Ledecky Goes All-In To Be Dolan's 41-Day Tennant

New York Islander Fan Central | 10/10/2017 10:21:00 PM |
Our ownership was directly quoted today, and sadly proved they are not knowledgeable.
So much for the 5th ring being the focus or Jeff Wilpon quoted as saying the NYI owners have "several good options."

Is this the same Jon Ledecky, who said he hopes to be at Barclay's for "several years to come" last July/August as again Barclay's, who did "everything asked of them" according to Ledecky (without Sat games) outdrew 16/25 Coliseum years since 1989, and tied six others? 

Jon Ledecky is completely clueless, and frankly contradicted himself.


He does not even know what percent of Dolan's arena would be his so it's not the New York Islanders arena, and it's not his bid or he's just Dolan's tenant & will not say that because then the fans would respond negatively to this. Being endorsed by the Mets keeps them out of the Wilpon/Cuomo Shea/Willets parking lot for their own business vetures. (who bid for every Coliseum proposal with Hosftra President, Stuart Rabinowitz endorsement)

Wilpon sure had no issue letting Buffalo host a game in his ballpark against the Rangers so Dolan could keep his tax exemption from Cuomo, does not sound like a friend to NYI at all.

Allan Kreda at Times knows he can't write Dolan's name or mention the taxpayer money given to him by Cuomo & has pushed hard via his editor to get NYI out of NYC, with endless negative features on Barclay's & virtually no game coverage long before 2015.

And lets preface all this by writing Fred Wilpon was handed 600 million dollars from NYC taxpayers  for his Brooklyn Dodger monument, with another 400 million coming from Citibank naming rights over 20 years with Mario Cuomo bailing him out of the Madoff mess. Wilpon's real estate background to date was getting Mike Bloomberg to chase out the generational businesses there before Shea Stadium because if the convicted felon's family in the Bronx was getting 1.5 billion from the taxpayers for the moat,  he was getting the same money to develop the neighborhood to make up for his smaller, flawed, renovated several times ballpark.

Mediator in the Madoff-Mets Case, Mario Cuomo.

And we all know Fred Wilpon (without Nelson Doubleday) cut his teams payroll dramatically when handed all this taxpayer money, why would anyone with a clue want their endorsement?

Jon Ledecky made clear he has 'blinders" on to move back to a failed suburb, with no fans, no corporate money, to become James Dolan 41-day tenant so he can have a revenge arena because he lost the Coliseum to Ratner in 2013.

Our fan base came from NYC. The road games on WOR-9, coverage in four NYC newspapers, if Ledecky was really following when he grew up here he would know enough fans did not come from Long Island, and move into the city, it was almost exactly the opposite. A really good young team on free television in NYC, got plenty of fans in NYC interested in hockey, who wanted to see a team in an era home games were not televised so they went to the Coliseum.

That's why John Pickett & Bill Torrey ignored Bill Shea's advice, and did not put the team into bankruptcy in 1978, fans were coming from everywhere, the building was filling up. 

What's next Mr Ledecky, the Giants, Cosmos that filled New Jersey Meadowlands, all immediately migrated to East Rutherford while the Nets fans moved to Piscataway?

It's absurd to be this naive, especially when without Sat games Barclay's outdrew Nassau 16/25 times since 1989, and tied six others in a sea of negative media from the Dolan family, hiding their games, while Msg ice is no better (and worse than Barclay's) with the same practice commute from Greenberg. 

Ledecky also made clear this is his option with no backup, despite the places NYCFC have looked at not only in Willets Point, but Jamaica.

Mr Ledecky did not do his homework. He may not have thrown a piece of paper across the room but if the team bled money at the Coliseum, and Barclay's was not thrilled (after 2 years of Dolan's media pounding them) it's not going to work leaving NYC.

So all those people who refused to go to the Coliseum since 1989 unless it was opening night or a playoff game at rock bottom prices, are going to pony up (without corporations) enough revenue (at big boy ticket prices) to sustain a 2017 (and beyond) NHL payroll 41 times because a team moved eight miles west to another empty parking lot back in Nassau County where this time Dolan will own  the television contact, the local newspaper, News12LI, and now the building itself?

How many pro teams you know of where their rival owns the television, newspaper & the building they play in, after bidding for their former home to bring in their own AHL team?

It's ludicrous. 

Scott Malkin, who is the final say made this decision it was very naive, and proves he really was overseas & not vested in this business or is clueless about Dolan killing his product back to 1998 when he pulled the games off television. 

NYC is the last chance for this franchise on every level.

NHL.com Brian Compton aka Dellapina/Brown Ranger media puppets for NHL got Ledecky (who invited the media out again) comments that prove he's all in to become Dolan's 41 game tenant in the middle of nowhere, on a day who really bid for the arena, who will pay for it, and who really owns it was well hidden by the Dolan's media puppets, and Ledecky, who flat out would not go there.

Compton, even falsely wrote Dolan's Oak View Group, who won an RFP in Seattle to renovate one arena with no financial details, has helped in the design and construction of arenas across North America? That's comical. Azoff-Leiweke, not even around in 2013 to bid for the Coliseum, and not around for LA Forum which Dolan renovated modestly with taxpayer money/loans, have never been a part of any arena construction.

Azoff-Leiweke between them could not sign Tavares, they have no money. 

Dolan (hypocritically) is ready to sue the Clippers for putting an arena in his neighborhood next to the LA Forum/Staples, and rightly put no money into Smg aka Spector's Hartford renovation where his AHL team plays, refusing to even pay his staff.

Everyone at that lunch received a paycheck/credential from someone working for Dolan, who launched their marketing blitz that got more buzz than a Stanley Cup.

Dolan even plugged in Alan Hahn's hot mic for this one, all salesman on deck, including Pat Dolan's, News12 to go with the family-owned Newsday. 

Ledecky basically made clear it's this or Dolan can put his cable money back in his bank account through 2031, and bring in his AHL team when the NYI relocate out of NY entirely.

Last I checked Northwell cost 50 million to construct for the Ferraro brothers.Wang bought it in a bankruptcy auction for nine million & Nassau would not permit construction which would expand the buildings's footprint (Eisenhower is a public park) for lockeroom's/team offices which were moved out of the Nassau Coliseum, but somehow this cost Malkin-Ledecky-Wang an additional sixty million dollars?

Did the Islanders locker-rooms at Barclay's, and their campus inside the arena cost 60 million dollars to construct during the summer of 2014-15? 

NYIFC Comments: 
Ledecky did not do his business homework, listened to the wrong people/fans, and showed he might be a nice man with good intentions, but clearly is clueless to how poorly this team struggled in Nassau County financially & in attendance, and despite Barclay's issues was in the perfect spot to grow a NYC fan-base, filled with corporations you need to survive.

It's not going to work financially in Nassau, it never has, too many people came from NYC, and that's where they needed to play to survive moving forward.

No, Brett Yormark did not have many kind words, but the words modestly successful to describe the NYI business is one we never heard until they got to Barclay's, and it was very early there. 

Mr Ledecky also must love (or is completely clueless)  having his team hidden by the Dolan family on television & in print. They did him no favors drawing fans, it was working at Barclay's despite the massive effort to defeat it since 2012 from Dolan who did all he could to grab the Coliseum in 2013, and use his media arm to knock Ratner (now Prokhorov) when he lost.

29 other teams want to play in a city, for Ledecky who commutes from Manhattan it's obviously the suburbs or the team will be sold/moved.

Ledecky sold his minority stake in a team that moved to Washington once already, he never lobbied to move back to Landover when the Caps were drawing no fans after moving into the city.

Tavares can't want to be a willing part of playing in the middle of nowhere in front of no people, covered by Dolan's salesman, who will have no legacy when his career ends like the dynasty players, who should have been set for life.

John Tavares night in front of those announced 11,000 like Potvin night is all his agent needs to remind him of moving forward about his legacy as an NHL player in Nassau, and why he should sign elsewhere.

And it's clearly Dolan's arena as no answers were given as to who's RFP it is, and who's money, Ledecky can't mention who really owns this ponzi-scheme?

Cuomo will likely give Dolan the taxpayer money for his arena for the same reasons Sheldon Silver, and the paid Dolan-lobbyist that own Cuomo do, for the same reasons Cuomo will not allow a new Penn Station entirely, while Joe Percoco was sent from Albany to work for Dolan. 

Dolan treats NYI like dirt, and has done all he could to put them out of business since 1998, even home preseason games cost too much to televise but he wants to give our fans an arena?

Does it make sense to you? The man who refused to pay the Metro Ice Challenge 25k in 2007, and then pulled the pregame wants to help us by giving the Islanders their own arena? His Msg Islander announcers were kept on the sidelines in Bridgeport for our preseason home game.

His name is never mentioned by his paid media, not for his 2013 Coliseum bid, the taxpayer money Albany gives him already, his television agreements with three NHL teams not spammed on his networks 24/7, and now this? 

Yes, we have fans that naive, the same ones who believe Jim (Al Arbour's 1500th win should not count) Baumbach, who fair or not put some Ledecky words in direct quotes.

Pat Dolan's Newsday sports editor, HankWinnicki, does what he's told by Dolan's paid people to run the family paper, who put up the 2008 paywall to manufacture their own spin on the news to benefit themselves.

Ledecky sadly will have his legacy when Dolan kicks him out for his AHL team after 8,000 start showing up game 2 demanding a max payroll/1980 ticket prices or they discover those are not corporate money trees next to the Cross Island Parkway, and the same people who would not support this team at the Coliseum since 1989, simply can't be bothered attending 41 games or purchasing any luxury boxes.

Or Cuomo flat out picks NYCFC, with a real fan-base & one that will not require the money Dolan will need like he receives already to operate the tax-exempt Chase Garden in Manhattan which tripled & paid for his renovation.

And if Dolan at some point (likely during a lockout during 2019-20) pulls his support, this team can very easily be relocated to Quebec or a Dolan-Seattle arena, and the Islanders television contract money goes right back into Dolan's pocket to finance any money required by Seattle.

That will be Mr Ledecky's legacy in 25 years whether he likes it or not, he should have done more listening during his 2-year tour, and last season to stay at Barclay's or build an arena at a vacant Willets Point/Shea Stadium site inside NYC.

Ledecky did make clear he wants his 53 million less expenses in 2018-19 so he will not be opting out of  his lease, the one chance he gets to do that himself in January.

If Prokhorov decides not to opt out, the NYI are in their Barclay's lease as is through 2040 whether he likes it or not. 53 million less expenses sounds suddenly like a good deal to block Dolan putting an arena between his two buildings purely out of spite.

Plus it makes Dolan pay his television contract money through 2031 to the Islanders.

I have a feeling Ledecky would like to keep getting that 53 million because he's not getting it at Dolan's Belmont scheme or from Wilpon, and we know those 5-8,000 fans who will go there will not generate enough revenue to sustain a team.

That's what our fans should be hoping for. I don't expect it to happen.

I do expect Dolan (under Oak View cover name) to funnel the Islanders to Seattle no later than 2020 because he will have to put a little more than taxpayer money into that renovation up there, and he never pays, the taxpayers do.

But getting out of the Islanders television contract, plus expanding his brand into Nassau with an AHL team, this deal pays for itself.

Ledecky may be a nice man, good intentions, but wrong ownership, who only need to see their product hidden 24/7 to know who their partner is & did not do their homework.