One thing Charles Wang will never be accused of is a lack of effort.
The Islanders owner has done everything in his power — including blurring the line of electoral politics — in order to try and get his beloved franchise a new home on Long Island.
And all of his persuasion now comes down to tomorrow, when Nassau County residents take to the polls to vote for or against their county taking out a $400 million bond to build a new arena along with other “sports-entertainment” venues.
“You don’t take anything for granted, but I think we have got some momentum,” Wang told The Post. “We’ve gotten our message out, despite [negative] sound bites. It’s going to be very tight, but we’ve worked very hard getting here.”
Along with $350 million for a new Islanders arena — with costs between $350 million and $375 million covered by Wang, anything over he can opt out — the proposal also contains around $50 million for a minor league baseball stadium and about $5 million for a state-of-the-art track-and-field venue. It will all be owned by the county, as will the rights to develop the surrounding 77 acres.
Wang would not disclose the exact amount of money he has shelled out over the past couple weeks while trying to get the referendum passed, although he recently admitted he has personally lost between $230 million-$240 million since he bought the team in 2000. Most of that was while trying to get his ambitious and personally financed Lighthouse Project underway, which was repeatedly rejected by the town of Hempstead.
This vote represents a last-ditch effort trying to keep the team in the place he calls home.
“I think it’s very important, and it’s like anything else, you go on journey,” Wang said. “Hopefully we’re moving in the right direction. I’m very committed to it, and I want Long Island to be something we’re very proud of.”
In doing so, Wang has done some things that he understands to be completely within his legal rights, but his opponents label as a conflict of interest, at the least.
In the proposed lease between the Islanders and the county, which was widely distributed, it states “if citizens approve the construction of a new arena … and the lease is executed, the Islanders will reimburse the County for the costs of the public referendum.”
That’s an estimated cost of over $1 million, with payment dependent on if the vote passes.
“I’m shocked to find there’s gambling going on here,” was the reaction from Desmond Ryan, executive director of the Association for a Better Long Island and a dedicated opponent. “That is the biggest pay-to-play referendum in the history of New York.”
That was followed by revelations that much of the Islanders promotional material was mixed in with county informational packets, making them a little too close for objective comfort.
“The county can go and give the facts out, they can’t tell you, vote yes or no,” said Michael Picker, Islanders senior vice president. “I have no knowledge of their situation. We have always had a marketing campaign to inform the people. We will continue to do that.”
Each side of the argument has their own estimates of what the total cost (or profits) would be to the residents, and each accuses the other of being ill informed.
What has been solidified in the proposed lease is that the Islanders, along with their newly formed company Arenaco that will be operating the building, will share 11.5 percent of all revenues with the county. That includes concerts, concessions, parking and all assorted income — minus the Islanders television contract, which was a sticking point while first drawing up the document. There is also a $14 million floor, which the Islanders guarantee to pay no matter how much money they generate.
“Our job as a business is to generate the money back to the county,” Picker said. “It’s up to the county to decide how to use that money.”
In terms of taxpayer cost, the Islanders and the county often cite a report from the bipartisan Nassau’s Office of Legislative Budget Review, stating the final toll on the taxpayers will be $13.80 per year. That is the worst-case scenario, as long as all the revenue-sharing projections go directly into the property tax levy.
County Executive Ed Mangano has said that the revenue generated will not go into the property tax levy, but go into the overall general fund, and will be used first to pay off variable-rate (higher) debt first. If that’s the case and the referendum passes, then the cost per taxpayer will probably be closer to $58 a year.
“We want to be on Long Island, this is our home,” Wang said. “We’re not going to solve all the problems. But we want to be a catalyst to start to help solving some of those problems.”
There is also a steep cost of debt services for a county whose credit rating is based on the fact that it is currently about $1.6 billion in the red. That means the $400 million bond will eventually cost around $800 million over the 30-year time of the lease, with about $26 million owed in debt services annually.
Yet Camoin Associates, a private and public sector economic development firm brought in by the county, estimated the project would eventually lead to $1.2 billion in revenue and 3,000 permanent jobs. The Budget Review report also said that if the Islanders did leave the Coliseum – their current lease is up in 2015, and Wang has always said he’s “keeping his options open” – then it would leave residents with a $16 increase in taxes because of lost tax revenue. If the project goes through and the revenue-sharing projections are correct, it could actually save taxpayers $26.81 a year.
Through all the hoopla, there is also the fact that residents will be voting on a lease agreement which is not solidified, and is what Peter Schmitt, the presiding officer of the county legislature, has called a “conceptual” idea.
And if it does pass, and all the specifics get ironed out, then it still has to be approved by a two-thirds majority in the county legislature, followed by approval by the Nassau Interim Finance Authority (NIFA), the state-appointed watchdog agency that oversees all of the debt-ridden county’s expenditures over $50,000.
“While it appears the economics of the project are built upon optimistic assumptions and projections, nevertheless the inescapable fact is this: There will be a built in 3-4 percent coliseum property tax,” NIFA board member George Marlin said recently.
When it gets down to it, Wang has put everything on the line, and it’s now up to the voters to decide the fate of their county and their hockey team.
“We don’t want to be known as being 30 minutes from Manhattan, we want to be our own destination, our own legacy,” Wang said. “The Islanders have a great legacy, and we want to continue that here.”