Monday, January 19, 2009
Will Long Island lose the Islanders?
Are the Islanders moving?
Is the team's agreement to play an exhibition game in Kansas City in September a sign they'll be leaving their Uniondale home?
Representatives for team owner Charles Wang said yesterday there's no plan to move the team, which reportedly loses more than $20 million a year.
And the developers who, along with Wang, have proposed a massive project around a renovated Nassau Coliseum said yesterday that whether the team stays or goes isn't their concern. They're forging ahead with the Lighthouse Project, which proposes 300 hotel rooms, 200,000 square feet of convention space, 1 million square feet of office space and 2,300 luxury apartments.
Lighthouse project is about more than hockey
Another convention center? Luxury condos in Uniondale? High rises connected by a bridge? The video is unintentionally funny.
9 comments:
I am not sure why it's funny. Long Island needs jobs and tax dollars. The project is proposed to develop asphalt.
Because no one wants to live there - there isn't even an LIRR station there and in this economy the project is especially pie-in-the-sky.
If that project goes through it will definitly be a success. Long Island has reached the point where it should not fight the urbanization of its counties. The infrastructure and economic development will follow this project.
I understand how people dont neccasarily like change but this website is against the "crap" and this development is not the "fedders" crap that we all hate.
Wang is playing the islander fans for such fools. He gets them to do his work for him (harass the county to give him the permits to build), so he doesn't have to, and tries to play it off to them that he only cares about the team.
He only bought the team so he can develop all the land around the area.
He does not care about the team, just his real estate portfolio.
I have to agree and disagree with poster number 4
1 - He bought the team as people approached him - if he did not buy the team the team would have left years ago after the John Spano Era - While yes he is very interested in the land, he SAVED the Islanders already.
2 - He is not making the Islander fans do their work - he has sat there for a long time waiting for the Town of Hempstead to approve this and they have not moved - he is losing 20 million a year (reportedly) on this team and he has tried to get players but players around the league do not want to play on Long Island because the facility is sooo bad.
3 - Your very wrong about not caring - many reporters have tried to talk to him during a game but they say he ignores them because the game is on
4 - This is actually a desperate attempt by WANG IMO - In november he met with the commisioner of the NHL and just the next day Commisioner Bettman went on the air and urged LI to get this done using the work "vital" to explain this plan. This guy saved the team and is now losing a lot of money. The curretn lease with SMG (Which owns the Colly) runs out in 2015 and in that lease he gets no money from parking, concessions etc - stuff like that. He is getting destroyed here.
The Town of Hempstead said they would approve him fixing the arenat but it would cost him a few hundred million and just with the building it would take him forever to get that money back.
The plan is ambitious and hopefully they can agree on a scaled back plan but Wang has been patient and the "shovel in the ground" date of Summer 2009 looks bleak and that could be bad for the Islanders. Remember the Colts!
"If that project goes through it will definitly be a success."
What crystal ball do you have that shows this being a success?
"Long Island has reached the point where it should not fight the urbanization of its counties."
Why shouldn't Long Island fight the urbanization of its counties? What advantage do the people already living there get by bringing in more people to use their services?
"The infrastructure and economic development will follow this project."
Infrastructure is supposed to predate development, otherwise you get something that runs along the lines of Queens.
"Long Island has reached the point where it should not fight the urbanization of its counties."
Why shouldn't Long Island fight the urbanization of its counties? What advantage do the people already living there get by bringing in more people to use their services?"
We're talking about central nassau county,right near Hofstra & NCC, Roosevelt Field, etc. It's not like it'd be tearing down Austin St. (that post is on here somehwere) to develop. It's like developing on bare cement. I am normally STRONGLY opposed to development, but I'd back this one.
Long Island sucks and is full of assholes anyway.
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