Thursday, July 12, 2012

Blame Game Starting Between Politicians?

As I am sure you have seen over the last few days, new plans to develop the Nassau Coliseum have once again surfaced from both sides of the aisle.

Both plans have been criticized for their stupidity and lacking common sense.  County Executive Ed Manganos plan basically requires a developer to come in and build a new Coliseum, and recoup those losses with secondary development on the site under the TOH zone.  The same zone that the County Executive said was economically unfeasible when it was first released by the town.  Additionally the developer would also have to share Coliseum revenues with Wang.  Meanwhile, the Democrats plan would give Wang ownership of the land the Coliseum sits on for a very small fee, and he would be required to pay 320 million dollars for a new Coliseum meanwhile the remaining 80 million would be paid for by Nassau County, and Wang would be given right of refusal for any future development on the property.

I guess Mr. Manganos statements on the TOH zone escaped his mind when issuing this RFQ.  Also weren't the Democrats the ones last year saying that nothing from the taxpayers should be used to build up the Coliseum and the taxpayers agreed when voting down the referendum last year.  However, now not only are they spending Wangs money for him they are also going back on what they were saying last year and spending County money on this as well.  The obvious flaws with each plan have led some to suggest that the plans are just for show and aren't actually attempts that the politicians think can get off ground level.

Those same people think the politicians are just readying themselves to play the blame game when the Islanders leave town instead of actually trying to come up with a mutually beneficial plan to actually keep the team here.  In his latest piece for WFAN, BD Gallof goes as far as saying that many people who he has spoken to say its, "Brooklyn or Splitsville" for the Islanders."  Some don't consider Brooklyn a long term option because its not designed for hockey and there wouldn't be an enjoyable game experience.  However, I think if the arena received a long term commitment from the team they would explore making changes to make it better for hockey.

http://newyork.cbslocal.com/2012/07/12/gallof-bad-news-islanders-fans-new-nassau-coliseum-plan-is-fatally-flawed/


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