Posted on 08/02/2011 8:45:41 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
UNIONDALE, N.Y. — Nassau County voters, who pay among the highest local taxes in the nation, handily defeated a contentious proposal on Monday to spend $400 million to overhaul the Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum, the outdated home of the New York Islanders hockey club.
With 82 percent of the ballots counted late Monday, the vote was about 57 percent to 43 percent against borrowing the money through a general obligation bond to pay for the plan, which also called for construction of a minor-league baseball park and convention space. The results marked an enormous defeat for Charles E. Wang, the owner of the Islanders, who had sought a new or refurbished arena for nearly a decade.
“I have to tell you I’m disappointed, and to put it very bluntly, I’m heartbroken,” Mr. Wang said. He said he would not discuss his next move.
Mr. Wang could sell or move the National Hockey League team, which began play in 1972, the year the Nassau Coliseum opened. Mr. Wang, who has owned the Islanders since 2001, had said construction would begin next June. The Islanders’ lease with the Coliseum expires in 2015. He said after the defeat, “We will honor our lease.”
Edward P. Mangano, the Nassau County executive, who supported the plan, said: “Tonight is not an ending but a beginning. We will find a new path that brings people together — a path that solves the problems and blockades for the redevelopment of this property.”
On Monday evening, voters at the poll at California School in Uniondale, about a mile from the arena, fell into two camps: those who thought the project would benefit Long Island in the long run, and those who did not think the project was worth paying additional taxes.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Your comment brought a friendly grin to my face. I quickly checked on what might be a burgeoning controversy even there. All hockey mad of course. As you will know it was 1995 when the franchise of the Nordiques went to Colorado. Colorado then won the Stanley Cup.
Not to bring politics into it, but sport often seems like ALL politics. The Mayor of Quebec City said they would go ahead and build a sport worthy arena and be darned to all (or whatever it is in French). A Mr Bettman of the NHL, told them to the effect, that anyone who builds and arena and expects the NHL to grace them with a franchise might be unlucky.
Meantime our new Conservative government is playing footsie. Wondering about the massive vote potential if they ante up some cash- or the rest of Canada howling blue murder at more pork for Quebec.
Still, back to the subject at hand. We could be seeing the end of an era. Lavish outlays of public monies for sport franchises. Who knows? Does Nassau herald the turning of the worm? LOL
Because it was not economically feasible to build a new arena solely for the team. The Lighthouse Project was a multi-use approach that would have subsidized the cost of the arena construction with other revenue streams.
There are not a lot of places on Long Island that make sense to build on. A few places over the border in Suffolk County maybe, and the Willets Point area near the new Mets stadium are still possibilities, but this location (next to Hofstra University and the old Rossevelt Field - where Lindbergh took off on his trans-Atlantic flight) is the most central for the team.
And by the way, the owner has spent MANY MILLIONS just on the impact studies over the years.
What really aggravates me are all the taxes and special fees you pay when you travel to another city which are earmarked for sports venues and other improvements in that city. In Phoenix and Kansas City, for instance, the special fees and taxes on rental cars and hotels are often more than the daily fee for renting the car. People who live there probably thought it would be great to have all this stuff that other people pay for. In tight money times it will further contribute to the decreae in tourist business. Don’t know how small businesses can afford to have their employees travel any more. Our AC went out in Houston and we were going to go for a hotel until we could get it replaced. I was totally shocked by the amount of special fees we were charged. Simply cannot afford to do it any more.
Do you remember the quarterhorse track?
Are the Devils moving to Brooklyn next year...maybe the Rangers will let the Islanders move to Brooklyn?
No, but I remember Roosevelt Raceway - I’ve been to see the trotters.
I’m not a sports person, so what I remember Nassau Col. for mostly is the exhibitions. We always went to the dog and cat shows.
An Isles move to a new venue near CitiField makes sense transit-wise. Nanny Bloomberg has a woody for developing Flushing, after all. OTOH, there ain’t no public money available, so it might be au revoir Isles.
I can't see the Rangers allowing that to happen.
Done. Right here in Columbus. Twice.
Hamilton.
The Islanders paid the territorial indemnity fee to the Rangers in 1972, the Rangers don’t have any say on that anymore. Most Ranger fans were very supportive of this vote because they know how much the rivalry means locally, far more than with the Devils.
Makes sense.
No way Hartford gets another shot. And certainly not before Hamilton and Quebec City.
The NHL can afford to rebuild the stadium.
The get more than enough income from the TV-Networks who get their share from the advertisers during NHL games.
Maybe the NHL has to lower player-salary expectations. Maybe the NHL and team owners have to lower their “take-home” revenue expectations. Maybe the NHL has to bargain for more revenue from the TV networks.
However, in terms of borrowing on the open market to rebuild the stadium, the NHL DOES have the revenue stream to pay for bonds for that effort themselves.
Of course what crony-capitalist enterprise would not prefer to get the taxpayers to pay for it instead?? And to that end they extort the funds they need from the taxpayers with political threats to move a team.
Let them.
Not a single tax-payer sponsored sports stadium has produced the financial returns or revenue to the locality where it is sited in amounts that it was projected for it when the project was “sold” to the taxpayers.
What we need is an urban pact that quits paying the ransom on the threats to take a team away, until every sports stadium in service is 100% the result of the private enterprise of the profitable sports leagues.
Try reading the previous posts. The Islanders put a FULLY FUNDED PRIVATE APPROACH on the table and the local politicians rejected it. This was Plan B.
In the mid-60’s I remember going to Yonkers raceway on a Saturday night..50,000+ people in the place..
Yonkers is in Westchester County, Roosevelt Raceway was here. I believe The Hambletonian used to be raced at Roosevelt. I went there in the early 70’s once.
The Hambletonian used to we run at the DuQoin Fair grounds..It moved to the Meadowlands...It MUST be run on a one mile oval..
Corrupt politicians won’t let them. The Islanders owner tried but couldn’t get past the city government. Lemieux in Pittsburgh tried with the same result (fortunately Pittsburgh voters realized an arena is important to a city that wants to attract events).
Although I loath the Islanders team, I’m sorry for their fans. Hopefully they won’t move far. I understand Queens is already making overtures to the team.
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