Apparently beggars can be choosers — at least when it comes to the Nassau Coliseum.
County Executive Ed Mangano received only eight proposals to privately finance a new sports arena for the Islanders — but he called all of them unacceptable.
His comments came two weeks after voters nixed Mangano’s whopping public borrowing scheme to finance the Coliseum project.
In the wake of that defeat, Mangano put out a call for proposals for the Coliseum overhaul.
But none of the submissions, due last week, “offer to privately finance a new arena,” said Mangano aide Brian Nevin.
One proposal “offered a revenue-sharing model and several others appear to revisit leveraging the surrounding acreage” to pay for a new arena, said Nevin, who called the latter a failed approach.
“Unfortunately, other responses seek to develop the property without an arena,” Nevin noted, which would surely make the NHL’s Islanders find a home elsewhere.
Still, privately financing the project isn’t dead.