Showing posts with label Howard Dolgon. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Howard Dolgon. Show all posts

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

New York Islander Fan Central | 4/23/2014 01:19:00 PM |
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.
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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. 


Eight Months & Already Islanders/Barclay's Not Working As Partners/Notables

New York Islander Fan Central | 3/30/2014 11:00:00 AM | |
Sorry folks, that's how fast this iron-clad lease can dissolve if both sides agree they cannot work together, they cannot even get together in announcing a 2014 preseason game in Brooklyn which is unconfirmed for 9/26/14 against the Devils.

This does not even include the drama going on between Bruce Ratner's comments about Bridgeport vs Charles Wang's President there, Howard Saffan, and the Sound Tigers future. 

If the agreement falls apart the NHL will not care one bit, and would love more revenue/relocation fees in a facility with more ticket revenue/fan support. Atlanta had a lease until 2019.

Dolan could always offer Wang a buyout of the cable contract as incentive, all things that could have happened before October 2012.

Mangano kicked out the Islanders so Nassau get's paid by Ratner, if he walks from that agreement which he can, Dolan/Msg will pay/renovate.

Nassau is getting paid, someone's giving them a renovation/revenue that's their only priority.

Kate Murray will do all she can to slow/off track Ratner with her zoning if she wants Dolan's bid instead.

Wang was right when he said the Islanders needed a place to play, no person could have said it better about the politicians who created every problem with a fan base too lazy to hold them accountable by filling the seats to make this team a public trust where any discussion of relocation would cost that politician any public/business support with their political career.

If things fall apart with Barclay's expect the franchise to relocate out of  New York entirely, that lease may not even be binding until Sept 2015 for those clinging to it.

No, I would not blame Mr Wang one single bit if he decided to sell out of market, he's done beyond enough, and been served very poorly for his efforts by everyone. 
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As written many times, Charles Wang does things quickly/quietly behind closed doors.

If Mr Wang decides to sell expect it to happen with virtually no advanced notice unless the person he sells to does that. Of course outgoing owners exit quietly.

Former country executive, Tom Gulotta (largely responsible for the team leaving Nassau who made it impossible for all Islander owners since 1990) tried to announce the purchase in 2000, and it was reported Wang was rightfully angered by that. 

The agreement with Barclay's was done in the middle of the night, done by 7am (Wang's words) and the press conference was only a few hours later catching those NHL sources/leaks completely off guard.

No, the media does not like that one bit, they want/need their leaks/sources. The two former Ranger die-hards from the NY Daily News working in NHL media (Frank Brown/John Dellapina) made a career out of ripping this franchise.

When the NY Dragons were sold, Wang was in the front row in Philadelphia, seen visibly cheering with a ton of enthusiasm, four days later the team was sold.

He corrected his Neil Smith mistake in summer, and there was no distraction for the players in 2006. Sure if Neil Smith did not sign his contract Wang had every reason to fire him as quickly as possible saving money.

Ed Snider turned his team into an in-season circus in October 2006, and the Flyers never recovered, the Islanders without the distractions come September made the playoffs. (granted they lucked out but were in sixth in the conference at time of Ryan Smyth trade)
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Howard Dolgon/Steven Gluckstern:
No folks, Mr Dolgon apparently does not have that kind of revenue, and not selling his AHL team, so he can only play the Steven Gluckstern role, who did that very well with full integrity in Phoenix before the other Howard. (Milstein)

Howard Dolgon, the long-time well respected AHL owner has friends.

I like Howard Dolgon, our fan base will not like him.

He sounds a lot like some of the entries here about the terrible fan support.

This is a man who pulls no punches, something Wang, Michael Picker, Paul Lancey should have been doing by October 2003 with all the empty seats after fans refused to pay 2003 ticket price increases.

By then Wang had only Tom Suozzi's April 2002 proclamation to show after spending 130 million dollars for improving the franchise, renovating the Coliseum for Nassau County as a tenant while he waited for Todd Boe to pay the bills in Bridgeport, as he started the Lighthouse Tournament out of pocket, flying/housing kids from around the world to no fan fare at all after he honored Bill Torrey, Bryan Trottier, and Pat Lafontaine.

Steamed Syracuse Crunch owner Dolgon to fans: We did our part, now where are you? .

"I've been a big supporter of our market, but this was embarrassing tonight,'' Dolgon said in the War Memorial concourse well after the game. "For 19 years, people have been telling us give us a winner. This team deserves better. The people who work here, and the club, deserve better.

"This is not a good product. This is a very strong product. This place should be packed for this team. You don't see hockey like this.''

"I don't want to hear from anybody, 'Give us a winning team.' Don't give us that (junk) anymore,'' Dolgon said. "I don't go for the Wednesday night excuse. This team deserves more support. Time to stop the excuses already.''

Sounds like he was visiting here. I emphatically agree with every word.

Dolgon said his staff had worked 20 hours a day at times to put the team on track for a strong presale, but that the walkup suffered. He said Friday's home Game 4 looks to be heading toward a better number, but Wednesday's turnout has him unsure.

"We're going to do our thing,'' he said. "We've been good soldiers. We put our money where are mouth is. This is a quality product.''
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