The New York Islanders’ long-awaited move from Long Island to Brooklyn is fully underway.

Heartfelt goodbyes to the old barn have been long formed. The banners have been lowered, packed up and shipped to their new address at Barclay’s Center. Melted Nassau ice is going at rates that would make OPEC blush.

It’s a time of transition for the Islanders, a team that has itself transitioned from also-ran to playoff team in the blink of an eye. However, New York’s biggest changes are going on behind the scenes, where the move to Barclay’s Center and since-completed sale of the team have the Islanders standing on stable financial ground like they haven’t known in years.

That stability begins with the move inland.

The relocation to Barclay’s Center is a necessary one, if a bit of a shock (its an hour-long, 28 mile trek between Nassau and Brooklyn, a move that stirred its fair share of fist-shaking in the process of being approved).

NHL teams derive their value in a number of ways, not the least of which are gate receipts. The NHL still makes its hay at the box office, and the Islanders will have ways of capitalizing on ticket sales in Brooklyn that were never open to them at the 45-year-old Coliseum.

Primarily, the increased availability of luxury and corporate suites.

From The New York Times,

The Coliseum, built in 1972 and barely renovated since, has 31 luxury suites and a relatively small number of high-priced premium seats. Knopp estimates that the suites generate about $3 million a year and the premium seats about $16 million. Barclays Center, which is far more geographically convenient to corporate customers than the Coliseum, has 104 luxury suites. Knopp estimated that those suites would generate about $21 million for the Islanders, while premium seating would generate an additional $33 million. That comes to $54 million from suites and premium seats — $35 million more per year than what the Islanders generate at the Coliseum.

The Islanders ranked among those lowest revenue-generating teams in the NHL in 2013-14 according to Forbes, the last full season for which data was available. Via Forbes, the Isles generated just $83 million in revenue in their last losing season, a mark better than only the then-Phoenix Coyotes in that same year.

An additional $35 million in operating revenue in the form of luxury and corporate suites would take them from near the bottom of the league in annual revenue to the edge of the NHL’s top-10 earners.

Certainly, ticket sales can be increased all around by putting a competitive product on the ice, something that should reflect in Forbes’ 2015 numbers whenever those become available. However, the promise of such an immediate shot of operating revenue in those luxury tickets is too great an advantage to let pass by.

Premium seating of this type is often at the heart of municipal battles between city governments and teams looking for the renovation funds (or new venues outright) that would accommodate such high-level seating. That the Islanders would generate some $30-plus million more in ticket sales per year despite moving to an arena with a lower total hockey seating capacity speaks to the value of such suites.

It’s a staggering total, one more easily made up by moving to Brooklyn than by going through the costly process of renovating a near-half-century old building.

And, in turn, that expected revenue increase is already helping to skyrocket the team’s value.

Venue is as key to pro sports franchise valuations as anything else. The Islanders’ team value increased from $195 million in the 2013 season to $300 million in 2014. While the 2012 lockout ended with all 30 NHL teams seeing increases in franchise valuation, the confirmed move to Brooklyn and eventual sale of the team helped the Islanders increase in year-over value by some 54 percent, by far the highest increase of any NHL team in that span.

The venue speaks to a great deal of that increase. As for the sale? Longtime owner Charles Wang completed a deal in October of last year that would reportedly move the team to the control of majority owners Jonathan Ledecky and Scott Malkin for a tag of $485 million — some $300 million more than what he paid for the team in 2004.

That kind of deal doesn’t get done without the security of knowing the team will be playing in a state of the art venue with what looks like a roster that can seriously compete, now and in the long term.

We’ve seen what the influx of cash has opened up to the team in terms of roster building. The Islanders acquired names like Nick Leddy and Johnny Boychuk by giving up some of their enviable organizational assets. However, they were able to re-sign both to substantial, long-term deals midway through the season, moves that might not happen without the new money coming in.

Those kinds of extensions don’t get done if the team is still posting near-league-worst attendance in an old building.

For the Islanders, all arrows are pointing up. That should soon translate into serious on-ice success, even following a disappointing first-round playoff exit this season.

That said, the stability to make annual bids for a title begins with sound finances in the upper floors of the building. New York, even if off the island for good, seems to finally have that financial stability.