The Islanders will stay on Long Island until 2045 if voters approve a referendum over the summer that would allow Nassau County to borrow $400 million.
County Executive Edward Mangano made the announcement at a raucous news conference Wednesday at Nassau Coliseum, which would be torn down and replaced in the proposed plan. Along with a $350 million arena, a $50 million minor-league ballpark would be built in the complex.
Mangano said revenue from the Islanders and sales tax generated by the new arena would be enough to repay the $400 million in bonds over the course of a new 30-year lease for the team and no taxpayer money would be used to finance the project. Although neither he nor Islanders owner Charles Wang offered specifics on the financial arrangement.
The arena proposal gives new life to Wang’s desire to replace the Coliseum, which opened in 1972. In 2003, he proposed to build a $3.8 billion complex on the site that would have included retail shopping, high-rise apartments, and a self-financed hockey arena. Local community opposition, including fears about traffic, killed the plan.
Wang said Wednesday he did not want to revisit past disappointments, but said he was “extremely confident” the latest proposal would succeed.
“Our commitment to Long Island has never wavered,” said the billionaire businessman who has owned the team for 10 years.
The Islanders’ current lease at the coliseum expires in 2015. Mangano said if residents approve the borrowing plan in an Aug. 1 vote, construction of the new arena should be completed by then.
The county, which is facing a $176 million budget deficit, is under the thumb of a state fiscal watchdog, which has approval over most contracts and other deals involving county finances. The watchdog, the Nassau Interim Finance Authority, did not immediately comment on the proposal.
“This referendum will allow residents to decide whether we should build a sports-entertainment destination at the site of Nassau Coliseum,” Mangano said.
Mangano, who previously discussed placing a casino on the 77-acre site in the heart of the county, changed direction Wednesday and said officials would begin negotiating with the Shinnecock Indian tribe to construct a gambling facility at nearby Belmont Park racetrack in Elmont.
Jim Castellane, president of the Nassau-Suffolk Building Trades unions, applauded the proposal.
“With unemployment reaching 30 percent in the trade sector, this project is critical to the 65,000 workers I represent,” he said.
Sports fans on Long Island had differing views on whether they would vote to approve the bonding plan.
“I think the way the economy is now people just can’t afford it,” said Warren Beck of Syosset.
Brian McColdrick, of Manhasset, said he would vote for the plan.
“I think it needs to be done and it’s good for the people in the long run,” he said.
With AP