Nassau County Executive Edward Mangano has offered Islanders owner Charles Wang an exclusive period to come up with a privately financed plan to redevelop the 77-acre Nassau Hub before the county seeks other options for the site.
"I look forward to receiving a privately financed plan for a new Coliseum from the New York Islanders," Mangano said.
In the absence of such a plan, "we will have no choice but to go in a different direction," said Deputy County Executive Rob Walker.
Wang has said the Islanders won't play at the Coliseum past 2015, when the team's lease with Nassau expires.
Picker said the team is exploring several options for relocating the team but declined to be specific. Officials in Suffolk, Queens and Brooklyn, where the Islanders will play a preseason game in October, have expressed interest. "We are exploring many options and looking at many different arenas," Picker told Newsday.
The SF 49ers have been struggling for several years to get a new stadium in the Bay Area. Early in the season, it was turned down and met numerous opposition. During the season, it changed a bit and just required more funding. Boom...49ers win, the mood of the fans/community changes, the NFL steps up to pay into getting the stadium built.
Gee, Wanger..., if you win, people actually want to HELP you. If you suck and become irrelevant (such as the 49ers were becoming), you don't have many friends. Bad business decisions by non-hockey people or bad hockey people (Wang/Milbury) didn't help the cause.
The 49ers surprising success this year has no impact on the 49ers stadium plans.
The new stadium and some public funding was approved by Santa Clara voters in June 2010. The private financing plans (naming rights, PSLs, etc) were in place before the season. The NFL funds were pretty much committed at the time the NFL CBA was signed in the summer.
About all the 49ers season did was maybe allow them to jack up the PSL prices - which were announced in January.
That obviously isn't going to happen. if all Wang wanted was a stand alone coliseum then it would have been built a decade ago.
More bs.. This is just the county admitting they can't think of anything so here Wang if you want to do this go ahead otherwise oh well too bad we "tried"
More bs.. This is just the county admitting they can't think of anything so here Wang if you want to do this go ahead otherwise oh well too bad we "tried"
bingo
as poorly as wang has run this franchise, the idiots here in nassau have done 20X worse with what should be a prosperous county. unbelievable. the ultimate "pot calling the kettle black" scenario...
i don't disagree that wang should've done a better job and meddled less in hockey affairs, but for the first half of his ownership tenure, he paid heavily.
why would Wang even bother spending XYz amount of dollars on a new blueprint if its projected not to be a worthwhile investment to develop on the smaller scale the town laid out .
Nassau County Executive Edward Mangano has offered Islanders owner Charles Wang an exclusive period to come up with a privately financed plan to redevelop the 77-acre Nassau Hub before the county seeks other options for the site.
"I look forward to receiving a privately financed plan for a new Coliseum from the New York Islanders," Mangano said.
In the absence of such a plan, "we will have no choice but to go in a different direction," said Deputy County Executive Rob Walker.
Wang has said the Islanders won't play at the Coliseum past 2015, when the team's lease with Nassau expires.
Picker said the team is exploring several options for relocating the team but declined to be specific. Officials in Suffolk, Queens and Brooklyn, where the Islanders will play a preseason game in October, have expressed interest. "We are exploring many options and looking at many different arenas," Picker told Newsday.
I would not be surprised if Wang came back with a scaled down Lighthouse proposal,which the ToH board still considers too big.
I would not be surprised if Wang came back with a scaled down Lighthouse proposal,which the ToH board still considers too big.
Don't forget Wang pissed away 20+ million dollars on the LH which included a requested redesign. He was basically told the project was a go until the TOH stepped in.
So basically Mangano is asking Wang to once again open up his wallet for more proposals with no guarantees?
Maybe Wang does it but if it were me I would have to recognize the insanity here.
Its almost like Wang is the whale at the counties poker game.
Don't forget Wang pissed away 20+ million dollars on the LH which included a requested redesign. He was basically told the project was a go until the TOH stepped in.
So basically Mangano is asking Wang to once again open up his wallet for more proposals with no guarantees?
Maybe Wang does it but if it were me I would have to recognize the insanity here.
Its almost like Wang is the whale at the counties poker game.
well, what they should do is all work together -county/town/wang and hammer it out in a boardroom instead of wasting more resources.
well, what they should do is all work together -county/town/wang and hammer it out in a boardroom instead of wasting more resources.
And this is the scenario that will most likely play out. Whether or not they agree on a deal is another story. But my bet is that history will rear it's ugly head again. Nassau is too broke and too stupid to compromise. The Isles will most likely be in Brooklyn...very, very soon.
What do you think are the chances that TOH will increase the zoning to keep a privately funded Coliseum profitable? I think that chance is slim.
Probably less than slim to almost none IMO. While yes, this has the earmarks of a throwdown, I'll wager that all the County and TOH is going to afford/want is a new barn in the parking lot, and the old one razed for a new parking lot. Just enough to keep revenues north of the border.
If it is indeed true that this is the last shot for Wang and the Coliseum property, I'd get Mangano and Murray on a conference call and tell them politely to take their ultimatum and stick it straight where the sun don't shine.
If he really is the businessman we all know him to be, he has to know that if he's privately funding the new arena, there are a LOT more profitable places to be than Uniondale to set down stakes.
well, what they should do is all work together -county/town/wang and hammer it out in a boardroom instead of wasting more resources.
Unfortunately it cannot work like that in Nassau. sure Wang and Mangano and Murray can all sit down and propose a deal but then Murray will hear from the NIMBY's and Mangano will hear from ALBI and then the deal that Wang thinks he has will be changed (at Wangs expense) and then surprise surprise the details of the financing will come out and that will bring up a whole different set of oppositions and on and on it goes a big circle where only the politicians get paid.
Again, nothing to see here. Nassau has all the leverage at the moment. They can afford to sit back and put the onus on Wang. They can afford to have meetings that resolve nothing, that plan to plan, that agree that something should be done -- by someone else. All in the hopes that that someone else -- Wang -- will be desperate enough to agree to something that favors the County.
So either Wang blinks...Doubtful.
Or Wang, one way or another, tells them to take their empty threats and F off, and puts the onus on the County to resolve its own problem. Wang's leverage builds, and Nassau's dwindles, 6, 9, 12 months from now. You can bet these meetings between County swindlers become a lot more fruitful then.
It's for development of the entire HUB not just a Coliseum.
That being said, isn't Wang just going to look at them and say isnt this what I did already with the LH????
Exactly! Which is why he will probably ignore this deadline, and continue to talk to Brooklyn, Queens, Suffolk, and who knows where else he is talking to. He's being given this public deadline so when he either doesn't do anything towards it, or he does get some plans out for the deadline and they are denied, when the Islanders leave Nassau in 2015 the politicans can say it's all Wangs fault and not there's.
I'd assume Brooklyn has the edge if they sell out the preseason game we are playing there and shows it can handle having a hockey team. I wish Wang would announce a deal to build an arena in Queens though and hold out hope.
Most of the quotes by Vince Polimeni are really just ridiculous. The fact he believes another team would come to nassau county after the islanders leave because of the **** they pulled these past year with wang just proves that the system is full of idiots and greedy businessmen.
Also idk if anyone has an answer to this question but if Nassau County has the highest taxes in the US and is currently broke, How the **** do these people still have their jobs?
Most of the quotes by Vince Polimeni are really just ridiculous. The fact he believes another team would come to nassau county after the islanders leave because of the **** they pulled these past year with wang just proves that the system is full of idiots and greedy businessmen.
Also idk if anyone has an answer to this question but if Nassau County has the highest taxes in the US and is currently broke, How the **** do these people still have their jobs?
I know this is not the only answer but NIMBY has a lot to do with it. Nassau is geographically challenged but words like high density, mass transit and manufacturing are, in many voters opinions, a direct attack on 3 bedrooms 2.5 baths sitting on one quarter acre with 2 SUV's in the driveway. Of course they want all of this along with zero taxes and a bagel store for every man woman and child in the county.
So let me get this straight now Nassau is flipping the script and trying to make Wang look like the bad guy?
The guy has offered to read into his own pocket time and time again and the town shot him down. Then Wang asked for support of Nassua residents and they all said no.
Now Nassau is going to tell Wang you havea deadline and by the way if you don't do it someone else will. That is like Wang using KC as a threat to Nassau as a potential new location for his franchise.
Both shallow and pedantic. The Islanders are a fixture of Nassau and Nassau can ill afford to lose the Islanders simple as that. If Nassau has/had plans to enrich the area then work hand in hand with Wang who has the capital to make something happen instead of being a tug-of-war pissing matching.
You can fault Wang for many things, but being uncooperative is not one of them. He's been too patient and cooperative (with the County/TOH) for my tastes.
I'd assume Brooklyn has the edge if they sell out the preseason game we are playing there and shows it can handle having a hockey team. I wish Wang would announce a deal to build an arena in Queens though and hold out hope.
Brooklyn will sell out due to the spectacle of the first game in a new arena, added Devils and even ranger fans attending, the fact that it is a one shot deal(for now at least) and that reality that they will most likely make the 4K-5K season ticket holders buy seats for the game. I don't think the full arena will be what sells it. Brooklyn's biggest selling point right now may be the bird in the hand aspect since they are arena ready.
Quote:
Originally Posted by PJGooch
Again, nothing to see here. Nassau has all the leverage at the moment. They can afford to sit back and put the onus on Wang. They can afford to have meetings that resolve nothing, that plan to plan, that agree that something should be done -- by someone else. All in the hopes that that someone else -- Wang -- will be desperate enough to agree to something that favors the County.
I think the time of Nassau's leverage has just about gone out the door. Time is ticking and as soon as there is another viable option firmly in Wang's hand there is no leverage. Brooklyn has eroded the leverage somewhat already and don't look now but Seattle and Quebec are heating up. It is always easiest to stay pat, so if there was a viable plan for an arena at the HUB, I am sure they would stay but there is obviously not. I will continue to keep my fingers crossed for a miracle (waiting for Powerball to hit $1b so i can win and finance the arena mostly on my own after 65% tax and discount).
You can fault Wang for many things, but being uncooperative is not one of them. He's been too patient and cooperative (with the County/TOH) for my tastes.
I usually do not defend Wang but there is no denying the fact that he spent a boatload of cash on the LH with every indication given that the project was a go, only to be blindsided by the TOH (and probably others behind the scene)
I think what we have to wrap our heads around is that Mangano is currently telling Wang to start from zero. Even if Wang comes up with a new plan all of the same political pitfalls still await.
No way a new plan gets its way through Nassau's maze before 2015.
Wang could once again wage this war up until the lease expires and still come away with nothing while spending another fortune.
What do they call it when you keep repeating the same actions and expect different results?
