Islanders announcing new arena plans tomorrow!

[DarkJourney]

Call me when the shovels hit the paydirt. Seriously though I hope the arena deal goes through.

It would be sad to see the Isles relocate.

[The_Admiral]

lol at the Devils fan going after the Isles' attendance.

[NJTank]

Funny someone mentioned Devo since the last time the Islanders were relevant Devo was still making records.

[dfwabel]

According to TSN, the New York Islanders are announcing plans for a new arena tomorrow. Their contract with Nassau Coliseum ends in 4 years from now.

All they did was announce a ballot issue to finance a new facility this summer.

As I said yesterday. Yawn.

[NJTank]

There is no way in hell the voters of Nassau County will vote tax money to pay for this arena.

[pmoehrin]

There is no way in hell the voters of Nassau County will vote tax money to pay for this arena.

Especially not when its attached to a casino project under which the residents of Nassau county will receive no tax benefits from.

You also got the Barclay's Center opening up so I don't see how the Islanders are going to be able to get any sort of public financing deal through.

[RyanMcD29]

There is no way in hell the voters of Nassau County will vote tax money to pay for this arena.

I read that taxes aren't gonna be raised with this project and it's going to be revenue sharing (or at least they kept insisting).

http://sports.espn.go.com/new-york/nhl/news/story?id=6526985

That being said, this is Nassau County, so I would totally not be surprised if a vocal opposition comes out and shoots this down

[JQK]

lol at the Devils fan going after the Isles' attendance.

LOL at the man who doesn't know attendance facts.

[tigerslionspistonshabs]

They should put 'er in Queens

[pmoehrin]

They should put 'er in Queens

That would probably make the most sense. You have a ballpark and a tennis facility already there, why not build an arena there as well and make it a sports complex. Its not like there's anything in Willets Point outside of chop shops as far as the eye can see.

However chop shops can apparently yield alot of political power as it turns out as the Islanders and pretty much every other development group has come under staunch local oppoisition from building in Willets Point. This despite the fact that Willets Point has only one registered resident.

[NJTank]

There is no way in hell the voters of Nassau County will vote tax money to pay for this arena.

I read that taxes aren't gonna be raised with this project and it's going to be revenue sharing (or at least they kept insisting).

http://sports.espn.go.com/new-york/nhl/news/story?id=6526985

That being said, this is Nassau County, so I would totally not be surprised if a vocal opposition comes out and shoots this down

On Mike Francessa it sounded like many on Long Island are already skeptical. They are overtaxed and it will take a lot of convincing for them to approve any spending.

[Lee.]

lol at the Devils fan going after the Isles' attendance.

LOL at the man who doesn't know attendance facts.

Hold on. Devils were 24th, Islanders were 30th this season; he's got a bit of a point.

[njmeadowlanders]

The would-be lease runs through 2045. To keep Rick DiPietro on Long Island until then, the Islanders will announce in a press conference tomorrow that they have signed DiPietro to a 24 year extension.

[dfwabel]

There is no way in hell the voters of Nassau County will vote tax money to pay for this arena.

I read that taxes aren't gonna be raised with this project and it's going to be revenue sharing (or at least they kept insisting).

http://sports.espn.g...tory?id=6526985

That being said, this is Nassau County, so I would totally not be surprised if a vocal opposition comes out and shoots this down

However, neither Wang nor the county execs were able to tell reporters the terms of the "revenue sharing" plan which they claim will be used to pay back the $400+M in bonds which the citizens need to approve for this to even get built. If the voters approve, it still is not a done deal. Nassau County commissioners still must approve the building with at least 13 votes from the 19 commissioners. Plus, this 19-memberboard has not even voted to put the referendum on the ballot yet.

[pmoehrin]

There is no way in hell the voters of Nassau County will vote tax money to pay for this arena.

I read that taxes aren't gonna be raised with this project and it's going to be revenue sharing (or at least they kept insisting).

http://sports.espn.g...tory?id=6526985

That being said, this is Nassau County, so I would totally not be surprised if a vocal opposition comes out and shoots this down

However, neither Wang nor the county execs were able to tell reporters the terms of the "revenue sharing" plan which they claim will be used to pay back the $400+M in bonds which the citizens need to approve for this to even get built. If the voters approve, it still is not a done deal. Nassau County commissioners still must approve the building with at least 13 votes from the 19 commissioners. Plus, this 19-memberboard has not even voted to put the referendum on the ballot yet.

To me revenue sharing sounds an awful lot like how can we best cover up the fact that the residents are footing the bill for this?

The money has to come from somewhere, it just doesen't appear out of thin air. If the Islanders aren't paying for it then who is? The answer shouldn't be that complicated.

[dfwabel]

^^^^ Correct, it is a bad deal. The town/county buys the bonds as they generally have a better credit rating than the private citizen or company plus the bonds are generally tax free. How they get repaid is first up to how the referendum is written. It may change depending on the revenues produced.

Houston has an issue with their stadium bonds, which also are not tied to property or sales taxes.

Credit: Bondbuyer.com (8/31/2010)

The Harris County-Houston Sports Authority, the builder of three professional sports stadiums, could default on some of its $988 million of debt as early as March 2011, according to calculations by Moody's Investors Service. The danger of default was detailed late last week when Moody's downgraded three underlying authority credit ratings to junk-bond levels.

With no clear path for easing its debt crunch, the authority remains on Moody's watch list for further downgrades. Citing accelerated debt payments on $115 million of 2001 junior-lien bonds, Moody's lowered the authority's senior-lien credit to Ba3 from Baa2. The junior lien fell to B2 from Baa3 while the third lien dropped to B3 from Baa3.

The downgrade reflects not only the special circumstances of the Houston agency's debt structure, but also the stress on sports and tourism-related projects nationally due to falling hotel occupancy and car rental taxes and loss of credit facilities. The Sports Authority's senior-lien debt and some junior-lien debt is backed by hotel and rental car tax revenue that suffered a nearly 12% decline in 2009 and continued to fall this year after seeing strong growth in 2006 and 2007.

Revenues at the end of 2009 were running at 1.8% times debt service for the senior-lien bonds and equal to debt service on the junior-lien debt, according to Moody's.

The accelerated payment schedule began in November. At the same time, the Sports Authority faces a $25 million fee to unravel a swap agreement with UBS AG. Overall debt service is expected to soar to $84 million next year from $62 million in 2009.

[MC2]

I live 15 minutes away from Nassau Coliseum and I honestly can't think of any place where this arena could go.

[pmoehrin]

I live 15 minutes away from Nassau Coliseum and I honestly can't think of any place where this arena could go.

No, pretty much the entire Island and Queens has been developed, which is why the Willets Point site would make so much sense. That or moving to the Barclays Center but that I think would force them to lose some of their "Islander" marketing appeal. Still it may wind up being the only real option for them at the end of the day. They have to get out of the Coliseum, and I really don't think they will move from NY metro market. I think worst case scenairo in NYC is still better then what any other city can offer, and if that's true then there's no reason why the voters of Nassau county should give the Islanders a dime.

[RyanMcD29]

I live 15 minutes away from Nassau Coliseum and I honestly can't think of any place where this arena could go.

Kate Murray's place.

Which would be awesome for me because it's across the street from me. Which would also be terrible because my house would be renovated into a parking lot

In all seriousness, as I said they insisted that no taxpayer money will come out of this, but I'm skeptical on that. However, even with practically both political parties and every freakin' union on board, I can definitely see a vocal opposition come out of this. Besides, it's Long Island.

All in all, I just want a new arena built. Everything's been so stupid leading up to this: the whole original Lighthouse proposal, the Town of Hempstead's stance on things, the fact they're building the Barclay's Center possibly basketball-only (depending on who you ask), the Willets Point protests, more than likely this idea and the referendum... Ugh just build something in the NYC area and call it a day. They can move to Staten Island for all I care just get into some building and ensure the future of the New York Islanders

[dfwabel]

I live 15 minutes away from Nassau Coliseum and I honestly can't think of any place where this arena could go.

Kate Murray's place.

Which would be awesome for me because it's across the street from me. Which would also be terrible because my house would be renovated into a parking lot

In all seriousness, as I said they insisted that no taxpayer money will come out of this, but I'm skeptical on that. However, even with practically both political parties and every freakin' union on board, I can definitely see a vocal opposition come out of this. Besides, it's Long Island.

All in all, I just want a new arena built. Everything's been so stupid leading up to this: the whole original Lighthouse proposal, the Town of Hempstead's stance on things, the fact they're building the Barclay's Center possibly basketball-only (depending on who you ask), the Willets Point protests, more than likely this idea and the referendum... Ugh just build something in the NYC area and call it a day. They can move to Staten Island for all I care just get into some building and ensure the future of the New York Islanders

1-Eminent Domain could still be in play, so don't really laugh about that.

2- The "no tax increase" is the biggest worry and the public already knows that after 12 hours. This is less of a plan than the Lighthouse Project as those who are on the commission have yet to detail how it will be paid for.

3- Wang could have "bought" the current Nassau coliseum for the $200M he wanted to put into the facility in 2004 and made his renovations, but he wanted other people's money (aka taxpayers) to pay for it.