ESPN's Alan Hahn says fans got it right in Islanders jersey contest, gives team credit for creating buzz
ESPN's Alan Hahn likes that the "Lighthouse" Islanders fan-designed jersey won the contest.
Islanders fans got it right with their selection of the lighthouse in the contest for the fan-designed third jersey for the 2027-28 season, according to Alan Hahn of ESPN NY Radio and MSG Networks.
Hahn, a Long Island native and former Newsday Islanders beat writer, led the charge against a reprise of the mid-’90s fisherman logo on social media and on the “Don, Hahn and Rosenberg” afternoon show on 880-AM.
The controversial fisherman logo didn’t make it to the final round of voting, It was vanquished by the lighthouse. In the final round, the results of which were announced on Thursday night, the lighthouse beat a design with the word “ISLANDERS” across the chest.
The Islanders did not release the final margin of victory. But the fans have spoken.
“The lighthouse was the right way to go because it still honors Long Island,” Hahn told Newsday on Friday in a telephone interview. “For those who love that [fisherman] jersey from the '90s -- for whatever reason – they still get the color scheme and the idea of that jersey. But at least the lighthouse represents the history, the heritage of Long Island in the right way . . . I think that's the best part is that you're getting the best of both worlds. The colors look great. It does have the throwback to the fisherman that some people wanted, and it also has the connection to Long Island that's very unique, that allows you to have the history connected to it as well. So it's a win-win all around, in my opinion. And for me personally, the fisherman thing can now die forever.”
Hahn and his co-host Don La Greca (the Devils play-by-play announcer for MSG) are unique among New York sports talk show hosts in that they are true hockey experts.
Hahn literally wrote the book on the fisherman logo debacle. He is the co-author along with another Long Islander, longtime sports writer Peter Botte, of the 2002 book "Fish Sticks," which derived its title from the negative chants about the fisherman logo because it resembled a popular frozen fish sticks brand.
Hahn said the contest – which began on July 8 and garnered more than 80,000 fan submissions – was a master stroke by the Islanders in terms of generating interest during a slow time on the sports calendar.
“I thought it was a brilliant campaign on many levels,” Hahn said. “One of them is August is usually a very slow time in sports talk radio, and so a lot of times you are trying to find topics to talk about. This was one that was brilliantly timed, because it was in an area of the schedule that you're looking for topics. It made it natural to talk about because it's fun to debate.”
Not to mention that the Islanders are not the team that is most featured on sports talk radio even during the NHL season.
“It gives a reason to take a team that might be eighth on the list of teams we talk about -- just being fair -- but they moved up to two or three just because this is a fun campaign that people cared about," Hahn said. "It was worth debating. I thought it was also very creative by them to do it because it involved the fans, and it got passion out. Look, when there's people that are mad about the final choice, that still means they care. In the end, you're getting your fans involved and active talking about it. Brilliant campaign.”
Since the voting was open to anyone, there’s no way to know how many non-Islanders fans cast a ballot. Could there have been a little gamesmanship going on from another set of New York hockey fans?
“I know there were Ranger fans that were voting for the fisherman,” Hahn said. “I know that for a fact.”
Anthony Rieber covers sports media and business and professional sports (you know, games and trades and things). He has worked at Newsday since Aug. 31, 1998, and has been in his current position since Jan. 1, 2026.
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