for Greatne s. The Knicks responded with an in-your-face TV commercial declaring: "Hey,Nets, you can walk like us, you can talk like us, but you ain't never gonna be like us.If the Islanders can't convert die-hard Rangers fans, theycan try to create hockeys version of the Yankees-Mets rivalry in baseball.The Rangers have a fierce history with the Devils, but it's not quite the same as thelong-running "Battle ofNew York" between the Rangers and Islanders. Now, ittruly is about to become an intracity competition. Yormark is hopeful the new dynamicwill "create some huge rivalry moments" with the Rangers."Im glad the Rangers have been succe sful. It keeps hockey to