The release notes Mr Dey will expand his responsibilities beyond Sales, Marketing and Event Operations. He will oversee all business operations for the team as well as the Islanders Children's Foundation, the Islanders office in China and the Charles B. Wang Ice Hockey Project Hope in China and will also work with the Lighthouse Development Corporation on the planning, as well as the sales and marketing, of the transformed Nassau Coliseum.
NYI Fan Central Comments:
Seems like an awful lot for one individual who has the overwhelming job of trying to fill seats at the Nassau Coliseum for hockey games and set an ambitious goal of ten thousand season seats tickets before Ted Nolan's departure and a flood of negative press from Newsday which from an outsiders view seems impossible, but who knows given the clubs earlier release of seven hundred odd new subscriptions sold that does not tell us how many did not renew.
I'm somewhat surprised it got a lot of play in the sports media to where it was even in the AP/CP coverage.
I do not recall the Islanders naming a team President since Bill Torrey's tenure (David Seldin was New York Sports Ventures President) and clearly Mr Torrey was involved in hockey decisions, but this apparently is something different with the release clearly about business.
I know some fans will not give Mr Dey a fair chance, but any idea he came here this summer to take over is a total misconception as the Pacific Business Journal's Janice Magin reported back in May of 2007 around the time Mike Milbury announced he would not be returning here that Mr Wang had intended to hire Mr Dey and bring him here full-time.
No doubt many are aware of his background in Hawaii which did not end well for an arena II football team Mr Wang owned which folded back in 2004. Pacific Business Journal also had Janis L. Magin here cover the story of the folding of that club in 2004 with Mr Dey's comments about the circumstances at the time.
Bottom line here unless were inside the Islander offices we have no idea beyond blind speculation what goes on.
I know folks will throw out those infamous Espn attendance links and point out the Islanders finished last but a lot of those numbers are clearly announced by clubs and that's not a reliable barometer for true attendance.
Let's also give Mr Dey his due here because for those who go right to Espn attandance links as the gospel there is another side to that for the Islanders and despite missing the playoffs, the team had it's highest average per game paid attendance since 2002, and a year over year increase that was top five in the league. The group sales department ranked third in the league in total sales and corporate sponsorship sales set a team record last season.
Some spin both ways? Perhaps, but the Islanders did report eighty three percent of the building was filled on avgerage and you filter out those early weeknight games it would have been much higher.
Good luck to Mr Dey and from an Islander fan viewpoint, we all better hope he does a great job because an awful lot is riding on what Mr Wang has entrusted him with.
