JULY UPDATE: Since the Coliseum has hit its official final season, I figured I would present the game nights on which either of my 2 teams will be there this upcoming final Coliseum season!
NJD @ NYI, Sat., 11/29/14 - this latest post-Thanksgiving weekend matchup will present my 1st in-person opportunity there this season!
MTL @ NYI, Tue., 12/23/14 - Although this matchup has usually been lopsided 1 way or the other in recent seasons, the fact that this game is scheduled for what I affectionately call "Christmas Eve Eve" will allow me another opportunity to visit!
MTL @ NYI, Sat., 3/14/15 - this will most likely be it for my opportunities to visit the Coliseum, 'cause after April, it's off to downtown Brooklyn for them!
The rumors of the Islanders' move from the Coliseum actually started as early as the late 1990s, &, in fact, the team briefly left in September 1998, in protest of "unsafe conditions":
"Within hours after filing a lawsuit claiming the Nassau Coliseum is unsafe, the NHL New York Islanders moved out of the arena and into offices in Manhattan. Possible temporary homes include Madison Square Garden, Continental Airlines Arena, the First Union Spectrum in Philadelphia and the Civic Center in Hartford, CT. The NHL is helping the team in its search for a venue and is hiring its own engineers to inspect the arena. The first regular season home game is October 10, 1998. Team officials indicated they could play in several of the venues.
The lawsuit says SMG, the company managing the venue, failed to make necessary improvements and that made the venue unsafe. As a result, the team says it was forced to evict itself from the arena. The Islanders hired an outside consultant to inspect the arena.
Among the Islanders' complaints is the main scoreboard hoist system which the team says is a safety risk. The suit says SMG has not responded to requests that it be fixed or replaced. Other issues concern the elevators, roof, rink boards and glass and seats. The suit also says the bathrooms were in such poor shape last season that the team had to bring in portable toilets. The suit asks for the team to be released from its lease and for $10 million in damages.
SMG officials say the safety issues are a smoke screen and that the move is simply a publicity stunt to get out of its lease. Engineers hired by SMG to inspect the arena found no problems, the company says. SMG officials also say they may file suit against the team if it plays outside the arena. Both sides are scheduled to meet today (Thursday) to discuss the situation.
Reports also say that Howard Milstein is considering selling his share of the team because of the conflict with SMG and the arena. Milstein and Gluckstern bought the team earlier this year and said at the time that they hoped to build a new venue. The two have also reportedly reached an impasse in negotiations with the county for a new venue. The county has proposed a $270 million plan that calls for a new arena and retail complex to be built with the cost shared equally among the county, state and team. The New York Post says the team is not willing to invest more than $70 million.
Meanwhile, the Islanders have hired architect Peter Eisenman to design a new arena. Eisenman is also working on a stadium proposal for the Arizona Cardinals and the University of Arkansas. His design for the University drew critical praise in Sunday's New York Times, but some local residents have been put off by its futuristic design."
Near the end of that month, the team was ordered to return to the Coliseum by a N.Y.S. Supreme Court judge after Nassau County filed a primary injunction (basically, a legal action forcing a legal party to either reverse previous actions, or to prevent that party from taking such actions in the 1st place) against the team to return it to its longtime home, despite its continued objections about the conditions back then...
Judging by the lack of (public) opposition to the team's actions over the past few years, however, I wouldn't expect any sudden opposition to its upcoming Brooklyn move next year!
The real starting point for Brooklyn, in spite of previous controversies such as the 1998 controversy that almost saw the Isles take temporary status in East Rutherford, Manhattan, or even Hartford or Philadelphia, was the aptly named, yet brutally mismanaged, Lighthouse Project:
The Lighthouse Project, which seems fitting for a place like Long Island, was originally announced in 2004 by owner Charles B. Wang, who looked to develop a $3.74B sports/entertainment/residential complex which would have included any of the following, depending on the year:
- (Did I mention "depending on the year" above?) either a new or renovated Coliseum, depending on Mr. Wang's current fantasies
- a minor league baseball stadium, presumably for the Atlantic League's (AA) Long Island Ducks
- an athletic complex, along with conference & exposition facilities
- a newly renovated Long Island Marriott
- houses, offices, restaurants, & stores of all kinds
Out of all of those humungous plans, the only aspect of that overly ambitious plan that seems to have come even remotely close to completion has been the Expo Center @ Nassau Coliseum:
"The Expo Center @ Nassau Coliseum is a 60,000 square foot hall that is located in the lower lobby of Nassau Coliseum, underground, adjacent to the arena floor. The Expo Center is the host to many trade and consumer shows each year, such as; National Exams, Pet Expos, Boat Shows, Home Improvement & Remodeling Shows, Auto Expos, College Fairs, Career Fairs, Hunting & Fishing Shows, The L.I. Fire, Rescue & EMS Mega Show, Custom Car Shows, Wine Expos, The Great New York R.V. & Camping Show, American Baby Fair, Annual Spring Craft Beer Expo, Fall International Beerfest and many other fairs & events as well as being the home for the Animal Open House for Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus each year. These events account for approximately 35-50 event calendar days annually and attendance is well over 150,000 people per year in the Expo Center alone. The Expo Center @ Nassau Coliseum has 20-foot high ceilings & comes equipped with 2,647 electrical outlets and 2,104 lights."
That seems like nothing, but that's exactly the thing: it only seems like nothing, all things considered:
Considering that's what's up above the Expo Center, Long Island could do much worse, at least in my opinion, than keeping the remnants of that historic venue open for the occasional event, just as a building previously featured here has done:
I'm biased in that regard, for obvious reasons, but I still think the 2 buildings could both survive, even without any full-time sports tenants, & looking straight out of some 20th century "how to" for architects, which both buildings have looked like for so long!
When everything was said & done, the Lighthouse Project was expected to generate $71M in local/county/state/federal tax revenue in between 8 & 10 years, & create 75,000 construction jobs, about 19,000 of which were expected to remain on the Island after completion!
this (2011) rendering:
2011 proved to the turning point for the Lighthouse Project, however, & for the worse:
"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 B. 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.
Marc Gundel, a Uniondale resident, said he had voted for the project. “I’m a homeowner, and I’m a laid-off union plumber,” he said, “and if the Islanders go, a lot of businesses right behind them go.”
Steve Melendez, a Uniondale resident who opposed the proposal, said Mr. Wang should pay for the project privately.
“He said he was paying for everything on his own,” Mr. Melendez said. “Why make the taxpayer shell it out, when two years prior to this, he was paying for everything?”
Although a new arena would play host to concerts and other events, the election centered around the viability of the Islanders, who became a source of civic pride less than a decade after the team’s inception, winning the Stanley Cup four straight times from 1980 to 1983.
But the Islanders have not won a Stanley Cup playoff series in 18 years and have not even qualified for the 16-team playoffs in the last four seasons. They were last among the N.H.L.’s 30 teams in home attendance last season, averaging 11,059 fans per game. The roster, however, has been rebuilt in recent years, and the Islanders are generally thought to be more competitive. The N.H.L. and the Islanders’ two most bitter rivals, the New York Rangers and the New Jersey Devils, have been publicly supportive of the arena project on Long Island.
The referendum spurred much debate, including the timing of the election itself. Holding the election on a Monday in August instead of on Election Day cost the county $2 million, and turnout was light. Mr. Wang had offered to cover the cost of the election if the measure passed. The county’s finances are in such poor shape that they are monitored by the Nassau County Interim Finance Authority. The authority said the county could run a deficit of up to $140 million this year.
The authority had said that the referendum, if ultimately approved, could have meant that voters could have to pay 4 percent more in property taxes. But supporters of the measure argued that a new arena would generate far more money in new tax revenue over the long term, and that tax increases for single-family homeowners would be between $14 and $58 a year.
Besides the Islanders and their fans, many Republicans, like Mr. Mangano, supported the plan, along with construction unions and some land-use groups. Democrats, fiscal conservatives and developers generally opposed the plan, saying the county should not go further in debt to help Mr. Wang."
Once that vote occurred, the Lighthouse Project's fate was effectively permanently sealed, except for the 2013 Forest City Ratner rendering...
Now that all this discussion & information about the Coliseum's/Islanders'/Barclays Center's/etc. respective futures has been given, I'd like to give you a personal take on the NHL's 2nd-oldest building for those of you looking to take just 1 visit, or, for those of you who've already visited, 1 last visit, at least as of right now, as based on a single visit (MLK Day 2011) for an afternoon old Atlantic Division rivalry tilt:
Now that all this discussion & information about the Coliseum's/Islanders'/Barclays Center's/etc. respective futures has been given, I'd like to give you a personal take on the NHL's 2nd-oldest building for those of you looking to take just 1 visit, or, for those of you who've already visited, 1 last visit, at least as of right now, as based on a single visit (MLK Day 2011) for an afternoon old Atlantic Division rivalry tilt:
1/17/11: NJD 5, NYI 2
That game, & many others over the years, is what's both bothered & excited me the most about the Coliseum - That there were always so many visiting fans in the building, especially other Eastern Conference fans, that there never seemed to be more than a 75-25 advantage for the "blue & orange" fans supposedly "defending their home turf"!
The game itself was never in much doubt - only when the Islanders cut what was a 3-0 lead to 3-2 was when the building was mostly noisy, at least to the extent that a 10,000-some afternoon crowd could be... 1 of the most overlooked "outdated" aspects of the surroundings (aside from the WiFi that would work, if not for stupid Optimum) is the marquee, which, at most all other buildings, is modern... Not at the Coliseum, however:
Obviously, that's not the Coliseum marquee, but you get the idea: It's just about as outdated as everything else in the vicinity!
Underneath the computer desktop scoreboard is something else that seems to be overlooked: a leftover disco ball, which serves no purpose other than just decorating the bottom of the scoreboard!
That's the contraption I was referring to above... If you need any more proof that moving to Barclays will be anything but positive not just for the Islanders, but for the NHL as a whole, especially within the new Metropolitan Division & the eastern Canadian fan bases!
