7/28 Nassau IDA Gives Ratner Unanimous Approval For Coliseum Renovation Tax Money

New York Islander Fan Central | 7/28/2015 07:09:00 PM |
For those scoring at home the IDA tax money comes to about four million dollars. Dolan's Newspaper will continue to make this somehow seem worse than their plan because he lost, wanting control of all real estate rights & more tax exemptions on Coliseum & surrounding plaza than Ratner.

New York Islanders 1972-73/2015-16 Nothing's Changed...The Correct Logo

New York Islander Fan Central | 7/22/2015 10:17:00 AM |
As I have written in the past I have no problem with the New York Islanders keeping their iconic logo which has been changed from darker blue/orange to a logo with four stripes. Few noticed.

The hypocrisy has been written about often here how media selectively brand teams for their own marketing purposes, revenue and bottom line as the New Jersey football teams (and the Red Bull) market themselves as New York.

The media will not use the following names:
New Jersey Giants
New Jersey Jets
New Jersey Red Bull
Queens Mets
Bronx Yankees
Manhattan Knicks
Manhattan Rangers
Newark Devils
Bronx NYCFC
Manhattan Liberty

That would cost newspaper publishers/editors their jobs, and ruin business relationships with teams not named Washington Redskins. (Daily News)

The Daily News spindoctors make absoultely clear for the Nets winning will never equal coverage.

All of these teams generic logo's never included a map.

How poorly the Nets have been branded since day one speaks to how Mr Yormark markets or is told to by his boss.

Mr Yormark will continue to use the word Brooklyn three times in every paragraph which will do a ton of damage to the NEW YORK Islander brand, reality is he would have doubled/his ticket season base/marketing/ad revenue simply branding like his counterparts.

What's obvious is fans/businesses all over the tri-state area have decided if the Nets want to be Brooklyn, they will not embrace them as a New York team.

The marketing house of cards Mr Yormark created with the Nets shows a fan base, not very vocal or visible, with the worst television ratings, who got less playoff attention in NYC than the Islanders (or the Rangers) which frankly is a media miracle in a huge basketball market that screams branding a New York based team Brooklyn does not work.

The Knicks back into an 8th seed and their media cheerleaders are hanging on every single shot.

The Barclay's/Nets novelty has worn off after three years, and the current ownership's basketball plan to overspend x 10 on Garth Snow's version of the Bill Guerin, Doug Weight plan has produced massive financial losses in luxury taxes.

That party is now over, the aging veterans are long gone with the draft picks until 2019, their franchise point guard demanded his trade, the name coach (Jason Kidd) left for Milwaukee a year ago. (the one who demanded a trade as a player if the Nets ever moved to the Coliseum)

The playoff Nets of 2013-14 made the 2002-03 Islanders look like a first place team by comparison.

Now we see if they can sustain their attendance if those owners even stay very long with a very mediocre product at best, in what has been a terrible conference.

The New York Islanders never ending Long Island marketing/media diet (going back to Bill Torrey running things) has made it easy for the media to keep them on the outside of New York despite Charles Wang making clear forty percent of his season tickets were sold inside New York in July 2011 when he was fighting to win a referendum.

It's done a lot of damage, but up to 2004 the home/road games were covered in all NYC papers.

Those days are long gone/newspapers are broke, and practice selective journalism based on their own cap floor operations, and what teams they have good business relationships with.

Anyway here is the correct logo concept for the New York Islanders, the one they should have used since 1972 that represents all the fans, it's not perfected yet but folks get the idea. Manhattan, all five boroughs.

New York Islanders 1972-1973, New York Islanders 2015-16.
All the fans of this franchise are represented and included.

Nothing's changed.

My guess is if this concept became the teams logo again few would even notice the difference. 

New York Signs Louis LeBlanc

New York Islander Fan Central | 7/17/2015 12:52:00 PM |

7/15 Qualifying Offers Deadline/Notables

New York Islander Fan Central | 7/14/2015 10:29:00 AM | | | | | | | | | |
Updated: That's close to a record for writing something here and management responding.
The qualifying offers deadline is 7/15 for those players the Islanders tendered an offer on 6/29 which retains their NHL rights (Johan Sundstrom signing in Europe) regardless of whether it's accepted by the player or not.

Long story short if Brock Nelson, Kevin Poulin, Kevin Czuczman, Mike Halmo accept the offer they have a signed contract for 2015-16.

If not, it becomes a negotiation, the players are only free to sign in Europe/KHL or stay home.

For the Bridgeport players 7/14 is more like 8/14 in the European leagues because they start sooner, all of them could have signed with another team since the end of last season.

My guess is all of them accept their qualifying offer by 7/15 with the exception of Brock Nelson who could be looking for a bigger raise. Poulin received a raise from the standard AHL contract when he was sent back to Bridgeport last summer.  
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Not much to write about Cantiague Park vs Iceworks vs Twin Rinks beyond Charles Wang rightly wanted his Lighthouse money in some manner, only his minority owners know where they stand with such an agreement.

Interesting the club had the full camp at Twin Rinks but even in a bankruptcy sale that is a far more expensive facility costing fifty million dollars or more than half of what Bruce Ratner will be spending to renovate the Nassau Coliseum.

Ratner can walk from this agreement any time he wants before a ground breaking, but once he begins construction, he is obligated. His agreement says he must secure an AHL team for that facility as an anchor tenant before construction begins, and his spokesman said they would.

We'll see how that plays out, but with facility closed until Dec 2016, it's clear no AHL team will be playing there for 2015-16, 2016-17 which means the county may give him a grace period to see how things play out in Bridgeport or to find another team.

Charles Wang did some talking about Andong Song, and how Project Hope will continue to be held on Long Island even without the Coliseum,  he had no comment or was not asked about anything else.
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Matt Carkner/Bridgeport assistant Matt Bertani  were at Iceworks on 7/11 for a kids camp, it would not shock me to see Carkner join Bridgeport in some capacity.

New York Notables/Scrimmage Games In NY

New York Islander Fan Central | 7/09/2015 01:09:00 AM |
Updated 7/11/15:

Not much to write beyond this is usually held at the end of prospect camp, seemingly no one got hurt beyond those who did not come to camp or were injured.

Nice to see the new home. New York is New York whether it be the Coliseum or Barclay's, they had worse attendance for these games at the Coliseum.

 Ct Post had quotes from prospects/management on Sound Tigers in camp.
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Sorry folks: 
Dolan's Newsday editorial board is at it again, and has gone to a new low for them which is saying a lot after the 2011 referendum coverage,  ignoring Dolan's documented bid for the Coliseum while blistering Ratner ignoring he wanted less land/tax exemptions than Dolan on Coliseum in County IBO documents.

Apparently Newsday's editorial board did not know the Islanders already opened a team store at Cantiague in 2012 or practiced there from 1979-1992.

Most comical of all is Dolan/Newsday's board calls for the NYS legislature, led by Andrew Cuomo who personally thinks Dolan is entitled to a growing fifty four million dollar yearly tax exemption on the Cablevision-Chase Garden to review Charles Wang's Cantiaque Park agreement with Nassau County for an Islander practice facility & team offices at that site. 

That would be the only privately owned company in the entire state of NY not paying property taxes since 1982 for those scoring at home, who contributed to Andew Cuomo/Sheldon Silver's campaigns for governor/speaker calling for NY legislature involvement?

Cannot make it up. 



New York Notables: Mini Camp 7/6-7/12

New York Islander Fan Central | 7/03/2015 05:14:00 PM | | |
Michael Fornabaio of the Ct Post told me Bryce Anelosi signing with Orlando on 7/1 means they retain his ECHL rights, despite signing with Bridgeport on 7/2.

Bottom line Orlando/Anelosi may have something to say if the Islanders/Bridgeport would like Anelosi to play for Missouri.

 Note correct spelling Filips Buncis. 

And hoping for a full & speedy recovery for Howie Rose.

New York/Bridgeport 7/2 Signings: Justin Florek, Ben Holmstrom, Bracken Kearns, Justin Vaive, Joe Whitney, James Wright, Tyler Barnes, Josh Holmstrom, Andrew Rowe, Parker Milner, Jesse Root, Kane Lafranchise, Sebastien Sylvestre, C.J. Ludwig

New York Islander Fan Central | 7/02/2015 11:26:00 AM | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
There seems to be a question regarding D Bryce Aneloski.  
Orlando reports he signed in the ECHL on 7/1/15.
Sound Tigers website reported he signed with them on 7/2/15. 

newyorkislanderfancentralprospects: Will continue to be updated with all the latest signings/departures. 
All one year/two way contracts:

Islanders website:  Announced one year/two way contracts with: Justin Florek, Ben Holmstrom, Bracken Kearns, Justin Vaive, Joe Whitney and James Wright.
NYIFC Comments:
Fourteen signings in one day, plus Aneloski. 

Put me on the skeptical side because we see this wave virtually every summer without a winning team, however Sound Tigers broadcaster, Phil Giubileo does a nice job breaking down why the organization selected these players.

Michael Fornabaio also does a good job on twitter/Ct Post blog explaining these signings. 

New York Signs G Thomas Greiss, Kirill Petrov One Year ELC, Hickey Extension

New York Islander Fan Central | 7/01/2015 12:57:00 PM | | |


NYIFC Comments:
Not a fan of Greiss, and especially at two years. Would have preferred Raimo or waiting to see who could become available.

Petrov/Hickey were announced/expected earlier. Petrov ELC is one year because of his age.