Islanders need a new home

UNIONDALE, N.Y. – It is New Year's Eve. In reality, it could be most days.

The arena is slightly yellowed, the way old newspapers look over time. It stands in the background of a mostly empty parking lot that will soon freeze over. Inside, there are old pictures, exhibits and poster-sized press clippings lining the concourse. They honor perhaps the least remembered dynasty in modern sports history.

Walk out of any of the tunnels and you'll see pockets of empty seats as two teams complete their pregame warm-ups on the ice below.

Welcome to a New York Islanders' game day at the Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum. Hosting the Florida Panthers on this day, the Islanders would record a 4-2 holiday matinee triumph, only their second win in the month.

The Coliseum is the third-oldest actively used arena in the NHL, behind only Pittsburgh's Mellon Arena (opened in 1961) and New York's Madison Square Garden (opened in 1968). The Isles' lease expires in 2015.

Time has not been kind to what was the nexus of the hockey universe. Modern when first opened in 1972, the Coliseum is a decaying relic; Betamax in a DVR world.

"This team needs a new arena," NHL commissioner Gary Bettman told reporters during a recent visit. "My hope and expectation is that they're going to get it. The focus is not about threats or what could happen. It's not that I'm denying it. I'm not confirming it. All we're thinking about is 'How does this team get their new arena as quickly as possible?' "

To that end, Islanders owner Charles Wang and Scott Rechler, the CEO of Long Island-based real estate corporation RexCorp, submitted a bid to Nassau County to develop the land surrounding the Coliseum.

The so-called Lighthouse Project envisions a renovated and modernized Coliseum attached to a convention center, a sports and entertainment facility, a minor league baseball park, 2,300 new housing residences, two hotels (a brand new five-star hotel and the existing Long Island Marriott, which recently underwent a $21 million renovation), business offices, shopping and dining, and a landscaped park.

"The Coliseum represents about 10 percent of the overall $4 billion project. The Coliseum will be transformed where it will have a facelift externally and internally. It will be virtually a new Coliseum," explained Paul Lancey, the senior vice president of marketing and communications for the Lighthouse Project.

"[The project is important] to stay competitive on an experience platform [and] we don't have the technology in the building for lightshows and sound systems, and that would be part of the complete renovation of the Coliseum; so we can support new technologies and attract concerts and events [such as the] NCAAs," he added.

Nassau County accepted the Lighthouse plan in January 2007.

"I would say this is the first step to implementing what new suburbia looks like," chief deputy county executive Marilyn Gottlieb said. "We have the old suburban model from 60 years ago and that was great. But what people want, what the economy has created, we need to look at a change or a refinement of the old suburbia to something we call new suburbia.

"This is going to be a tremendous jump start to the economy in Nassau County," Gottlieb added. "That's one of the reasons we are so very supportive of the project and having it move forward; aside from being able to take this parcel, this huge 77-acre parking lot and turn it into productive use."

Most notable is that the project will be privately financed. Nassau County residents pay on average $7,726 in real estate tax – second highest in the nation – so any plan that would call for an increase in taxes would probably be met with virulent opposition.

"We're not asking taxpayers to pay for it," Gottlieb said. "The cost would be borne by the developer. The basic concept we had [was that] the person who is going to make the profit is going to pay for it."

So there is a privately financed development plan that was accepted by a county government. It would seem as if there is nothing to hold up a groundbreaking and redevelopment.

Therein lies the rub. The Town of Hempstead, the municipality in which Nassau Coliseum is encompassed, received the Lighthouse Project's rezoning application in November of 2007. Fourteen months later, the Town of Hempstead is still investigating possible multiple zoning and environmental issues tied into the developmental plan.

Perhaps that will cause the Islanders to look for a way off of Long Island.

Cities such as Hamilton, Ont., Hartford, Las Vegas, Portland and Kansas City have all expressed interest in having an NHL franchise.

Gottlieb said that the Lighthouse Project would turn the Coliseum area into a "social and economic hub." Along with drawing concerts and events, the plan anticipates creating close to 70,000 jobs. In the nation's current economic state, that may be most significant domino effect of the Lighthouse Project.

"I do believe it's a very important project and everyone understands that," Gottlieb said.

During the Jan. 15 Bruins-Islanders game, it was announced that the Islanders would play the Kings in a preseason game at Kansas City's state-of-the-art Sprint Center. Opened in October 2007, the Sprint Center can seat 17,001 for hockey. Built and run by Los Angeles Kings owner Philip Anschutz's AEG Worldwide Group, the Sprint Center could host an NHL franchise as soon as the 2009-2010 season according to an arena spokeswoman.

Is the September visit to Kansas City a case of the NHL perhaps checking out new digs? Is it the first home game for a relocated Islanders franchise? Or is it simply a preseason game in a potentially untapped market?

"As we travel from city to city during the season, we come across Islanders fans throughout the country," Islanders' general manager Garth Snow said in a statement last week. "I have had conversations with the Los Angeles Kings about and exhibition game and when they extended the invitation to play in Kansas City, I thought it provided a great opportunity to continue to grow our fan base."