Islanders Home Opener at UBS Arena (Oct 3): The Long Island Guide to Getting There

The Islanders home opener is Saturday, October 3, 2026 against the New Jersey Devils, puck drop 7:30 PM at UBS Arena in Elmont. If you are looking at car service to UBS Arena from Long Island for that night, there is something you should know before you book anything, and it is not about the hockey. October 3 is also one of the biggest racing Saturdays of the year at Belmont Park, which sits on the same campus, on the same road, off the same parkway exits.

I have been driving Nassau and Suffolk since 2005. UBS Arena is the closest major venue to almost every town we serve, and it is still the one where people most often get the details wrong.

The Game

New Jersey Devils at New York Islanders. UBS Arena, 2400 Hempstead Turnpike, Elmont, NY 11003. Puck drop 7:30 PM.

The Islanders open on the road Wednesday, September 30 in Toronto, so October 3 is the building's first look at this team. Every fan in attendance gets a Home Opener T-Shirt, presented by UBS, which tells you what kind of crowd shows up early.

There is a real story here too. Matthew Schaefer, the first overall pick in the 2025 draft, won the Calder Trophy last season with 23 goals and 36 assists for 59 points in 82 games at plus-13. He was unanimous, all 198 first-place votes, the first since Teemu Selanne in 1992-93, and at 18 years and 223 days the youngest in league history. The team around him finished 43-33-5 and missed the playoffs for a second straight year. Opening night against a division rival, with a fan base that has been waiting, is not a quiet Saturday.

October 3 Is Two Events on One Campus

Belmont Park is at 2150 Hempstead Turnpike. UBS Arena is at 2400 Hempstead Turnpike. Same campus, same stretch of road, and on October 3 Belmont runs afternoon racing that NYRA itself calls one of two blockbuster Saturdays of the fall: the Grade 1 Champagne and Frizette at $500,000 each, the Grade 2 Miss Grillo and Pilgrim, and the Grade 3 Futurity and Matron. Four are Breeders' Cup Win and You're In races.

This is also the first fall meet at the rebuilt Belmont Park, which opened for racing on September 18, 2026 and runs Thursday through Sunday until December 6. NYRA describes the new building as roughly 300,000 square feet over five stories. We wrote about the rebuild earlier this year when the 2026 Belmont Stakes ran at Saratoga. The track is open now, and it is running stakes.

Racing is an afternoon sport. Hockey drops the puck at 7:30. So the late afternoon on October 3 has a racing crowd leaving the campus while a hockey crowd arrives at it, both using the same Cross Island Parkway exits and the same piece of Hempstead Turnpike.

The two venues do not even share a drop-off point. Belmont Park's rideshare drop-off is listed at Green Road in Floral Park. The arena's is on the north side of the building. Anyone doing the races in the afternoon and the game at night is dealing with two pre-paid parking systems and two curbs a good distance apart, on foot, in October.

The Parking Rule That Catches People Every Time

UBS Arena is not a pull-up-and-park building. Parking is bought through Ticketmaster, the arena says buying ahead is strongly encouraged, and the venue is fully cashless. But the rule that actually ruins evenings is this one: every lot is tied to one specific Cross Island Parkway exit.

Emerald Parking: car access via Cross Island Parkway Exit 26D only
Belmont Park Garage: Exit 26A only
Diamond, Ruby and Silver: Exit 26B, Hempstead Turnpike East, only

Take the wrong exit and you do not fix it with a right turn. You are going around, in traffic, with a 7:30 puck drop.

Exit 26B Is Not a Public Entrance

Word for word from the arena: "Access to UBS Arena via Cross Island Parkway Exit 26B (Hempstead Turnpike East) is only available for pre-paid Diamond, Ruby, & Silver Parking pass holders."

That is the most useful fact about this building and hardly anyone knows it. If you did not buy one of those three passes, that exit is not yours, no matter what your phone says.

The Lots Run on a Clock

Parking opens two hours before doors open and closes 90 minutes after the event ends. That matters if you planned to eat somewhere first, and it is a reason not to leave a car sitting in Elmont at all.

The Drop-Off Side of the Building

Car and rideshare drop-off and pickup at UBS Arena is via Cross Island Parkway Exit 26D only, on the north side of the arena.

That is the entire argument for a chauffeur here, and it has nothing to do with the seats being nicer. One curb, on one side of a full building, off one parkway exit. Going in, that is easy. At 10:15 PM, when a full arena reaches for the same app in the same minute and the matching has to happen in that one funnel, it is a different night. Not a pricing complaint. A queue.

What we do instead is stage. The driver is near the pickup point before the third period ends, you text when you are walking, and the car moves.

One operational note: limousines, buses and taxis are not permitted to occupy lined parking spaces at UBS Arena. A group vehicle drops, stages off-site, and comes back. Tailgating is prohibited too, in case anyone was picturing the MetLife version of a Saturday.

The LIRR, Honestly

Elmont-UBS Arena is a real station and for some trips it is a good call. Per the MTA's own arena guide, the Hempstead, Huntington and Ronkonkoma branches serve it, the station sits about half a mile from the venue, and free shuttles cover the last leg on a roughly five-minute trip from the Shuttle and Bus Loop on the arena's northwest corner.

Here is the honest limit. It is a train, plus a shuttle, plus the walk on either end, and most Suffolk riders need a connection to get there at all. Then everyone reaches for it at once after the final horn. Check MTA TrainTime for your branch before you commit. The longer version of that tradeoff is in our piece on car service versus the LIRR.

Coming from Nassau and from Suffolk

UBS Arena sits right on the Queens and Nassau line, which is why it feels close to everybody in Nassau County and still manages to be awkward. From central and western Nassau you come in on the Southern State, on Hempstead Turnpike itself, or down the Cross Island from the north. From western Suffolk, Melville, Huntington, Commack, Dix Hills, it is the Northern State or the LIE to the Cross Island.

I do not publish drive times for this run, because the number that matters is not the distance. It is which exit matches the pass you bought, and what the campus looks like at 6 PM on a stakes Saturday. That does not show up on a map app. We cover the run from anywhere in Nassau and Suffolk.

Groups, Clients, and the Rest of October

A home opener with a giveaway shirt for every fan is a family and friend-group night. Eight people from Syosset or Massapequa in three cars means three pre-paid lots off three different exits. One Sprinter van means one pickup point and everyone leaves together.

If you are hosting clients, opening night at the closest premium venue to the Melville, Garden City and Woodbury corridor is easy inventory to offer. Corporate accounts get one vehicle, door to door, and one bill. Because a hockey game does not end on a fixed schedule, hourly service is the honest structure. The driver waits through the third period whether or not it goes to overtime.

It happens again quickly, too. The Islanders are home against Chicago on Thursday, October 8, and the homestand runs on from there. We have worked this building since it opened, for concerts and for hockey.

Book Your Ride for October 3

Lot-specific parkway exits you cannot change your mind about, one entrance closed to anyone without a pre-paid pass, a single drop-off curb off a single exit, lots that close 90 minutes after the horn, and a stakes card emptying the same campus while you are trying to get in. None of that needs to be your Saturday.

Request a quote here and tell us your pickup town, how many are coming, and whether you are doing the races first. We will plan the arrival around what the campus is actually doing that day, and there will be a car on the north side when the game ends.