You know, this hasn't been said nearly enough, and forgetting all the cap ceiling nonsense that plagued him before, thank you Charles Wang for keeping the Islanders on Long Island.
The position he was put in by politicians, not allowing him to build an arena with his own money or taxpayer money, all while the on-ice product hemorrhages money, is an unbelievable difficult one, and from his business partner going to prison to the US economy collapsing on itself, he could have easily sold the team to interests who would relocate them to Canada or elsewhere.
Once hockey starts up again and Wang starts pennypinching we can hate him again... but this guy deserves some love for staying the course and dealing with a lot more obstacles than most sports owners face.
YESSSSSSS. I just heard. I
m so happy I can't believe it. I can finally take public transportation to the game. 25 year lease is the rumor Im hearing. The best part is how GREAT this is for the Islanders fan base and product.
The Brooklyn Nets are now the trendy team to like in the NY area. Now that the Islanders share an arena with them more fans might start going to our games. New arena people will want to check out too.
Credit where credit is due, so a great job by Wang! After this there is no reason to be pennypinching anymore and hopefully Wang will start spending properly so we can have a real team once again!
Credit where credit is due, so a great job by Wang! After this there is no reason to be pennypinching anymore and hopefully Wang will start spending properly so we can have a real team once again!
Exactly! Give Wang credit. It was the lame LI politicians who caused NYI to leave the burbs not Wang. He tried. I'm gonna get a T-shirt with Wang's picture on it. He had other offers to sell NYI out of state and said no. Wang for Vice President! Obama/Wang baby! Love ya Joe but Wanger/Ratner are heroes.
But don't expect to see money spent until NYI moves just like the Nets.
Exactly! Give Wang credit. It was the lame LI politicians who caused NYI to leave the burbs not Wang. He tried. I'm gonna get a T-shirt with Wang's picture on it. He had other offers to sell NYI out of state and said no. Wang for Vice President! Obama/Wang baby! Love ya Joe but Wanger/Ratner are heroes.
But don't expect to see money spent until NYI moves just like the Nets.
Obama / Wang - only if Wang goes to the same dentist
It was said during the press conference, but it does ring true...no one dumps millions upon millions to keep the team here this long...through everything they've been thru. For that...we all owe him gratitude for his dedication to making this work in NY. We may have our difference of opinions on alot of his decisions...but without him, the Isles would've been gone years ago. So it's probably a blessing that he came along. And years from now, we'll look back and realize just how much was truly at stake and probably <gulp> see Wang as a bit of savior of sorts.
Not one of them has been his desire to keep the team in the area. I will never knock him for that, the man tried for years with multiple attempts to keep the team here. This is not the most ideal situation for me but I'm sure as time passes I will grow to love the new home and will become accustomed to it. Its a bittersweet day for me but it is way way way way better than them moving outta state/country..
It was said during the press conference, but it does ring true...no one dumps millions upon millions to keep the team here this long...through everything they've been thru. For that...we all owe him gratitude for his dedication to making this work in NY. We may have our difference of opinions on alot of his decisions...but without him, the Isles would've been gone years ago. So it's probably a blessing that he came along. And years from now, we'll look back and realize just how much was truly at stake and probably <gulp> see Wang as a bit of savior of sorts.
I agree with this. I've always stayed somewhat neutral regarding Wang, but he kept our beloved team on LI and now Brooklyn. For that he will always have my eternal gratitude. If the Isles did really move, I could not be able to adopt a new favorite team and I'd be so jilted that I would not follow wherever they moved to. I'd probably lose interest in hockey altogether and just focus on something else. He didn't have to do what he did, but he did. I don't care whether it was for the land grab, he kept them on LI and never, ever wavered from it. Thank you Charles Wang.
With all that said, I'm going to hold him and the organization to a different standard as he no longer has an excuse to run the team as he has. I fully expect him to open up the wallet and run the team first class just like the new digs will be. No more of this evil genius salary cap circumvention. I don't expect nor want a Pegula spending spree, but he better stop being Mr. Scrooge.
This is mindnumbingly brilliant. Oh well, watch him make money with 15,000 seats and no advertising. You just lost about all of Suffolk, numbnuts.
-Many people who work in the city (and live in Suffolk) can go to games.
-Brooklyn has about 2.5 times the population of Suffolk. AND a decent portion of Suffolk's pop. is far away from the NVMC at the moment.
-Advertising/revenue is going to be better in Brooklyn than in Nassau. As a business where would you rather advertise? Nassau County (where most people outside of the NYC area couldn't even point out on a map), or Brooklyn, one of the most well known places in the world?
-Brooklyn INSTANTLY improves the financial situation of this team. Sure NVMC could hold barely over 16,000 (and let's be honest-Long Island couldn't even sell that out.....or bother to vote for it). But 14.5-15K (including luxury seats), is going to make more in Brooklyn-due to the ticket prices.
There's a sense of sour grapes on here-and I get it I really do. Many will have to limit the amount of Islander games they get to go to. Boo-hoo I've been 1 home Islander game in 10 years, and get to see 2 games a year in person...cry me a river. There's one thing many Isles fans have gotten good at: whining and complaining.
Be grateful we have a team to cheer for. Be grateful that it's accessible by mass-transit, be grateful that it's the best option for the health of the franchise, and be grateful that in 2015 you wont have to speak French in order to understand the announcing team on Center Ice.
If it's true Wang turned down lucrative offers to move the team out of the NY area, and refused, hats off to him. We'll probably never know just how close we really were to losing the NY Islanders as they exist now.
I think what Wang deserves the most credit for is for funding the team's losses until this point and getting us through the darkest part of tunnel that was the SMG lease.
When you look at the financial pictures of the Whalers, Jets, North Stars and Nordiques in the 90s and compare them to the Islanders situation; and you look at the limited number of people interested in the team from 1996-2002 (Con artists, short-term land-grabbers. The best viable candidate to buy our team in this period got his other franchise entangled in a ponzi scheme), we were locked in to losing money and probably sucking until 2015. At best, short windows of "young prospects peaking and being let go" for a couple playoff runs. At worst, bankruptcy to get out of the lease and relocated.
Even those who know "he was only in it for the land!" have to admit there's not a lot of people able and willing to place a $300 million to $650 million bet on Nassau County politics to bide the time until the end of the lease was in sight.
Short of a someone with straight up retarded wealth (like Sheik Mansour buying Manchester City) and being willing to lose even MORE money to build the team what it needed himself, Wang (like Barclays) is the best of a bad situation. And given the possibility of losing the team, I'm greatful to him for getting us to today.
I think what Wang deserves the most credit for is for funding the team's losses until this point and getting us through the darkest part of tunnel that was the SMG lease.
When you look at the financial pictures of the Whalers, Jets, North Stars and Nordiques in the 90s and compare them to the Islanders situation; and you look at the limited number of people interested in the team from 1996-2002 (Con artists, short-term land-grabbers. The best viable candidate to buy our team in this period got his other franchise entangled in a ponzi scheme), we were locked in to losing money and probably sucking until 2015. At best, short windows of "young prospects peaking and being let go" for a couple playoff runs. At worst, bankruptcy to get out of the lease and relocated.
Even those who know "he was only in it for the land!" have to admit there's not a lot of people able and willing to place a $300 million to $650 million bet on Nassau County politics to bide the time until the end of the lease was in sight.
Short of a someone with straight up retarded wealth (like Sheik Mansour buying Manchester City) and being willing to lose even MORE money to build the team what it needed himself, Wang (like Barclays) is the best of a bad situation. And given the possibility of losing the team, I'm greatful to him for getting us to today.
Wait, you're an Isles fan KevFu? Haha, WTF?
Good post and I'm in agreement. The guy deserves big time props today because the Isles may not have been around for today's news. Now we see what kind of owner he really is now that has been settled. I'm cautiously optimistic on that front.
Thank you Charles Wang for......................um....................... ...hold on something will come.............................................. ................................
Thank you for holding me and my team hostage while you engineered, what i am sure for you, is one big money grab.
Thank you for not willing to work with Nassu County and the TOH to make your LHP become a reality. As much as you say they did not want to work with you, truth was they said you could have what you wanted but just a bit smaller and you didn't like that, threw a tantrum, took your ball and went home to sulk.
Thank you for turning this once proud franchise into a laughing stock that will continue once people understand that their new home wasn't built for your sport. BTW, page one of "Hockey for Dummies".
And finally thank you for ailenating a good portion of your fan base and basically kicking them to the curb.
I think what Wang deserves the most credit for is for funding the team's losses until this point and getting us through the darkest part of tunnel that was the SMG lease.
When you look at the financial pictures of the Whalers, Jets, North Stars and Nordiques in the 90s and compare them to the Islanders situation; and you look at the limited number of people interested in the team from 1996-2002 (Con artists, short-term land-grabbers. The best viable candidate to buy our team in this period got his other franchise entangled in a ponzi scheme), we were locked in to losing money and probably sucking until 2015. At best, short windows of "young prospects peaking and being let go" for a couple playoff runs. At worst, bankruptcy to get out of the lease and relocated.
Even those who know "he was only in it for the land!" have to admit there's not a lot of people able and willing to place a $300 million to $650 million bet on Nassau County politics to bide the time until the end of the lease was in sight.
Short of a someone with straight up retarded wealth (like Sheik Mansour buying Manchester City) and being willing to lose even MORE money to build the team what it needed himself, Wang (like Barclays) is the best of a bad situation. And given the possibility of losing the team, I'm greatful to him for getting us to today.
I've gone through enough dark days with this franchise, and feel I know it pretty damn well, to the point where my wife already knows I'm going to cry like a baby for days on end when they finally win, but this one is new to me--care to elaborate?
I've gone through enough dark days with this franchise, and feel I know it pretty damn well, to the point where my wife already knows I'm going to cry like a baby for days on end when they finally win, but this one is new to me--care to elaborate?
Good post and I'm in agreement. The guy deserves big time props today because the Isles may not have been around for today's news. Now we see what kind of owner he really is now that has been settled. I'm cautiously optimistic on that front.
Who has more reason to be on the Business of Hockey boards 24/7 than an Islanders fan? 17 years of "we need a new arena" gives you ample time to read up!
This is really weird. I don't know what to do now. I feel like Inigo Montoya at the end of Princess Bride. "Is very strange. I have been following the quest for a new arena for so long, now that it's over, I don't know what to do with the rest of my life."
I thank him for keeping the Isles in the area all these years, when most business men would have sold to outside interests long ago. That is all.
I'm willing to give him the benefit of the doubt & assume he's going to get the club back up to NHL specs. Not only on the ice but off the ice as well. We need a team President, Director of Hockey Ops, we need a larger scouting staff and everything else we've been missing the last several years. It's time to rejoin the NHL.
