Bridgeport Sound Tigers Should Have Played Brooklyn/Coliseum Games

Anyone who has followed the New York Islanders vs Devils preseason folly game in Brooklyn since it was announced in January had to know it would never be played.

On 9/27 the NHL made that official with the remainder of the NHL preseason cancelled.

The question here would be if the Sound Tigers (owned by the Islanders) can quickly schedule two road  games for Bridgeport why did they not simply play the Brooklyn/Nassau Coliseum  Islander preseason games instead?

Charles Wang manages Webster Bank Arena in Bridgeport, per the Isles sublease he's managing the Nassau Coliseum unless he opted out. 

Bottom line either the officials in Brooklyn would not allow it, meaning they have to refund money for a scheduled event in a brand new facility which makes little sense, the NHL/AHL would not allow their organizations to make such a switch which seems strange when a game has already sold thousands of tickets vs hundreds who will turn out for a regularly/newly (9/18 announced) scheduled AHL preseason game, or the Islanders/Devils were no longer interested without NHL player involvement which again seems strange because many of the same prospects likely would have participated.

Is someone going to tell me the two organizations the Sound Tigers recently schedule as a preseason road games had no interest in going to Brooklyn or the Nassau Coliseum for a far bigger gate? 

Albany Devils had one preseason game scheduled 10/6 and seem to be having their camp in Newark, it would seem strange Lou Lamoriello would be opposed. 

The Dolan's quickly moved an 2012 AHL playoff game to Charles Wang's managed Webster Bank Arena after they eliminated the Sound Tigers, the Knicks are playing at the Coliseum, and in a miracle the Dolan's agreed to send their NHL team to the Coliseum for a game against the Islanders so it's hard to believe something could not have been worked out at the AHL level.

If the Bridgeport Sound Tigers had scheduled home or road preseason games months ago for these days that would be another matter.

If I'm the New York Islanders I bring the twenty eight Sound Tigers invited players to Brooklyn/Nassau Coliseum, do what they did in June with prospect camp game at Iceworks, and play four on four if another AHL team is not interested which seems highly unlikely.

Ask some alumni to play a charity game. 

For some reason none of that is happening. 

This was about an event, never any kind of audition for the Islanders relocation there which is just as big a folly than past preseason games in other locations.  

Brett Yormark's twitter is not talking.

This is one the New York Islander fans deserve an answer about. 
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Islanders website: Announced the Sound Tigers roster of players in camp as they checked into Charles Wang's Marriott Hotel next to the Nassau Coliseum

Sound Tigers website: Announced it's training camp schedule which opens 9/28.
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NYIFC Announcement:
No more wasting space here carrying news outlets not doing their job covering the New York Islanders in exchange for slower loading pages.

It's charity continuing carrying the NHL.com needs feed here.

nyislanderfancentralprospects.blogspot.com has the Sound Tigers news articles/updates, the Ct Post articles/feeds have been there.

The prospect blog has updated all Bridgeport roster numbers, the players now in Bridgeport have had their prospect profiles removed.

New York Notables: Spin Game

The spin game is working overtime so a few quick notables.

There is simply no desire to write blog entries here beyond important updates, there will be no filler entries here for the sake of writing.

The prospect blog has the Islander website weekly prospect updates, if NHL players are injured in other leagues, that will be reported somewhere.

A Few Quick Comments:
* Am I a fan of Jim Devellano's cattle comment? Absolutely not, however the rest of his words were spot on, and the most honest analysis you are going to get. Some media have agenda's that are not about the fans, but only themselves. Devellano brought up Ed Snider/Mike Illitch faster than this blog does, he discussed the overhead/costs running an NHL franchise. 

* Funny how when the New York Islanders owned the Stanley Cup from 1980-1983 the NHL did not have lockouts, require revenue sharing because other markets needed to spend so much more because they could not build a winner. In New York hockey was a major sport despite Msg crying poverty threatening relocation to New Jersey/Nassau County. 

In this blogs view the NHL was at the height of it's popularity in the US.  

Today WFAN had Mike Francesa talking Rangers game six. Texas Rangers.  

Now the New York Islanders should receive revenue sharing/extra draft picks because Comcast, NBC Sports Network/Smg/Ed Snider Flyers need to keep front-loading as many contracts as they can write off to gain a competitive while they flip their mistakes to other markets that cannot afford front-loaded deals, however can take those players who have already been paid the biggest parts of their signing bonus money?

1980 the Flyers had a great team without any of that.

* For a team who's lease ends a year before the Islanders that has not broken ground on anything, the Canadian media sure did jump high to defend the Oilers never leaving, not ranting on their arena like they do the Nassau Coliseum or Phoenix.

Of course the Toronto Maple Leafs do not own the Edmonton Sun/Journal, or pay them to produce the games on the least visible channels. Nor do they owe the Oilers a few hundred million and a vested financial gain in seeing them move elsewhere.

 Note-I took a few twitter shots at Dolan's reporter Randi Marshall that were removed from here but remain on twitter. (slow page loading)

I want to know how much Dolan has to pay the Isles every single year until 2030 in cable contract money, and how much Cablevison/Msg/Newsday saves by the Isles relocating plus value of the territorial rights.

So far Mr Katz's agreement with Edmonton got him some taxpayer funding, now he wants a check like the potential Coyotes owner for managing his new building, unlike Charles Wang's referendum agreement where he is not paid for being their Smg, or getting a permanent tax exemption like the Cablevision Garden. 


Funny, I never saw Charles Wang go to another city with Mike Bossy or Bryan Trottier, holding a press conference. 

Of course in July 2010 this blog was writing about Mr Katz in Edmonton, who has not been an owner for very long with no history of spending as Charles Wang did.

Uticaod.com: Don Laibel, who's been the best Islander centric writer all summer has an upcoming interview with former head coach. Steve Stirling.

Leaderpost: Mike Bossy will appear  at "Champion The Cause: An Evening With Mike Bossy'' in support of the Children's Justice Foundation. The event is to be held Wednesday night at the University of Regina's Centre for Kinesiology, Health and Sport (CKHS).

Montreal Gazette: Pat Hickey who flat out guessed or did not know on twitter claimed Scott Gomez refused a trade to the Isles (which was not true refuted by media/player/agent) does not even know Bruno Gervais is on his second team since leaving New York.

Espn: So Mario Lemieux says games in outside markets were about "[Pressure] was felt, and that was the important thing," Lemieux said then. "A lot of things happened throughout the negotiations. Ups and downs. That was just a way for us to put more pressure, and we knew it would work."

Is this the same Mario Lemieux who was ready to quit owning a team after the Isles 9-3 beatdown that was employing Matt Cooke or was he still being paid back as an owner/creditor?

Correction:
In the recent entry on 30 teams financial losses/30 days last month, an article was referenced from Toronto Star on Caps receiving revenue sharing in 2010. Caps Owner Ted Leonsis responded the next day disputing the writer.

An April 2009 Washington Post article has Caps President Dick Patrick's comments on Caps losses and revenue sharing to be fair to our readers.