News Article: Charles Wang Dead at 74

[Bunk Moreland]

Was a really terrible owner. But I didn't see this coming at all. Sad to hear condolences to his family.

 

[sabremike]

As many others have said: regardless of what you think of him as an owner (and I can't pretend a lot of what he did wasn't very negative) if he didn't exist neither would the Islanders. RIP.

 

[CodeE]

And on cue, Toronto fans arrive to the Charles Wang RIP thread in the main forum to spread lies about how awful our fanbase is and how we all wanted Wang dead.

 

[Riseonfire]

This is sad. RIP Charles.


If you've been here a while, I've said a few times my Uncle is his lawyer. He's been working around the clock the last two weeks and now we know why. He began writing the obituary for Newsday on Friday. Evidently his family was aware of his health and this was not a shock to the family.

Charles kept this team in NY. That will never change.

 

[sabremike]

And on cue, Toronto fans arrive to the Charles Wang RIP thread in the main forum to spread lies about how awful our fanbase is and how we all wanted Wang dead.

Just checked it and they all must've been pulled so good on the mods. Hope they got infractions for being such awful people as well.

Back on topic: is there any way the team can petition to wear the old black uniforms (which I'm sure they have a ton of in storage) for one night on Wednesday to signify mourning his passing?

 

[Drivefor5]

What the heck are you talking about?

It seems the website posted the Wang article 1:27 pm 9 minutes after my post 1:18 pm. I had not seen anything on the site when I made my comment.

 

[aronjudge11]

I don't see how Wang gets the credit for keeping the team. It had the best tv deal in the sport and ten miles to the biggest city in the country. All NHL teams were always increasing in value so he knew any millions he lost each season would be made up when he sold it. Plus Betman wasn't going to let them leave easily. He didn't even let Arizona move. If run properly, at an "average" level, like the rangers, the team probably makes an extra 100 million over the close to 20 years he was around. And the selling price to Malkin would of been 50 million higher, he may have had a new arena on long island by now and JT is probably still here....All this if it had been run, like a average team, not the penguin caps or kings....just average. So yeah no credit for staying in the metro area.

 

[seafoam]

 

[Lame Lambert]

I don't see how Wang gets the credit for keeping the team. It had the best tv deal in the sport and ten miles to the biggest city in the country. All NHL teams were always increasing in value so he knew any millions he lost each season would be made up when he sold it. Plus Betman wasn't going to let them leave easily. He didn't even let Arizona move. If run properly, at an "average" level, like the rangers, the team probably makes an extra 100 million over the close to 20 years he was around. And the selling price to Malkin would of been 50 million higher, he may have had a new arena on long island by now and JT is probably still here....All this if it had been run, like a average team, not the penguin caps or kings....just average. So yeah no credit for staying in the metro area.

I’ll give $5 to anyone who actually reads this entire post

 

[BelovedIsles]

Very sorry to read this. Always believed his intentions were in the right place, not his execution. I applaud his grandiose visions and for being a dreamer. I do not applaud his micromanaging business practices, treatment of his employees, and loyalty to Snow (based on statements I’ve read).

Still, surprised and sad about the news; I always had a soft spot for him purchasing NYI.

 

[Kevin27NYI]

Awful news, out of nowhere too, didn’t know he had cancer. RIP

And on cue, Toronto fans arrive to the Charles Wang RIP thread in the main forum to spread lies about how awful our fanbase is and how we all wanted Wang dead.

They are awful people

 

[kk]

RIP Charles Wang. Echoing many of the comments here, a controversial stay as owner of the Islanders, but if he hadn't bought the team when he did and fought the best he could to keep it here, we'd be talking about a team in a different city now. So I say thanks to Wang for all he did.

 

[MJF]

I don't see how Wang gets the credit for keeping the team. It had the best tv deal in the sport and ten miles to the biggest city in the country. All NHL teams were always increasing in value so he knew any millions he lost each season would be made up when he sold it. Plus Betman wasn't going to let them leave easily. He didn't even let Arizona move. If run properly, at an "average" level, like the rangers, the team probably makes an extra 100 million over the close to 20 years he was around. And the selling price to Malkin would of been 50 million higher, he may have had a new arena on long island by now and JT is probably still here....All this if it had been run, like a average team, not the penguin caps or kings....just average. So yeah no credit for staying in the metro area.

I have to agree with most of this post.

 

[ScaredStreit]

I don't see how Wang gets the credit for keeping the team. It had the best tv deal in the sport and ten miles to the biggest city in the country. All NHL teams were always increasing in value so he knew any millions he lost each season would be made up when he sold it. Plus Betman wasn't going to let them leave easily. He didn't even let Arizona move. If run properly, at an "average" level, like the rangers, the team probably makes an extra 100 million over the close to 20 years he was around. And the selling price to Malkin would of been 50 million higher, he may have had a new arena on long island by now and JT is probably still here....All this if it had been run, like a average team, not the penguin caps or kings....just average. So yeah no credit for staying in the metro area.

-NYC might be the biggest market in the country...but Long Island isn't. Let's not pretend like we draw a lot outside of the island. Attendance has been pitiful for decades now.

-We don't know what Bettman would allow and not allow, that's all opinion. He didn't blink twice to move a team from Atlanta which is the 9th largest metro area in the nation, now the largest without a team, had 2,500 more people per game in their season than we did.

-The TV deal is nice but teams with bigger deals in other sports have moved before.

Most owners absolutely would have bailed. You don't think they'd be doing better if they moved to Vegas, or Canada?

 

[SI90]

 

[MJF]

-NYC might be the biggest market in the country...but Long Island isn't. Let's not pretend like we draw a lot outside of the island. Attendance has been pitiful for decades now.

-We don't know what Bettman would allow and not allow, that's all opinion. He didn't blink twice to move a team from Atlanta which is the 9th largest metro area in the nation, now the largest without a team, had 2,500 more people per game in their season than we did.

-The TV deal is nice but teams with bigger deals in other sports have moved before.

Most owners absolutely would have bailed. You don't think they'd be doing better if they moved to Vegas, or Canada?

Then Wang would have been selling for a loss, something I doubt he was ever going to do. He paid over $190M in 2000. The team had devalued during Wang’s ownership until he moved them to Brooklyn.

That cable deal was still in it’s infancy by 2006 when Wang was blowing smoke about KC (whoch as you recall was a failure). It was the team’s lifeblood and was the reason he kept the team here. Wang wasn’t going to leave a dime on the table. Furthermore, the losses he claimed over the years he was certainly made whole for when he sold to Ledecky and Malkin.

For the record, tell me what US based NHL team moved out of market with a richer cable deal? A deal that in 2006 still had 25 years to run and approximately $675M in outstanding value? None. Because hockey isn’t other sports.

 

[Big L]

What a pisser. 74 isn’t that old. RIP, Charlie

 

[SI90]

Remember Wang had Hamonics mother on a flight from Alberta to New York before Hamonic even got to the hospital when Hamonic went down with that horrific injury that required surgery.

 

[Lights911]

 

[nyisleslover]

As fans, our love for our teams can be so great that we sometimes struggle to differentiate between our feelings for a person and their job performance or effectiveness, and in so doing we might lose site of the personal aspect familiar to all of us. I think a lot of the respects paid to Charles Wang here have been commendable. My heart goes out to his family, friends and those members of the organization who were close to him. It's a sad day.

 

[SI90]

Statement from Pegula and the Sabers.





It’s a shame things didn’t work out with Wang as owner because by all indications he was a great man that genuinely cared about people.

 

[Frankie41987]

And on cue, Toronto fans arrive to the Charles Wang RIP thread in the main forum to spread lies about how awful our fanbase is and how we all wanted Wang dead.

I only see one comment that I could potentially force myself to read offensive if I try really hard and it doesn't even look like that poster is a Leaf fan. Are you sure that actually happened? Cause I feel like the HFboards thing to do is to take 1 posters post on the main board and then come back to report to the home board about how all the opposing posters are insulting us. Not saying you are doing that (maybe the mods removed the posts) but that literally happens all the time and it's just kinda lame. Every fanbase has it's losers and jerks, no need to stoke a crusade.

 

[periferal]

It's human psychology to want things in balance. When someone has it all in life, we usually chop them down. When they're down, we usually pick them up.

So not surprising that when someone dies, there's a feeling of not wanting to trample on a man's grave, so we tend to always paint them in a positive light.

So to Charles Wang's family and those he cared about and that cared about him, I give condolences. The life and death of any human being is always more important than sport which, no matter how passionately we get about it, is never on the same level.

However if we're going to talk on the level of sport, we have to be honest that Charles Wang caused most of us Islander fans, who care so much about this team, nothing but heartache for about 15 years of our lives. His legacy to his family and friends might be of a wonderful human being, but his legacy as Islanders owner will simply be that of a blight on the franchise. A 15 year total waste of time from the on ice product to the arena he could never deliver. Ledecky & Malkin will be digging out from the charles wang ownership era for years to come.

Sure there are people in his inner circle - Such inept hockey guys like garth snow and mike milbury - who wang would have kept as Islander employees until they died if milbury didn't resign and snow wasn't properly "removed" by different ownership. And outside of sports of course there's people like Sanjay Kumar who was just released from prison last year after 12 years after essentially taking the fall for wang signing off on inflated earning reports at CA.

And perhaps the most frustrating thing is this theory where people like to give wang credit for is that he "saved the Islanders" from leaving. People have to understand there's a difference between wanting to stay on Long Island and saving the Islanders. Do I believe that charles wang wanted to get a new arena right next to the Coliseum? 100% yes. I also 1000% believe he was so inept in being able to do so which is why he failed twice. And it's absolutely not an accident that Ledecky/Malkin have delivered an approved new arena project almost immediately upon taking over.

There are results and there are words, and all charles wang had were words. If you put on your 20/20 glasses you can see that he accomplished nothing of note while Islanders owner other than keeping people around that he loved (and even after he was gone) and making a profit when he sold the team.

Let's also keep in mind that the SMG lease was UNBREAKABLE until 2015. Wang bought the team in 2000. That means the Isles weren't going anywhere for sure until then. At the same time the idea that cities like Kansas City and Quebec could work financially long-term is just fiction. Sure either one might have thrown an insane deal at the Isles, but the long-term financial viability of an NHL team does not compare to what being around New York City and the current cable deal can offer. The Islanders just needed the kind of project that L&M seem to have delivered on, and it's not surprising that as soon as wang was ready to sell (after he got "his arena" in the Barclay's Center) that a NY based ownership group was ready to buy the team. And I'm willing to bet they weren't the only one.

So at the end of the day in wang I don't see an owner who actually "kept the Isles in NY." I see a guy who professed his desire to keep the team here and many fans are confusing that with actually doing something, but really bigger things like the SMG lease, cable deal, and NY market were doing that regardless of what words came out of wang's mouth.

Instead wang failed all of us fans by having an inept captain in snow running his ship in milbury and then snow. And what a double insult to all of us that wang gave snow essentially a "you can now retire" contract as he he was handing the team over to Ledecky & Malkin. Wang's top priority was protecting his inner circle - And everything else came after that...Including us fans.

So today my heart hurts for wang's family, but the Islander fan in me is relieved that he officially can do no more damage to the team I love the most. Ledecky & Malkin might have majority ownership, but they may have felt they owed him something. Maybe him just being around the building had sway on certain people. I only hope now his estate sells his remaining portion of the team.

Just because a man dies and human nature wants to see any/all positive that he did during his life, doesn't mean that man actually did positive. I wasn't personally affected by any philanthropic venture wang supposedly had his hands in, because if I was I would happily sign the man's praises. This is a New York Islanders message board so I'm going to talk about the effect wang had on them. The only way wang affected my life was to cause me heartache by ruining something I truly love. That will be his legacy with the Islanders - A total failure.

I'll never miss him, but I do wish him peace.

 

[TommytheCat]

rip Charles Wang

 

[Doshell Propivo]

the Islander fan in me is relieved that he officially can do no more damage to the team I love the most. Ledecky & Malkin might have majority ownership, but they may have felt they owed him something. Maybe him just being around the building had sway on certain people. I only hope now his estate sells his remaining portion of the team.

Lovely.