Ratner, Yormark Meet NHL Officials

NI, I meant to be illustrative, not argumentative. You clearly don’t read the Isles blogs and current expectations, as your points here and some recent posts on this reflect old news. As there are apparently few Isles/Nets fans, and ones active enough on this site, there have been a dearth of comments by actual Islander fans here regarding the Isles situation and expectations about the future. Most comments here assume Isles fans are desperate and hope for a move to Barclays, but that’s just not the case. Some have expressed interest but it’s a very small minority, and we all think it’ll never happen anyway.

1. No, the voters did not reject building a Coliseum—they rejected Mangano’s plan with full public financing (which was a solid but poorly-structured anyway). I’m fully aware about the Suozzi and the Lighthouse and Mangano and the public plan, as I’ve campaigned actively for both. Nassau still seems to think something can get done, and although Wang may have reached the end of his rope w/r/t Nassau/TOH politicking, it’s obvious and documented that he’d much rather build on the Hub if it’s economically feasible. Now, TOH’s recent “flexible” rezoning may kill any economic feasibility, sure, but that could be changed. Nassau has to decide what they want to do about the Hub land—sell or lease—and get active with more private financing in some way. Despite the politics, the will to get something done remains with Nassau, the Isles, and bloggers that have experience w/ Wang’s thinking. Still a very high possibility.

2. Two points on Queens. One, there was tentative talks between Wang and Jeff Wilpon about building some structure for the Isles in the Citi Field parking lot, and adding a parking garage—under the right circumstances, that could be an option. But as for Willets Point—NYC EDC is already moving to ED the Iron Triangle, that’s expected and nothing new (as for litigation—that’s expected, but Willets would fit squarely within the bounds of Kelo, as did the Atlantic Yards, and any challenges are also expected to fail). The current plans can be modified to include an arena. Wang has already spoken to NYC and Queens, and if the talks are only used as a negotiating ploy against Nassau, fine.

3. Suffolk Exec Steve Levy has repeatedly said that he wants to the Islanders to move to Suffolk, and Suffolk still has plenty of undeveloped tracts that could work (albeit with the same lacking public transportation situation as the NVMC). Financing isn’t the issue—the zoning would not be as screwed or fraught as TOH/Nassau, the land could be sold outright to developers, and a mixed-use complex that includes an arena could be privately financed (akin to the Lighthouse). Might only be a negotiating ploy against Nassau again, but that’s fine.

As of right now, the situation may look dire, but there is plenty of time and Wang has a lot of negotiating leverage w/ Nassau, Suffolk, and Queens. Most folks that follow the team and understand the Isles’ thinking believe that moving outside of the NY area (Quebec, KC, etc.) is—by far—the least probable outcome, and while we’d rather see the team in Barclays than in Quebec or Hamilton, Barclays is by far the least-preferred NY area destination.

That was my idea as nobody is thinking temporary, but as I said—and I’m not alone in thinking this—the odds of the Islanders playing full-time in Barclays is still extremely remote, regardless of this Ratner/Yomark meeting and other similar press. Exhibition, perhaps.

Well, Ellerbe Becket may be top of the stadium design world, but it’s difficult to “fix” poor sight lines inside a finite and set interior. They’ve designed new arenas, but have they ever retrofitted or redone a stadium to improve sightlines for hockey? I’m not sure what would be involved to make that doable—problems could be minimized, but I haven’t seen anything to read that it could easily be solved.

And I disagree that playing in Barclays enhances territorial rights nor the cable deal. The Isles can move anywhere within 50 miles of Uniondale due to their territorial deal w/ the Rangers, but moving an hour west from the main area of the fanbase (Nassau/Suffolk) and a fanbase for whom the Isles have done a ton of community service and ran hockey camps, may severely dilute their brand in those counties. To woo Brooklyn and other NYC fans, they’d have to move away from the concentrated focus on Nassau/Suffolk/eastern Queens. They’ve done a ton of work with building up LI hockey facilities and camps, and played a large role in the increasing number of LI-born NHLers in recent years. And, the Isles have the lucrative Cablevision deal regardless of where they play in NYC, and their games are already broadcast in NYC, so moving to Brooklyn would not alter cable revenues nor viewership.

In fact, you could argue that moving to Brooklyn and having Wang become again another tenant in a building he doesn’t own, on land he doesn’t own is a rehash of the current situation. He has spent a decade trying to build a real estate complex around a stadium, and he still has the possibility of realizing that, in varying degrees, in Nassau, Suffolk, and Queens; I would be surprised if he was to give up that massive revenue potential and move into another’s building again. I could see such a move as, again, a last resort after things absolutely fall apart with every other area option.

http://basketball.ballparks.com/NBA/BrooklynNets/index.htm

The arena will also be able to host hockey games with an NHL sized rink. Brooklyn is geographically the western end of Long Island, and many on other parts of the island have roots there, suggesting that the New York Islanders could play games there (perhaps permanently). The Nets and Islanders shared Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum from 1971 to 1977.

Are you hinting that the Prokhorov (Ratner, Yormark) would rather rent to the Islanders before they buy ? See how they do first ?

The Islanders can’t be that expense to buy compared to other franchises. This Forbes article written in 2010 valued them at 150 million dollars…

http://www.forbes.com/lists/2010/31/hockey-valuations-10_New-York-
Islanders_312071.html

The skinny:
 The Islanders are only one of a handful of hockey franchises in the modern era where an owner sold the team for less money than they had acquired it for (the current owners of the Tampa Bay Lightning and New Jersey Devils did as well). Howard and Edward Milstein, along with Steven Gluckstern bought the team, its lucrative cable television deal and 70 acres of land for $195 million from John Pickett in 1988. In 2000, Charles Wang and Sanjay Kumar, whom Wang bought out in 2005, paid $187 million for the same assets (the team and cable deal were valued at $130 million combined). Yet if Wang sold the team today he would get less than what he paid. The reason for the team’s declining value is simple: it plays in the second oldest building in the NHL and has a lease that provides the Islanders with little revenue beyond ticket receipts. Attendance averaged only 12,735 per game last season, 29th in the league. Wang claims he has pumped over $200 million into the franchise since he acquired it. Efforts to get a new building have been fruitless. Look for the Islanders to move if they do not get a new building when their lease expires in 2015.

Leases can be broken particularly when the public agency (NJSEA or Nassau County) wants to renovate a venue and a team (Nets or Islanders) want out and there’s someone rich enough and interested enough to buy the lease out (Prokhorov).

Your bombastic post is another screed in desperate need of editing.