Howard Dolgon's Mystery Bidder Out For Now/Leases 101

Syracuse.com: Howard Dolgon's friend has changed his mind and is not purchasing the New York Islanders.

Dolgon said the mystery money man behind a possible bid for the New York Islanders has reconsidered and said he's 99 percent sure he will not fund a purchase offer at this time.  Dolgon said the investor reassessed his work and family health issues and decided he could not fully commit now.

"It's just the timing,'' Dolgon said. "I said, 'You wanted me to bring you an opportunity. I did. I totally understand the timing is not right.' The guy with the money is the one who is going to decide if the timing is not right. Who knows what happened? He did say to me, 'If I'm going to do something, I'm going to be in 100 percent. Right now, I don't think I can do that.''

Dolgon would have been an investor in the group, and likely would have been involved in running the team in some manner. Dolgon said his friend left open the possibility of pursuing other NHL opportunities.

 "He made it very clear that it's something he's still interested in, whether it's this situation or something else that comes up,'' Dolgon said.

Reached by phone on Tuesday night, Dolgon said he does not know Barroway and has never spoken with him.

"Certainly I'm reachable, if he'd like to reach me,'' Dolgon said.
*************************************
Understanding Leases 101:
Just like the Islanders current lease with Nassau County, and the Islanders lease with Smg which run until 2015, they are strictly between the Islanders and the Municipality/company they made those agreements with. 

Same as the Dec 2009 sublease between Smg/Islanders.

What Do We Know About Islanders 25 Year, Binding, Iron-Clad, No Opt Out Lease At Barclay's?
Nothing beyond Charles Wang's comments in October 2012 for a lease that may not be binding until 2015 when the team begins play there. Rumor/gossip about financial agreements are not information. 


NHL:
The NHL has no control or say with regard to these leases or the one between the Islanders and Barclay's when a team makes an agreement within their territorial rights.

Gary Bettman:
Gary Bettman can provide lip service for a fellow member of the board of governors (team owner), he can complain about the local government treating a team poorly, but the league has no legal rights or involvement in those agreements.

What Does NHL Control:
What the New York Islanders cannot do is have two home arena's at Barclay's with some 2017 regular season games at a possible renovated Nassau Coliseum without NHL approval & Flyers, Devils, Rangers approval for the same reason the Rangers cannot play home games in the Bronx, and Manhattan without Islanders/Devil/Flyer owners approval.

Same for the Devils, they need above approvals (Islanders, Flyers, Rangers) to play games in Newark, and at their former Meadowlands home.

If the Flyers want two home arena's in Pennsylvania or Philadelphia, the Islanders, Devils, Rangers have the right to reject it.

Territorial rights matter, one home arena to a customer. 

What Do We Know About Islanders Television Rights Agreement With Cablevision?
It runs until 2031, and pays them hundreds of millions of dollars provided home games are in Nassau, Suffolk, Queens, Brooklyn, or a portion of Ct. 

The Devils in 2004 signed a similar agreement, the Sabres also have an agreement with Msg.

John Spano signed the Islanders deal at a time with Cablevision when Fox Sports/Msg were partners. 

What Breaks A Lease:
When both parties mutually agree or there is a clause permitting one side to break it. One side claiming the other violated their agreement does not make a lease broken.

Sure one party can pay the other in an agreement to break a lease early or extend it past it's term.

Atlanta Thrashers/Lease-Relocation:
The ownership group, Atlanta Spirit, owned the Thrashers, the NBA Hawks and the Philips Arena.

In other words they sold a part of what they owned the rights to in a building they owned/operated.  

That would kind of be like James Dolan deciding to sell the Rangers out of market and simply keep the Knicks in a building Msg owns with more concert dates, or the Islanders someday being sold to Bruce Ratner/Nets owners who then decided they no longer want a hockey team in their building.

The Islanders being owned by Charles Wang or another individual someday give them some protection as a tenant against their landlord in their lease terms.

The reverse there also applies in that Charles Wang or a future owner cannot decide he's moving the team.

Lease Tactics:
This is how Howard Milstein arrived at the Coliseum is not safe game plan long ago, he could not break his leases until 2015 so he decided to use the scoreboard excuse as an out while Gulotta was doing nothing to improve/replace the facility, with his infamous "Pigs at the Trough" comment.

As Howard Milstein found out just because you claim "constructive eviction" does not make it so. 

Gulotta to his final day made clear whoever owned the Islanders had to pay for a new/renovated arena on their own while Nassau County owned the building which is how by Oct 2012/millions in losses later Wang made an agreement elsewhere even with his hotel sitting next door.

Nassau found someone who will renovate, and will pay for the privilege in Bruce Ratner, exactly as Gulotta demanded while the Counrty makes money.

Everywhere else the local team was a public trust where the teams got hundreds of millions from the taxpayers to keep them. (Ok, you read that here enough/back on topic)

Phoenix:
Even with the league operating the franchise, Phoenix had a lease agreement with whoever operated/owned the Coyotes which was reworked many times prior to 2013.


On 7/3/13  Local council voted 4-3 in favor on a 15-year, $225 million lease agreement with Renaissance Sports & Entertainment during a special session.

The vote allowed RSE to purchase the Coyotes from the NHL, which has been running the team the past four years.

RSE announced a partnership with Global Spectrum, which owns the Philadelphia Flyers, to help manage Jobing.com Arena.

Global Spectrum is a fancy name for Smg or the current company that manages the Nassau Coliseum until summer 2015 when they are out for good.

In short for the Coyotes to be relocated RSE has to get permission to break the lease from the local council in Glendale, and have to negotiate terms with Smg to be out of their obligation.