(photo by Blue387 via flickr)

(WNYC newsroom, New York, NY) The New York Islanders are moving to the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, sources said.

The Long Island-based team will make an announcement this afternoon with Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Islanders owner Charles Wang and Bruce Ratner, the developer of the Barclays Center.

The newly opened 18,000-seat arena already hosts the Brooklyn Nets team, currently playing pre-season games.

Last year, voters in Nassau County defeated a plan that would have allowed the county to use $400 million to redevelop the 40-year-old crumbling stadium.

Supporters of the redevelopment said the county stood to lose $243 million a year and more than 2,000 jobs if the Islanders leave and the Nassau Coliseum closes.

The team's lease at the Nassau Coliseum in Uniondale, N.Y., expires in 2015.

To read more TN reporting about parking and transit at the Barclays Center, go here.

Andrea Bernstein contributed reporting.

The Nets won their first game in the team's new $1 billion Brooklyn home against the Washington Wizards on Monday night. 

After almost a decade of fits and starts, the first part of the $4.9 billion Atlantic Yards project opens Friday. But the hoopla can’t quell the controversy surrounding the project. Neighborhood groups continue challenging Atlantic Yards, arguing that a Community Benefits Agreement signed by some, doesn’t include or apply to all.

(photo by Amy Pearl)

The finishing touches are going up on Brooklyn's Barclays Center -- the home of the future Brooklyn Nets, due to open next month. This week the name was hung on the arena.

(photo by Amy Pearl)

The subway station's name was changed to reflect the stadium three months ago.

And the bollards around Atlantic Terminal? They're being updated, too.

Want to learn more about what's happening on Atlantic Avenue? Read

Consultant Sam Schwartz presents his traffic management plan for the Barclays Center at a public hearing in downtown Brooklyn. (Jim O'Grady/WNYC)

(New York, NY - WNYC) Don't even think of driving to the Barclays Center when it opens on September 28. That was the thrust of a traffic management plan presented by consultant Sam Schwartz at a public hearing in downtown Brooklyn on Tuesday.

Atlantic Avenue gets some new signs (photo taken on 5/17/12 by Kamicia Bass/WNYC)

Opening season for the Brooklyn Nets is four months away, but signs are already going up in the Atlantic Avenue station to reflect its new name: Atlantic Avenue-Barclays Center.

The MTA has also updated the subway map on its  website to reflect the change. An MTA spokesman said the new name will appear on printed maps this summer.

Forest City Ratner, the developer of the site the stadium sits on in downtown Brooklyn, is paying the MTA $200,000 for 20 years for the naming rights to the station.

Dave D'Alessandro, sports columnist for The Star-Ledger, joins to discuss the Nets' last game in New Jersey, and help take calls from Nets fans. 

The Philadelphia 76ers spoiled the Nets' final game in New Jersey with a 105-87 victory Monday night. For New Jersey fans it was a bittersweet game. In the fall, the NJ Nets will be re-billed the Brooklyn Nets and play in the yet to be completed Barclays Center.

Russians and Russian-Americans are casting their votes at two locations in New York City in an election Sunday that pits Russia's prime minister and former president against a slate of candidates, including the owner of the New Jersey Nets (soon to be the Brooklyn Nets).

When the New Jersey Nets move to Brooklyn's Barclays Center next season, they'll have one of borough's own baritones giving the play-by-play.

The Nets may be moving to Brooklyn next fall, but they've already started the hunt for a new public-address announcer — preferably one who is from Brooklyn. Dozens of people turned out to try out for the announcer's job on Friday. The NBA team said they are looking for someone with a booming, dynamic voice.

Developer Bruce Ratner said Tuesday morning what many of his critics and even some of his associates have been saying for years: there is no way the entire Atlantic Yards project will be done in 10 years.

(Andrea Bernstein, Transportation Nation) In New York City this week, Brooklyn residents have been getting a mailer from Forest City Ratner, the developer of the new Nets stadium and mega-building complex near what's called the "crossroads of Brooklyn," Atlantic and Flatbush Avenues. The mailer tells the residents that Flatbush Avenue, a major thoroughfare that connects the Manhattan Bridge to the Atlantic Ocean, will be reduced from six lanes to five until the summer of 2012 for a block at that crucial intersection.

The stadium project was approved only after a prolonged controversy. The mailer seeks to soften the blow by positing that the road closure is to make subway improvements.

We're working getting a traffic analysis, but transpo experts, if you're out there, let us know what you think in the comments page.

Will the Nets keep their promise and put "Brooklyn" in their name when they move to their new arena?  Matthew Schuerman, WNYC Radio reporter, gives us an update.

A team spokesman confirms that the team submitted an application to change its name. But the spokesman wouldn’t specify what the desired name would be or whether it would use “Brooklyn” or “New York” as the geographic name.

Mayor Bloomberg is pushing the Knicks; Jay Z is hyping the Nets. Now it's your turn! Free agency started yesterday, and both New York teams are courting basketball superstar LeBron James to come to the NYC area. It's the biggest moment in the history of NBA free agency, and both teams think this is their ticket back to bball glory. Knicks fans, Nets fans: state your case!