Monthly Archives: July 2010
Please check out my story on Casey Cizikas at AOL FanHouse. Thank you.
Small world. Sportscaster Michael Coleman, recently with News 12 for six years, starts a new job at the CBS affiliate in Kansas City. The NBC station in KC, off a mention in Newsday, makes the leap the Islanders are moving there and plays it up big. Mike called to invite me on his newscast last night. I told him in advance I didn’t have good news for Kansas City. He had me on anyway. Here’s the clip. Comments.
PB Video: Nino Niederreiter
PB Video: Travis Hamonic
PB Video: Kirill Petrov
PB Video: Group I workout
Catching up with some prospect camp stuff, here’s my interview from last week with Kirill Kabanov Thanks again to David Litvinsky for adding some footage and production to my Flip video. Comments.
9:30 pm: Nassau County Executive Edward Mangano wants to partner with Charles Wang on a development that would consist of a new Coliseum and training facility plus an entertainment and gambling center the quality of Foxwoods and Mohegan Sun in Connecticut, sources have told Point Blank.
Determined to keep the Islanders in Nassau and find solutions for his budget crisis, Mangano knows Wang is his ideal partner. As a result, the first-year Nassau County Executive has become an Islander fan’s best friend. While Hempstead Town Supervisor Kate Murray did not even mention the hockey franchise in her Lighthouse push-back statements in Monday’s editions of Newsday, Mangano is all about keeping the Islanders in their original county and where they won four Stanley Cups.
“Whether it’s a new arena adjacent to a first-class casino complex or something else, the County Executive wants to explore every option in order to keep the Islanders in Nassau,” a source told Point Blank.
For starters, Mangano is proposing quite a gift: a brand new arena for the Islanders to be built on the available 77 acres of property and be completed two years after the start of construction. The Islanders would not have to wait until 2015 to move in.
A state-of-the-art NHL arena/concert venue combined with a Mohegan Sun-like entertainment and gambling complex makes sense on a lot of levels:
- By partnering with the Islanders on the arena and the Shinnecock tribe on the entertainment complex, Mangano would not need any approvals from the Town of Hempstead.
- After a decade of settling for a “transformed” arena and not the real thing at the insistence of politicians, the Islanders would have the genuine state-of-the-art facility they need to keep up in the NHL. If the team is competitive, free agents would have no more excuses not to sign on. (A new training facility, plus limited retail and office space, would be part of any new arena and also would not need ToH approval).
- If the entertainment complex can be fully realized in scope and profit margins on the level of the best in the East like Foxwoods and Mohegan Sun, the revenue needs of the Islanders could be addressed without the Lighthouse battle over residential units. The new casino would include a hotel and would not fall under Kate Murray’s zoning jurisdiction.
In the wake of the Town of Hempstead’s 70% hack of Wang’s County-approved vision for the property surrounding the Coliseum - when Murray spent residents’ money to tell Wang how to spend his money – expect the Islanders owner to remain silent publicly.
However, be assured: there is plenty of discussion behind closed doors between Wang and Mangano. They both want to keep the Islanders in Nassau. Combining their efforts and resources on a new arena and glamorous entertainment center and casino for Long Island, they may have their solution.
Comments.
11:00 am: Look for the Islanders to try hard to settle with Moulson in these next two weeks. Moulson scored 30 goals in 2009-10, six more than John Tavares, 11 more than anyone else on the team. Scott Gordon and Garth Snow are on record saying Moulson is for real – not a one-season wonder. The franchise used him extensively with marketing materials, personal appearances and even a media tour as recently as last month. Comments on Matt Moulson.
Tuesday, 11:15 am: Here is the complete statement issued by Nassau County Executive Edward Mangano and Charles Wang’s Lighthouse Development Group:
The effort between the New York Islanders and Nassau County to keep the Islanders where they belong started in 2003. Given the financial position of the County, the Islanders developed a plan to fund the transformation of the Coliseum. The plan, which came to be known as the Lighthouse, included additional development necessary to fund the construction and other expense of a new home for the Islanders.
While we have not yet had the time to review the “new vision” just released by Supervisor Murray and the Town of Hempstead for the re-development of the Coliseum site, it does not appear to achieve the goals of the County and the developer. Without this, the Town of Hempstead’s “new vision” looks to be economically unviable for both the developer and the owner of the site.”
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12:00 am: As written here on Friday night, the Town of Hempstead has cut Charles Wang’s county-approved Lighthouse Project in half. There is a ToH press conference Monday at 11:00 am, but as expected, Newsday confirms all our details (subscription needed). The LHP’s 2,306 residential units have been dropped to 500. As PB forecasted, Hempstead is selling the idea of 5 million square feet, but that includes parking. Finally, as broken exclusively on Point Blank, the Lighthouse Development Group and the office of Nassau County Executive Ed Mangano issued a joint statement slamming the pushback: “The Town of Hempstead’s new vision looks to be economically unviable to the developer and owner of the site.” Comments.
Friday, 11:15 pm: Multiple sources have informed Point Blank that Kate Murray’s counter-vision to the Lighthouse Project will be unveiled in the coming week, possibly as early as a Monday media roll-out and press conference. In what will come as no surprise to veteran followers of this saga, Murray’s consultants at F. P. Clark are said to have reduced the scale of the project by more than 50%.
When that happens, Islanders owner Charles Wang will not have to publicly reject the Lighthouse push-back of the Town of Hempstead supervisor and her Westchester-based consultants. It will go without saying.
However, in what may come as a surprise, a Nassau County source tells Point Blank that County Executive Edward Mangano is preparing to support Wang and his Lighthouse partner Scott Rechler on their efforts to develop the Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum property and surrounding 73 acres – and keep the Islanders in Nassau County.
“We know Wang is earnest in wanting the Islanders to stay in Nassau, and not even move them as close as Queens,” said the county source. “Ed Mangano believes in the same thing. The County Executive is going to work with the Islanders. Charles knows that already. If the Town reduces the Lighthouse Project as drastically as we believe they will, no one’s going to be happy. But it’s not going to mean the end of the Islanders in Nassau. Far from it.”
Once it is revealed, count on the estimates of Murray and F. P. Clark’s down-sizing to be spin-doctored by all sides. Murray is going to approve the massive overhaul of the Coliseum for obvious reasons; like the rest of the project, the developers are paying for it. The Town will likely approve the Athletic Complex because it will be valuable to the Islanders, Nassau and Hempstead.
The rest is tricky. For example, the Lighthouse Project – developed by Wang at a personal cost of a reported $20 million, approved by Nassau County four years ago – calls for 2,300 residential units. Rumors have circulated that Murray has been considering cutting the figure by as much 75%. Wang and Rechler’s approved proposal included 500,000 square feet of retail space. Count on Hempstead’s counter to be for less than half. Wang has consistently said that his deep investment in the Coliseum transformation does not make sense without potentially profitable components such as residential and retail.
Not including parking, the total size of the Lighthouse Project is more than six million square feet. Rumors suggest F. P. Clark and the Town – paid $150,000 by Murray for the counter-proposal – could market their down-sizing as five million square feet but including two million square feet of parking.
If so, Wang may stay quiet, as he has since Oct. 3, but the status of his Designated Developer Agreement with Nassau would be unclear and he would have no choice but to consider alternatives for a home for his Islanders. New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg is open to the Islanders moving to Queens. Suffolk County Executive Steve Levy would no doubt take Wang’s call.
According to the county source, Nassau does not want to see a courtship of the Islanders by other municipalities. The county is prepared to stand up for Wang and the Islanders. Mangano has a financial crisis to solve under his leadership. He doesn’t want the Islanders going anywhere and he knows Wang can help him more than any other developer. Of course, Mangano needs the Town of Hempstead to work with him on the Coliseum property.
After a quiet nine months, the battle for the Coliseum property and to keep the Islanders in Nassau is about to begin again. This time, the Islanders appear to have Ed Mangano on their side.
Comments.
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