Pigs Do Fly

Principals offer optimism on Lighthouse Project

John Jeansonne

Newsday.com

Principals in the ongoing, not-entirely-hockey discussion about the Lighthouse project powwowed privately for the first time Friday. And no fight broke out. With Nassau County Executive Thomas Suozzi presiding, Town of Hempstead Supervisor Kate Murray at last met with Lighthouse partners Charles Wang and Scott Rechler and afterward assured that their 55-minute communal campfire had produced the kind of efficient teamwork that long ago made the Islanders team, now owned by Wang, the envy of its sport.

"Today," Suozzi declared, "is a symbol that we're going to cooperate. The county, the town, the developers."

After Suozzi announced significant new dates - July 7, for the town board to sign off on the developers' draft environmental impact statement; and Oct. 3, as the target in finalizing the approvals process - Wang added another: "I hope to put a shovel in the ground by April or June [2010]," he said. "Hopefully June, because we hope we're in the Stanley Cup playoffs [until then]."

Such optimism, on both the hockey and arena fronts, reinforced Wang's suddenly substantial leverage for the Lighthouse plan, which would use the renovation of Nassau Coliseum as anchor to essentially raise a small city on the Uniondale-Hempstead border.

The labor unions are solidly on his side. "With this economy, it's imperative that we move forward," Long Island Federation of Labor president John Durso said. The governor privately supported Wang's proposal at a Thursday meeting. The league backs the whole idea. Islanders fans have been behind it - especially when word spread in January that the team will play an exhibition in Kansas City this fall, and the attendant hints that Missouri could provide a new home for the franchise.

All the while, Murray was cast mostly as the party of "no," as she argued for following the town's mandated procedures. Friday's major leap forward was Suozzi's ability to lower the temperature on what had appeared to be a showdown between Ivory Tower (grand Lighthouse designs) and Practical (repercussions of traffic, environment, etc.). In effect, he applied the team's own ad slogan: "We are all Islanders."

Promising that the principals would work together in a "new spirit of cooperation and collaboration," Suozzi made a point of naming the parties, beyond Murray, that also must be consulted, from the state and county to school districts, villages and local government agencies. "There will be no more back-and-forths," Suozzi said.

Wang, who previously offered criticism of what he characterized as unreasonable delays by Murray, was happily on board. "This is unprecedented for us to be together," he said. "We are going in the right direction."

He insisted that, on Oct. 3, he does not intend to pick up his marbles and leave. He said he has not spoken to any city about a move: "Our goal has always been that we want to be on Long Island."

Murray, for her part, reminded that the Lighthouse plan "is a real estate project" that reaches far beyond hockey. But the tectonic shift toward cooperation, the result of a face-to-face meeting that labor leaders are taking credit for provoking, probably increases Wang's edge.

It might further brighten his outlook to know that Murray considers herself an Islanders fan. And happens to still have the Denis Potvin hockey stick she got for her 16th birthday.

Tavares on the cover of THN's Draft Issue

The headline really says it all. I just got the digital edition of The Hockey News' Draft Issue and wouldn't you know, John Tavares is the cover boy. With all of the speculation going around regarding Matt Duchene and Victor Hedman, I am betting the overwhelming majority of fans are still pinning their hopes on the explosive Tavares.

One thing that tends the bug the heck out of me--actually, there are a lot--is when you get a highly-touted and skilled young player who has been on the radar for a while that eventually people and scouts tun on them and start making a big deal about what they CAN'T do versus what the CAN do. So now there are whispers (probably coming out from the Canadian media) regarding Tavares and all of his "shortcomings" of being perhaps one-dimensional while the other guys, Duchene and Hedman are being built up for what the best parts of their own games are.

I call shenanigans--or at least, over-familiarity. Tavares has been talked up since he was a kid who challenged the rules to get himself into juniors as an underager to play with older, more skilled players. We've sort of been tracking the kid for years as the next great Canadian player to come out and now, that familiarity has become breed some discontent. Lots of kids come out of juniors and it takes them time to learn the defensive game. And so what if he isn't a "creator" of offense. Either is Eric Staal and the last time I checked, he was scoring goals and his Hurricanes had the best team in the leage during the regular season on the ropes and down 3-1.
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Not going to get into the Lighthouse crap. I am sick of reading it and I am sick of worrying about it. You know where to go for updates and stuff. I will say that Kate Murray appears to be a leetle bit crooked when the company doing the feasibility studies are delaying their reports AND they also have contributed to her election campaigns in the past. Oh, yeah. And they're from out of county. Again, it doesn't take a truffle pig to smell shenanigans.
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Check out the latest issue of Islanders Illustrated if you can. It's a beautiful Year in Pictures Review and I want to thank Linzi for ordering the magazine for me this past season.

The Isles also are having a contest to fly 8 fans to Montreal for the draft for a meet-and-greet with whomever the Isles pick in the first round. Two winners are being named each week. Seems like a good deal if you win and Montreal is always nice any time of the year.
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I hope you've had a chance to follow the IIHF World Championships this spring in Switzerland. Kyle Okposo has played pretty well for the US, scoring two goals and he was also named the Player of the Game in a 3-2 loss to Russia after tying the game at 2 in the second period of the semifinal matchup.

The US goes for bronze tomorrow at 10AM Eastern on Universal Sports. They'll be playing Sweden while later in the day, Canada and Russia will face-off in a rematch from last's years final that Russia won. I know I'll be asking my mother to watch the games with me...she'll probably say no, but I will ask!

You can find more pictures of Okposo at the WC on the Islanders Facebook page. That's where this one came from.

Lots of interesting news in Islanders country of late....

Today at 2PM on Universal Sports, Mark Streit and the Swiss team he captains take on Kyle Okposo's Team USA at the World Championships. I won't be seeing the game live due to a prior commitment (okay, "Wolverine") but we'll have a report up here as soon as we get around to it.

The US has already moved on but Switzerland has to win to stay alive in the tournament. For more on the game and the IIHF World Championships, go to http://www.iihf.com

There also seems to be a lot of chatter about Charles Wang telling Newsday "...if I had the chance, I wouldn't do it again" regarding buying the Islanders.

Um, give us a break. The man has lost tons of money trying to keep the team going and has also been spending money trying to revitalize the Coliseum area. Damn right he wouldn't if he knew that it was going to be this tough working with the town of Hempstead. I don't blame him for voicing his frustrations because we as Islanders fans are frustrated too. We were told the rink would get done years and years ago. No one could have predicted this nightmare.

And if Tom Petty said the waiting was the hardest part, then he was 1004% correct.

The only problem with the quote is that it totally undermines the job Garth Snow and Scott Gordon are doing. You don't think players, agents, and other front office types are going to use that against them when Garth and Jankowski are trying to talk to draftees and free agents, do you? Where is the emoticon for 'shaking my head'?

Mr. Wang, this quote also gives ammunition to the people who are fighting the Lighthouse. We understand and totally sympathize with you and your frustration. We get it about the money, too. But still....

And all this comes on the heels that the Islanders are having some real excitement with their season tickets and renewals since they've won the draft lottery.

See, as an Islander fan, you get the good and then you wait for a knee to the balls.

Dammit, this post should have been longer, but I'm pissed off again.

Lighthouse Moves Forward

I haven't written much about the Lighthouse Project. I read everything Newsday has reported on it, but I made a conscious effort to keep NYIFORLIFE.com as centered on the sport as much as I could. Until now, I guess.

After yesterday's meeting with at Hempstead Town Hall, it looks as if things are moving in a positive direction. I humbly admit that I know very little about Long Island politics but whenever you can tick something off of a long list of things that need to be done--after so much waiting--it has to be a relief to all Islanders fans who are sick of hearing the words "Kansas" and "City".

According to Newsday, the developers of the proposed $3-billion Lighthouse Project (Islanders' owner Charles Wang and Scott Rechler) delivered a 6,000-page report that detailed what they wanted to do to revitalize the 150 acres of county-owned land around Nassau Coliseum.

It is, as they say, a start. What scares me is this: $3 billion. That's the amount of money Wang and Rechler have "budgeted" for this revitalization project. That 3 billion makes the remainder of Yashin's dead contract look pretty darn good right now.

As an outsider, my whole opinion of this is different. First off, I want what is best for my team--for OUR team. I may not make Long Island my home but trust me, that rink on the turnpike is where my heart always will be.

Saying that, I want the team to do better. I want the Islanders to return to being (at least) contenders. I want to care desperately about hockey games in April, May, and June. We are, as a fanbase, literally aching to cheer another great playoff run. I tend to think that the organization is doing the right thing playing and developing the kids rather than sticking Band-aids on a middle-of-the-pack roster and shooting for a seventh or eighth seed in the East.

It doesn't take a genius to see that a lot of the organizational plan is to develop the team with young kids and get them ready to be a rising contender just as the refurbished arena is opening and the development has some of that new car smell. On paper, or between the ears, that seems like a pretty solid and logical plan. The problem is that the whole Lighthouse deal (team and area included) seems to hinge on two very volatile factors: the Islanders need to make good drafts and trades and mold the boys into a reputable franchise. Then, you know, they also have to secure the 3 billion dollars while minding the store.

Reading the papers, the mere fact that anywhere from 50,000 to 70,000 jobs associated with construction and maintenance of the Lighthouse project is a great thing to hear about in this troubled economy. I can guaran-damn-tee you that if Connecticut Governor Jodi Rell could get a lot of jobs like that in this state that she'd hold the door wide open to hear that proposal with the daunting unemployment rate and the fiscal nightmare that is our deficit.

But that's not what scares me. The scary issue to me is how are Wang and Rechler going to secure 3 billion dollars worth of financing for the Lighthouse Project? We see Bank of America, RBS, and Citi trading lower and lower each day. The federal government has already bailed out these institutions with funny money that never even existed until the government said it did. If these places are hurting, why should they fork over more and more cash for a project like this when they don't even know if the bank can make it through the recession?

Eden Laikin, in today's Newsday, had two excellent quotes in her story regarding the financing. Real estate attorney Morton Weber said the following:

"...there's a track record here. You have somebody who built Computer Associates, which was very successful, and you've got Scott Rechler, who has this impeccable reputation in what he's done in the real estate world. Is that one of the keys in getting financing? Absolutely."

So right there, Weber sounds positive that they'll be able to finance the deal on reputation alone. Fair enough. Everyone has an opinion. But in times like these, you still have to wonder. You can have the greatest idea in the world for a product or for this development but unless you have the money to see it through, it's nothing.

That seems to me to be issue. Obviously, as Wang said, he can't get funding until the zoning issues are settled and after yesterday's meeting, wheels are in motion and we all feel good about that. But until they get the money--even if it does come from the Chinese government--we still have to be cautious. That's 3 billion with a B in a time where many Americans are having trouble scraping two nickels together.

Look at what is happening in Phoenix. You can read about it anywhere because the Canadian Media is obsessed with any news of a failing franchise--and especially one in a place where it's hard to make ice. Essentially, the Coyotes' problems come down to (surprise!) money. But take a closer look and you'll find that the city of Glendale has been footing the rent on the rink for the team because the ownership can't pay the bills. Why? Well, the owner makes his money in shipping. Times get hard, no one ships as much because nobody is buying as much and therefore, no one is producing as much.

If the Coyotes have lost the reported 200 million bucks that they have since moving to Glendale, then where did they get this money to lose? Well, dummy, they got it from banks! Banks lent money to the ownership and leveraged the trucking company as collateral. Now, because of the downturn, you've got two high-profile business knuckling under the pressure of debt--and using one failing enterprise to pay off another failing enterprise. No one in their right mind would pay off one credit card with another credit card, would they?

I've oversimplified, for sure, but I think we all understand that while hockey is important and the Islanders are hyper-important, we have to look at this Lighthouse Project with a bit of a jaundiced eye. Not the jaundiced eye of a beaten-down fanbase desperate for any shred of good news, but with the jaundiced eye that realizes that trying to pull off something this big--and this project is SCARY BIG--in a time where money is hard to come by...well, I'm just saying that we shouldn't get our hopes up just yet. A game-changer of a project like this would be exponentially difficult to pull off in the best of times.

On the ice and in the economy, these are not the best of times. That's all I am saying. I'm hopeful, but as an Islander fan who has been kicked a bunch of times, I'm wary.

Lighthouse Alternative?

Could Isles net the Point?
Plan pushes Iron Triangle home
BY Nicholas Hirshon New York Daily News

Tuesday, February 10th 2009, 10:45 AM

SKATING SOON at a rink near you - the Iron Triangle Islanders?

The Queens Chamber of Commerce is making a long-shot bid to lure the four-time Stanley Cup champions from Nassau County as part of redevelopment plans for Willets Point, a maze of auto body shops near Citi Field.

The Islanders - who are reportedly mulling a move in case plans fall through to revamp their arena, the Nassau Coliseum in Uniondale, L.I. - declined to comment on the Willets Point proposal.

Queens Chamber of Commerce Executive Vice President Jack Friedman noted the Isles' Coliseum lease expires in 2015, near the anticipated opening of a Willets Point convention center.

"Queens makes sense [for the Islanders] from so many levels because of the airports and its central location," Friedman said, also noting the area's proximity to highways and subways.

But Yale University Prof. Charles Euchner, an expert on sports team relocations, mocked Willets Point as a "half-baked" option because it would require too many infrastructure changes.

The Islanders stoked speculation about a move last month by scheduling a preseason game for September in Kansas City, which opened a state-of-the-art arena in 2007 and has been trying ever since to land a National Hockey League franchise.

The Isles are also moving their training camp in Canada from New Brunswick to Saskatoon, a puck-wild city that gunned for the St. Louis Blues in 1983.

Meanwhile, Islanders owner Charles Wang has reportedly grown impatient with Nassau officials for taking years to okay his project to renovate the Coliseum and redevelop the nearby area with shops and restaurants.

A spokesman for the Town of Hempstead board, which must approve Wang's plans, said its members are "anxious to do everything we can to keep" the Islanders in Uniondale.

But Friedman isn't alone in asking Wang, a Queens College grad, to consider a change.

Asked about hosting the Isles, Queens Borough President Helen Marshall said she would be "very receptive" while the city announced it's "open" to letting the team play in a Queens park.

City Councilman John Liu (D-Flushing) said the Isles should relocate to Queens to escape the Coliseum mess while staying near fans in Nassau and Suffolk - a scenario that neither Kansas City nor Saskatoon can offer.

"A hockey team like the Islanders enjoys a strong fan base," Liu said of the local following the team has built over four decades. "Their enterprise is not like a warehouse you could plunk in the middle of anywhere."

Even Mets third baseman David Wright was willing to share the borough's sports scene.

"I'd recommend it," Wright said of an Isles move. "I would endorse playing in Queens."

Um, This Can't Be Good...

Former CA chief accuses D'Amato, Ranieri of cover-up
BY MARK HARRINGTON | mark.harrington@newsday.com
10:28 PM EDT, September 2, 2008

Former CA Inc. chief Sanjay Kumar alleges his former mentor Charles Wang "personally directed" improper accounting at the company going back to 1987, and that several long-time board members "took steps to protect Wang and conceal the facts."

In a 27-page affidavit filed in court Tuesday by Texas billionaire Sam Wyly, Kumar depicts a cover-up within a cover-up, alleging board members Lewis Ranieri and Alfonse D'Amato "had knowledge of" the accounting misdeeds for which he went to prison -- going back "at least" to 2003. Yet the accusations, which he said he communicated to a special board committee through "many" interviews, never made it into a report the board publicly filed in 2006, documenting the scandal.

Fresh allegations

Kumar's affidavit provides specific instances in which he alleges Wang pushed him to close contracts after a quarter closed to meet earnings figures expected by Wall Street, in violation of accounting rules.

Kumar, who pleaded guilty in 2006 to charges of conspiracy, securities fraud, obstruction of justice and lying to FBI agents, alleges it was at "Wang's direction" that he took a July 8, 1999, flight to Paris to close a $32 million deal with GIE Informatique -- $19 million of which was improperly recognized nine days after the quarter's close.

Andrew Frank, a spokesman for Wang, yesterday referred to Wang's 2006 statements denying any involvement in accounting misdeeds at CA, and said he was "appalled" by the allegations. "I intend to vigorously defend my good name and fight any and all efforts to place the crimes of Kumar and his management team at my feet," Wang said then.

A spokesman for D'Amato and Ranieri, who resigned as board chairman in 2007, called the allegations "false." "Mr. Kumar has pled guilty to lying to the company's board, its lawyers and its investors," said the spokesman. "It is regrettable that, from jail, Mr. Kumar continues to be a stranger to the truth."

CA in 2004 acknowledged former executives conspired in a multiyear, $2.2-billion accounting scandal for which the company reached a deferred prosecution agreement and paid more than $225 million in restitution. A spokesman yesterday said the board conducted a "thorough" probe of the allegations, including interviews with Kumar. "In a matter of this complexity, one cannot draw conclusions from the uncorroborated recollections of a single individual," the company said.

Kumar alleges Wang "insisted that CA 'stonewall" the government probe of CA, arguing it would eventually "go away."

Implicating others

The filing also implicates CA co-founder Russell Artzt, alleging he "actively participated in concealing CA's improper accounting practices" from investigators and fellow board members. Kumar's affidavit alleges Artzt, who was never implicated in the wrongdoing, helped the sales team finalize deals after a quarter had closed. He also allegedly urged Kumar to keep silent on Wang's alleged involvement. Artzt "told me to remain silent because he thought that D'Amato would 'get this fixed,'" Kumar's affidavit says.

In a statement yesterday, an attorney for Artzt said her client "categorically denies" knowledge of, or participation in concealing the accounting misdeeds at CA. "Mr. Kumar's statements are completely false," said attorney Christine McInerney, noting that Artzt, who still works for CA, was cleared by a committee of the CA board.

A spokesman for the U.S. attorney's office in Brooklyn, which oversaw the government's accounting fraud probe that resulted in Kumar pleading guilty, declined to comment.

The affidavit was filed as part of a lawsuit against former and current CA executives and directors by Wyly, a CA shareholder, hoping to recoup hundreds of millions in lost CA investments. William A. Brewer III, lead counsel for Wyly, said it "confirms a conspiracy and subsequent cover-up of epic proportions."

Kumar alleges Ranieri specifically directed him to keep details of the accounting improprieties from fellow CA director Walter Schuetze, saying former SEC chief accountant Schuetze would "have a heart attack" if he knew the extent of the misdeeds.

Since going to prison on a 12-year sentence last year, Kumar has been interviewed by government and private lawyers, said Lawrence McMichael, a Philadephia-based lawyer for Kumar. He said Kumar "will talk to anybody who wants to talk to him and will tell them the truth." Kumar's appeal of his prison sentence will be heard later this month. A spokesman for the U.S. attorney's office in Brooklyn, which oversaw the probe, declined to comment.

Michael Cornacchia, a former prosecutor on the case now in private practice in Manhattan, said investigators are apt to look with suspicion on Kumar's claims unless there is "independent supportive or corroborating evidence." If new evidence of obstruction were found, it could extend any statute of limitations on those crimes, he said, though the statute on accounting fraud has likely expired.

Checking the books

In addition to Ranieri and D'Amato, Kumar's affidavit alleges former CA board members Willem de Vogel and Artzt "knew of our practice of booking revenue for a few days past quarter end." Kumar alleges de Vogel, a member of the CA board's audit committee until 2002, knew of the improper accounting, saying he "would call up CA executives three to five days after the quarter's end to inquire 'How are we doing?' or, 'How do the numbers look?'"

Lawrence Kamin, a lawyer for de Vogel, said his client "categorically denies" the claims, noting de Vogel was to serve as a witness against Kumar at trial. "He's one of the good guys," Kamin said of his client.

Kumar said he discussed the late-booking practice with Ranieri "during the government investigation," which began in February 2002. In April 2003, he alleges, he told Ranieri a former CA joint venture partner was trying to blackmail the company about the improper accounting. He alleges Ranieri told him to "put the past behind me," which he understood to mean "fix the problem at all costs."

Kumar alleges D'Amato was "aware of Wang's participation" in the accounting improprieties but "told me on more than one occasion that it was best not to discuss Wang's involvement."

Kumar charges that D'Amato helped steer CA's internal investigation to a lawyer he knew well, despite Schuetze's urging Kumar to interview a number of firms. That attorney was Robert Giuffra, a Sullivan & Cromwell lawyer who had worked with and for D'Amato and his brother Armand, going back to the 1980s. "D'Amato made it clear that I should recommend Giuffra," Kumar said, adding that Giuffra's role was allegedly to conduct CA's defense against the federal probe "to minimize" its "depth and any damage that might be done to D'Amato, Ranieri and Wang."

Giuffra declined comment.

Kumar said he and Wang had a major falling out after Kumar introduced a new business model in 2000, alleging Wang "was regretting giving up the CEO title." So Wang fired him over breakfast in November 2001, he alleges, though CA's board reaffirmed Kumar's post at a subsequent meeting.