Happy Birthday Jiggs McDonald, Hill Signed, Notables

New York Islander Fan Central | 11/28/2012 08:01:00 PM |
New York Islander Fan Central wishes a very happy 74th birthday to New York Islander Hall of Fame Announcer, Jiggs McDonald.

NYIFC Comments:
As written many times already, item one on things to do list,  is to finally honor Mr McDonald in the New York Islanders Hall Of Fame next to Mr Westfall.

Bridgeport Sound Tigers announced today that defenseman Jordan Hill has agreed to terms on a one-year, American Hockey League deal.

NYIFC Comments:
Given the very recent struggles on defense, Wishart's absence with deHaan, Scott Pellerin has his first challenge as an AHL coach. For those who followed Bridgeport last season, Brent Thompson's club was 29th at the end of the calendar year 2011.

Yes, Casey Cizikas/David Ullstrom have to start showing some durability. Travis Hamonic has to be more of the offensive player he was in juniors. 

It was nice to see a feature on Niederreiter/Nilsson at Barclay's Monday.
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All that can be  repeated about Rick DiPietro is what was written on 11/5.
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* As always the policy here on NHL team finances is the lack of information does not make estimates with no access to that teams books credible.

That kind of information is for lazy media who need to write something to earn a paycheck, not here.

It's of no value at all to NHL fans.  

* It's always nice when folks do things for charity, and as presented here often NHL players are entitled to every penny that can get in contract negotiations.  Having written that someone who has received close to 30m dollars in bonus money already in anticipation of a lockout is hardly hurting financially.

Of course, Christian Ehrhoff, James Wisniewski, and many in the 2011-12 massive front-loaded club in anticipation of a league shutdown have not advertised anything charitable.

My point is charity is great, however let's not lose focus on the contracts that are a big part of what's going on right now.

Nassau To Name Coliseum Developer. Who Cares?

New York Islander Fan Central | 11/20/2012 06:33:00 AM |
Long Island Business News: Reports Officials are expected to name a  development team headed by Donald Monti of Plainview-based Renaissance Downtowns has been chosen to redevelop the 77 acres surrounding the Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum, according to officials familiar with the plan.

Brooklyn Barclays Center developer Bruce Ratner has also been selected to assess the aging Coliseum and provide an optimization report to the county on how to best market the facility, officials said.

The development group headed by Monti includes RXR Realty, Jones Lang Lasalle and Woodbury-based Spector Group. Nassau County Executive Ed Mangano was expected to unveil the plan on Tuesday, the officials said.

NYIFC Comments: 
The bottom line is Charles Wang signed a twenty five year iron clad lease in Brooklyn starting in 2015-16.

It does not matter if a new Coliseum is constructed or what happens with Charles Wang's hotel or abatement in regard to the New York Islanders beyond his personal finances. Who develops the land or brings in a potential team is now relegated to a footnote unless it's connected to the Islanders at the ECHL level.

It does not matter how much longer Charles Wang owns the team or leaves the Coliseum either sooner or in Sept 2015.

The New York Islanders are finished at the Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum.

The Bridgeport Sound Tigers have a binding lease until 2021 which this blog has detailed countless times.

Charles Wang is running/renovating Webster Bank Arena via his sublease. Sound Tiger President/Wang employee, Howard Saffan, pre/post referendum made clear the Sound Tigers are staying in Bridgeport regardless of what happens at the Coliseum.

That's the cold reality regardless where you stand with that decision or who develops what.  

That means regarding developing the Coliseum site in the long-term who cares?

New York Notables: What's Next?

New York Islander Fan Central | 11/12/2012 04:03:00 PM |
New York Islander Fan Central has presented it's views on the lockout, with the early offers to the best of what was provided.

This blog is done now writing about the lockout. The media spin/rhetoric for both sides blaming one another with the players speaking, but not the owners make for entertainment, not information. 

Writers in Canada/US guessing about team finances or markets is just that, and this blog understands they have to produce something or their editors will have to give them another assignment to earn a living.

In other words it's a waste of everyone's time.

When/if an agreement is reached an entry will be written about the terms.

It should be noted the one big announcement Gary Bettman made at the Islanders press conference that got no mention was Gary Bettman emphatically said no NHL expansion forty seconds.

The 1994-95 lockout did not end until Jan 11th.

During the 2004-05 lockout the season wasn’t canceled until Feb. 16th.  ***********************************  
What's Next?
The Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum is hosting a New York Islander-related event with no players present. Because of Disney On Ice since 11/6 at the Coliseum the ice was already down.

As written in recent entries, only Charles Wang/Smg/Nassau know if the team opted out of it's Dec 2009 sublease, it will be the first event since the NHL draft.

Will Charles Wang own the team when it moves in 2015-16 is a story for another day.

What's binding is the new 25 year lease which we have no real details about.  

Rebuilding A Fan Base:
For now the New York Islanders desperately have a fan base to build/rebuild.

The Nets with tons of media/advertising in a brand new building had 3,000 available tickets on a Monday, 1,000 on a Sunday night for a sport far more popular in New York.

By October 2015 when the New York Islanders relocate (if not earlier) the story of a new facility will have long since faded.

Garth Snow, Jack Capuano, Doug Weight? Three years is an eternity for their roles, if the team does not win expect changes or internal later moves.

Spending More?
If Charles Wang continues to own the team, he will be spending more simply because the back-loaded contract years are going to start when the club moves. Do not expect the building to change anything in free agency for the same reason it never did in Toronto, Montreal or with teams that refused to front-load if that's part of the next CBA.

Wang's xm radio comments about the front-loaded contracts give the impression he would not do them under the expired CBA which fall in line with many of his counterparts. 

I asked the Islanders twitter for the link to his full interview.

Coliseum's Future: 
Whatever Charles Wang does with his hotel/abatement now does not matter in terms of New York Islander hockey revenue so the Coliseum's future becomes another subject.  Only he knows how it balanced out financially for him to potentially own the team in Brooklyn vs the Coliseum.

Bottom line is come September 2015 the Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum will no longer house an NHL franchise. Unless Charles Wang purchases an ECHL team there will be no New York Islander related tenant given his agreements in Bridgeport last until 2021.  

Circumstances: 
The circumstances in the New York/Tri State Area right now are so bad for many, it's not really a time for sports to enter a discussion among politicians.
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Bridgeport:
The good news is Anders Nilsson is back playing, the better news is Brock Nelson is statistically looking like he can produce at the AHL level. David Ullstrom is still out, Casey Cizikas left Sunday's game.

Sound Tigers website: Report on the new scoreboard/matrix boards Charles Wang likely paid for at his managed Webster Bank Arena, as he did at the Nassau Coliseum in 2002 long ago via Bridgeport team president Howard Saffan.

New York Notables/DiPietro Not Injured

New York Islander Fan Central | 11/05/2012 07:12:00 PM |
NY Post: Rick DiPietro told the New York Post he is not injured. 

NYIFC Comments: 
Bottom line if Rick DiPietro (or any player participating in other leagues) is not cleared by the NHL team doctors whenever this lock out ends, the insurance coverage they signed to play with their respective European team is responsible to whatever the player insured himself for.
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Bridgeport:
On the Bridgeport front it's been a mixed bag with deHaan's season ending shoulder injury a huge problem moving forward, count Kirill Kabanov's injury in that mix but not season ending.

Anders Nilsson's illness/injury has prevented him from starting a single game which is very disquieting, David Ullstrom has a lower body injury but day to day. Casey Cizikas picked up where he left off.

The good news on the Bridgeport front clearly is how seamlessly Brock Nelson, Nino Niederreiter, John Persson have adapted to this level so far in terms of production.  It's an excellent start, however many top picks go to the AHL and do well with Jeff Tambellini an example.

Lockout Negotiations Second Thoughts? 
I wrote recently the players are entitled to every penny of their newly signed contracts, but the thing about those contracts are they were signed under the terms of the previous CBA which included escrow.

I did not consider that at the time. 

Under that CBA it meant they could lose a portion of those contracts, you can be sure many owners/players knew that when the contracts were signed.

The league's apparent recent offers did promise the players full contracts be honored, however with the revenue split changing that means they may not receive the full value in a 50/50 split so call the wordsmith for the collective rhetoric on the escrow.

Of course let's be clear, the paychecks being lost by the players with no salary is going to start costing a lot more than any escrow/revenue split down the road.

As for the rest the usual media suspects are doing it's collective market song/dance.


New York Islander Logo Change: Media Hypocrisy vs Status Quo

New York Islander Fan Central | 11/03/2012 02:25:00 PM |
The New York Islanders have somewhat of a unique problem brought on by their legendary iconic logo.

The team represents all of New York/Tri State Area. It always has so the name New York Islanders cannot change. 1996 management logo disaster notwithstanding.

They are only one of two teams in New York/New Jersey with a logo that reflects a territory or an area of land.

The Mets logo shows a bridge and the background of Manhattan skyscrapers where they did play in 1962 at the Polo Grounds as an expansion team. It has nothing to do with Queens County since 1964.

Depending on how you see things the Islander logo requires a slight tweak to include the entire region which should also now include Manhattan if you care about being logistically correct.  

Hypocrisy Vs Status Quo:
Nothing new.

We have two New Jersey football teams calling themselves New York since 1976/1984, with a media/league completely on board with that hypocrisy. The politicians wake up come parade time or when New Jersey is awarded a Superbowl.

Mayor Koch, who did not know Msg was getting a permanent tax exemption in 1982 in this 2002 interview got it right on the New Jersey Giants 1986 parade in  Moonachie, N.J. which this week was underwater.

The Giants when they first relocated removed the NY from the helmet, going with Giants, that sensitivity has long since gone out the window with no semblance of pretense.

The New York Cosmos never changed names to New Jersey after settling in the Meadowlands, with a long history of being orphans from Long Island to Yankee/Shea Stadium to Randalls Island, back to the Coliseum as an indoor team before the brand folded to the current day with the North American Soccer League.

The New York/New Jersey Metro Stars, a franchise that has never played one game in New York, re-branded as the New York Red Bull in a taxpayer funded New Jersey stadium after they left the former Giants Stadium (1976 New Jersey taxpayer bonded) Meadowlands where the bonds were forgiven before it's demolition.

Dolan's WNBA NY Liberty, currently plays in New Jersey, but has Fox Woods Casino on the uniform as to what area they represent?

The other teams whether it be the Bronx Yankees, Manhattan Knicks/Rangers never had logo's that reflected a specific region.

The Nets since leaving the Coliseum as an ABA champion, were all over the map in name/logo whether it be Piscataway, Meadowlands, Prudential Center with New York/New Jersey on several versions, now Brooklyn which is ridiculous because the other teams do not call themselves by borough, and 1955 was a long time ago.

The Devils have consistently stayed New Jersey since day one, despite sharing a parking lot at the Meadowlands with all this team/media hypocrisy.

Yes, the media  got far more honest about what state teams represented when the Nets/Devils went to their respective finals in the same year for about a week.

The New York Islanders Moving Forward:
Is this a big deal? No, because the Islanders can create tons of secondary uniform merchandising to represent any borough or community from New Jersey to Albany, to Montauk which is the true historic influence of the tri-state area fan base.

The Islanders current team store at the Coliseum has merchandise that has Long Island, New York.

Wang made his Long Island only bed far too often for the Lighthouse/Referendum as he discussed in 2011 his ticket demographics coming from inside the city limits which he did again last week. Wang's predecessor's also played the Long Island card, which many Ranger media fans made sure to keep them firmly in, despite the generations of fans who saw this team on channel 9, and considered them New York, and went in big numbers to Msg/New Jersey.

Wang's eventual successor may have his own concept of branding. Mike Bossy said it best for me when he spoke to Wang about his retired number.

A team with this legendary tradition cannot change what it represents, the greatest US dynasty in NHL history, the only pro team to win nineteen straight playoff series, the only Championship Tradition New York has ever known.

Arguably the greatest dynasty in NHL history.

Does it matter what professional media believe? No, simply because they have not been consistent in applying the same standards for all the teams.

Correct means a publication has to write the truth, even if the team does not want that branding perception and it may cost that paper ad dollars which is how this game always plays out so it becomes politically correct for that media companies bottom line.


Newspapers cannot afford to lose teams $$ support so they will call them what they are told by the team.

We all know the New York Islanders have the worst professional media of any team in North America, so the hypocrisy coverage standards (what saves x paper money) are part of this story.

That problem will continue in Brooklyn. 

Notables:
What do you want me to write about Al D'Amato, politicians that was not on my twitter feed or in past entries?

If the New York Nassau County referendum was in the South Bronx (pick a New York/New Jersey team)  it would have received far less than forty three percent.

The will of the people card gave every politician their out. 

NYC Marathon NO. (completely agree with cancellation)
Cablevision needs it's opening night renovation fund payday local resources diverted notwithstanding (good for NYC healing spin) so papers who need 82 (not one yearly race) Knick games get on board with propaganda.

What Charles Wang is doing in Bridgeport (free tickets/two games) is a diversion.
Dolan giving back 500k of his 11m tax exemption from NYC is something else, despite his papers rhetoric.

Would have been fun if Bloomberg called off the Dolan's party with the Marathon. (West Side Stadium Shelly Silver for Mr Bloomberg on line two urgent)

Happy 80th Birthday Al Arbour

New York Islander Fan Central | 11/01/2012 05:45:00 PM |
NHL.com: Has a feature celebrating the 80th birthday of Al Arbour.