Newsday: Charles Wang’s greatest victory: Keeping Isles in NY

[Lame Lambert]

I guess it depends on your perspective. For me personally, Wang is the biggest sports villain of all time AINEC.. It is true that a long list of owners eroded the bond with the community and made the team irrelevant for all but the diehards but he made that call. The last emperor of rome after a long period of decline. To me it is obvious he had zero altruistic intentions for this fanbase between the way we were treated, the shams he pulled for show such as the referendum and his dealings with the town/county.. the politicians were awful but if Wang wanted to get something done he would have through compromise..rather he did a good job of pushing blame onto politicians and voters, most of who didnt even know the islanders existed due to poor management over a 20 year period. you can't convince me it was not all about the money and development.. Brooklyn is great for those who have ties to there but they are staunchly independent and proud, separated by way more than 20+ miles.. within 5 years I would expect us to be the Brooklyn Islanders with Black primary uni's and completely disassociated with their original home.. I would not have felt that way if they had moved to queens, suffolk or even manhattan with the rangers.
I despise wang with every bone in my body..

I don't usually mince words like that and will be more definitive in my opinions next time..

Well said

Why are some of you still arguing with this conspiracy theorist/Wang's son?

 

[LetsGoIslanders]

Who was buying this team in 2000 with the intention of keeping it on Long Island after the Spano fiasco? No one. Gary Bettman had to coax Wang to buy the team. In 2000 there was a lot of free money. The dot-com bubble was about to bust.

I ****ing hate dealing with New Yorkers who haven't left the land where you can get pizza-by-a-slice. It's always a tragedy, always negative. Yeah, the guy wants to make a profit, he's a business owner. Was Wang a cheapskate? Did he hang on to Milbury way too long? Yes.

The team is in Brooklyn, not Kansas City. That is a victory in itself. The Sprint Center in Kansas City is vacant because of Wang.

 

[MattMartin]

Stopping by to say.....Is this a joke??????

 

[A Pointed Stick]

Who was buying this team in 2000 with the intention of keeping it on Long Island after the Spano fiasco? No one. Gary Bettman had to coax Wang to buy the team.

I ****ing hate dealing with New Yorkers who haven't left the land where you can get pizza-by-a-slice. It's always a tragedy, always negative. Yeah, the guy wants to make a profit, he's a business owner. Was Wang a cheapskate? Did he hang on to Milbury way too long?

The team is in Brooklyn, not Kansas City. That is a victory in itself. The Sprint Center in Kansas City is vacant because of Wang.

They were never going to Kansas. If you think they were I have some land in Florida to sell you.

 

[MattMartin]

They were never going to Kansas. If you think they were I have some land in Florida to sell you.

What was the turnout in that preseason game? 12 people?

 

[Lame Lambert]

They were never going to Kansas. If you think they were I have some land in Florida to sell you.

Tell me about this land

 

[LetsGoIslanders]

They were never going to Kansas. If you think they were I have some land in Florida to sell you.

Fine. Tell me who would've bought the team. Gutkowski or whatever his name was never got the proper financing. Banks aren't as stupid as people who buy sports franchises. They saw problems with the land deal.

 

[periferal]

Fine. Tell me who would've bought the team. Gutkowski or whatever his name was never got the proper financing. Banks aren't as stupid as people who buy sports franchises. They saw problems with the land deal.

Homework assignment:

Name for me the owners of the Phoenix/Arizona Coyotes over the past decade.

Seriously...Look it up and let me know when it hits you.

And while you're doing that, keep in mind that the NEW YORK Islanders have the 6th highest cable deal that runs until 2031...A deal that would be voided, and SIGNIFICANTLY LESS, no matter what other city they moved to.

The Isles were going NOWHERE.

 

[edott]

I guess it depends on your perspective. For me personally, Wang is the biggest sports villain of all time AINEC.. It is true that a long list of owners eroded the bond with the community and made the team irrelevant for all but the diehards but he made that call. The last emperor of rome after a long period of decline. To me it is obvious he had zero altruistic intentions for this fanbase between the way we were treated, the shams he pulled for show such as the referendum and his dealings with the town/county.. the politicians were awful but if Wang wanted to get something done he would have through compromise..rather he did a good job of pushing blame onto politicians and voters, most of who didnt even know the islanders existed due to poor management over a 20 year period. you can't convince me it was not all about the money and development.. Brooklyn is great for those who have ties to there but they are staunchly independent and proud, separated by way more than 20+ miles.. within 5 years I would expect us to be the Brooklyn Islanders with Black primary uni's and completely disassociated with their original home.. I would not have felt that way if they had moved to queens, suffolk or even manhattan with the rangers.
I despise wang with every bone in my body..

I don't usually mince words like that and will be more definitive in my opinions next time..

It does depend on your perspective. I have seen the history of this since day one. Wang's thank you gift when he closed the sale was Tom Gulotta putting a new surcharge on tickets after he decided he had to be the one to break the sale.

The sale happened this way. Ed Milstein still wanted to give it a try as full owner for his brother Howard, Wang turned them down but D'Amato finally talked Wang into doing it.

I disagree with you claiming everywhere in NY is fine but not where the team is now in NY does not make much sense. Wang did not put the team in East Rutherford NJ and Yormark got beaten so badly he's not touching that name or logo ever. The alumni keep coming and seem fine with being there too. Mangano ignored every playoff now or in Nassau, Murray told Msg's newspaper she was a Ranger fan and it's exciting. (with Sheldon Silver not allowing any repeal vote and Andy Cuomo feeling every team got money so the Garden still deserves their yearly check despite NYC voting 47-1 to revoke it)

Wang and Rechler spent twenty million dollars for that LH project and did over 200 community meetings. Nassau still held 5.1 million in escrow hostage until a few weeks ago and would not give it back unless Wang put 1 million into Cantiague, and promised 10 years of practices at Northwell. 600K from a year ago disappeared and he was not even allowed to expand construction for teams offices beyond Northwell's footprint.

As for the rest this also depends on your perspective or where you have been since this began back in 1991 with Pickett and Torrey saying the Nassau Coliseum cannot be left behind by Nassau because the 1968 dump in Manhattan got a 200 million dollar renovation to go with their property tax exemption and free electricity and it was time for a new building here after all those Stanley Cups.

Every team in NY and NJ got paid for new modern buildings. The baseball mayors paid 1.5 billion for a convicted felon's moat and monument park to his ego and Madoff's pal Wilpon got his cash and wants his development, the NJ Giants stadium debt was forgiven from 1976. The New Jersey mayor paid for a new Devils arena and a soccer stadium for the NJ Red Bulls. Ratner got paid for his arena. Dinkins the tennis mayor got his stadium the final day of his administration and now another 500 million via taxpayers goes into that.

Our owners got Gulotta who told the Islanders pay for their own arena and win more games and refused to condemn Smg's lease, Mondello, D'Amato, Suozzi, Judy and Jay (PSL Coliseum only) Jacobs, Suozzi and Mangano and Murray with Ed Snider's Flyers running Smg lease going from a six year review in 1985 to an automatic extension to 2015 and a bunch of fans who were committed to opening night and little else because they never experienced losing.

Smg got all parking, concessions, eleven percent of ticket revenue and 40 percent of advertising. Wang in Dec 2009 paid 17 million through 2015 for the sublease to get all that revenue back. Smg hired a new gm for Coliseum in 2012 and took back booking arena events from Wang so deal may have fallen apart.

Mangano did his referendum to get the team out on the will of the people card because every other team would have been voted down too. Wang tried again in 2012 before deciding time's up. Alumni flat out blame Nassau and not Wang for this.

Every owner or potential owner with real money offered a new arena for land to finance the team (like many NHL teams owners demand now) crazy Nassau county had the oldest un-renovated arena in North America with a tenant doing their maintenance and you seriously still think this is Wang's fault?

If Charles Wang bought a team with a new building, revenue streams from government, league and development to fund team and pocketed the money your point would be fair.

This was Wang's final un-reported effort to keep the team there, he sent Picker to legislature 2/14/12 after the referendum and he was not even scheduled to show up. He made clear nothing charge despite referendum, and Wang wanted to do a deal.


How about answering my question? If Wang was so unreasonable and such a problem how come the NHL did the deal with him for Neulion and all these sports leagues streaming rights since 2006. How did he make the deals for Bridgeport and to run/rename WBA since 2011 to 2021 or get both the Democrats and Republican to support the LH and referendum? Why did he buy Marriott for 90 million which still houses his players after he sold it in foreclosure for 66 million? How did he get any deal done with Barclay's? How did he settle litigation with Smg in 2000 and make any sublease deal which angered Mangano because Suozzi agreed to it his final days in Dec 2009?

How come long before Wang came along was the NHL ripping Nassau and TOH for not doing the right thing by this franchise?

 

[A Pointed Stick]

Homework assignment:

Name for me the owners of the Phoenix/Arizona Coyotes over the past decade.

Seriously...Look it up and let me know when it hits you.

And while you're doing that, keep in mind that the NEW YORK Islanders have the 6th highest cable deal that runs until 2031...A deal that would be voided, and SIGNIFICANTLY LESS, no matter what other city they moved to.

The Isles were going NOWHERE.

Thank you.

 

[A Pointed Stick]

Tell me about this land

It was once a pristine lagoon, but then Dolan's evil minions filled it in with radioactive waste. Luckily Charles Wang spread his arms above the land sucking out the contagion it held. It is now a pasture for rainbow unicorns. I'll sell it to you for $20.

 

[MJF]

I guess it depends on your perspective. For me personally, Wang is the biggest sports villain of all time AINEC.. It is true that a long list of owners eroded the bond with the community and made the team irrelevant for all but the diehards but he made that call. The last emperor of rome after a long period of decline. To me it is obvious he had zero altruistic intentions for this fanbase between the way we were treated, the shams he pulled for show such as the referendum and his dealings with the town/county.. the politicians were awful but if Wang wanted to get something done he would have through compromise..rather he did a good job of pushing blame onto politicians and voters, most of who didnt even know the islanders existed due to poor management over a 20 year period. you can't convince me it was not all about the money and development.. Brooklyn is great for those who have ties to there but they are staunchly independent and proud, separated by way more than 20+ miles.. within 5 years I would expect us to be the Brooklyn Islanders with Black primary uni's and completely disassociated with their original home.. I would not have felt that way if they had moved to queens, suffolk or even manhattan with the rangers.
I despise wang with every bone in my body..

I don't usually mince words like that and will be more definitive in my opinions next time..

Yup. As I said further upthread, Charles Wang is one of the worst owners in professional sports. Right up there with Donald Sterling.

 

[MJF]

They were never going to Kansas. If you think they were I have some land in Florida to sell you.

This. A thousand times this.

 

[MJF]

Homework assignment:

Name for me the owners of the Phoenix/Arizona Coyotes over the past decade.

Seriously...Look it up and let me know when it hits you.

And while you're doing that, keep in mind that the NEW YORK Islanders have the 6th highest cable deal that runs until 2031...A deal that would be voided, and SIGNIFICANTLY LESS, no matter what other city they moved to.

The Isles were going NOWHERE.

That's a bingo.

 

[MJF]

It was once a pristine lagoon, but then Dolan's evil minions filled it in with radioactive waste. Luckily Charles Wang spread his arms above the land sucking out the contagion it held. It is now a pasture for rainbow unicorns. I'll sell it to you for $20.

 

[edott]

Circa 2012:
Wang: Chuck Dolan how are you buddy, it's Charles Wang.
Chuck Dolan: Charles, how's it goin?
Wang: Good, little Jimmy rehire Isiah again? We have to catch a Knicks game..LOL
Chuck: You kidding pal, I'm not getting booed and have settled enough lawsuits for him..
Wang: I hear you, listen Chuck, this is not working for me in Nassau and we know you don't want us at Barclay's and the kid really loves the Coliseum and wants to make another Msg venue to go with the LA forum in California you now own. I know you changed the tv deal from 18 percent of all MSG revenue to a flat rate through 2031 so you put the games back on television for Milstein, but let's do a cable contract buyout, you owe us 300 million to 2031, how about 200 million and I sell the team out of market and get about 500 million when it's done. Jimmy gets the Coliseum for his Ranger AHL team, preseason games and Nassau is all his headache. We'll both be gone by 2031.
Chuck, sounds good, you did all you could there, we'll put our AHL games on our network to replace Islander games, the fans who never show up won't care. AHL Long Island Rangers would do fine at Coliseum.
Wang: Great, I'll start looking for a buyer out of town and tell Bruce Ratner thanks but Barclay's is not going to work, the league is so sick of Nassau County, they will love some real revenue like they just got in Winnipeg, by 2015 when lease ends there will be fans a lot more desperate to support an expansion team than here. I'm done cleaning up flooded bathrooms I renovated for Mangano and never want to hear the name Kate Murray ever again.
Chuck, thanks so much for the call, Charles, Murray makes us sick too.
Wang: Regards to Jimmy, tell Carmello to pass the ball, even we made more playoffs.
Chuck: You have no idea how bad it's been.
Wang: Have Newsday go easy on us.

Have the kid invite me to a Knicks game with Lamoriello.

 

[The Underboss]

This thread turned into the fire ball I thought it would.