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Fun topic for a slow time, but one I have wanted to write about for a while.
A picture is worth a thousand words.
In the end, when you get past all the overt negative articles on the Nassau Coliseum (usually from media in other markets) who's employers have a vested business/advertising interest in selling their favorite teams meaning they don't call their own building dumps, it begs the question what's the real difference beyond the selective spin?
I have never read Maple Leaf Gardens, Montreal Forum, Chicago Stadium or Boston Garden take these kind of beatings from their local or national media and those facilities were horrible toward the end of their time.
The Buffalo Aud was finally demolished a year ago, it was not constantly ripped by opposing writers in it's final years as an active facility for the Sabres, who's scoreboard came crashing down in the new building.
Is it the plane ride, the LI expressway, the hotel/food/outside entertainment or simply the lack of any relevant media to objectively discuss the Nassau Coliseum?
Absolutely, Charles Wang has had to make his point the Coliseum is outdated, so are all these other facilities, but it's not a sidebar to games or previews about those teams.
Perhaps it's like the NY spin with the NJ football teams? They are entirely NJ in the same parking lot the Devils/Nets played in until they moved, but to tell the truth is not good for media business or teams so sports writers/editors look the other way along with the NFL/Networks.
Never mind NYC did not contribute one penny.
I cannot wait for the day NJ government sues the teams and NFL/Networks to demand they change the name to NJ Giants/Jets, because they are stuck in their 1.7 billion dollar stadium where NJ taxpayers are on the hook for 300m infrastructure here with 1976 Giants Stadium debt still on the books.
For 1.7 billion, it looks like a bad aluminum siding job on a house, with ugly gray speckled seats. It must remain team neutral week by week for it's twenty odd days per year of football use.
Good luck to any sports editor who allows their staff writers to constantly report the home teams facility is a dump or discuss how old or run down their facilities are at every opportunity because it's not a good career move.
Lot's of ad dollars at stake along with newspaper sales.
You think Jim Matheson or his editor at the Edmonton Journal are going to run down Rexall Place every few weeks to the point it drives away Oilers fans/readers from purchasing tickets for a 30th place team?
Daryl Katz demanded a new building a lot louder than Charles Wang ever has recently.
Detroit News: Ted Kulfan waved his Little Caesars Pom Poms a week ago, as he writes with sentiment about Joe Louis Arena, and great moments/while some players with front-loaded corporate contracts are quoted.
Mr Kulfan left out part about empty seats at Wings playoff games over several seasons, while Jobing Arena in Phoenix had better crowds in round one of the playoffs in 2010. A few years ago Mitch Albom called out Detroit Red Wings fans in the Free Press, claiming it's not Nashville.
Mr Albom forgot one minor detail, Nashville had more fans at games than Joe Louis Arena when it opened around the time the Nassau Coliseum was home to the Stanley Cup, and the Wings were offering free cars for people to attend games.
When was the last time a local paper did a similar article on great moments at Nassau Coliseum again like Mr Kulfan did?
New York Islanders problem is they don't have a media to ever defend the Coliseum the way media will defend/downplay the Little Ceasar's Wings (Joe Louis) or Cablevision Garden (Msg), Rexall Place (Edmonton) or former Pens home in Melon Arena.
You may be wondering why former Devils/Nets home is in this picture? Only because Devils owner James Vanderbeek may be purchasing the facility here despite his many disputes over rent/other items at Prudential Center.
Mr Vanderbeek also claimed the Devils were slightly in the red by his own words, in their partly tax-payer funded arena.
I'm not going to insult anyone here by writing the Nassau Coliseum is a great modern arena despite it's outstanding sight lines, but someone better tell me why we don't read the exact same criticisms about the other facilities posted about here just as often because the only dramatic difference I see is in the reporting.
Sports Illustrated In 2008 Michael Farber & Richard Deitsch, headlined knocking the Coliseum among several arena/stadium criticized and even though they included Cablevision Garden-Msg/Izod Center, left out these other facilities.
What makes this article notable was despite making the Coliseum the headline, they never provided a real reason to criticize the facility, where with others they did get specific.
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