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.

Hilarious Moronic Media Quote of the Year Award goes to...

...SI's hockey writer Michael Farber, who said the following on TSN about the Islanders and their first overall pick in June:

"...New York Islanders, who have decided to poll fans about what to do with the number one draft choice. There are great hockey scouts right there, and they know what they're doing. This is an insult - one, to your scouts. ... But if you are listening to your fans, it's an insult because you're pandering people who don't know what they're doing."

Reminds me of the story Eric Bischoff had to tell Harvey Schiller after Schiller complained about the violence on a WCW TV Broadcast. Bischoff had to say, "Uh, Dr. Schiller...you didn't believe that was real, did you?

So an esteemed (cough) member of the mainstream media (cough) thinks that this Islanders contest if to help them actually decide who the team will pick with the draft pick? C'mon. We've all seen lazy journalism in our days but this one is unreal. A lazy writer goes on TV without looking into the real issue (marketing) and thinks it's real? Did any Islander fan out there who entered the contest (like me) to go to Montreal REALLY BEVIEVE THAT the Islanders were so perplexed about what to do that they has to turn to the paying customers for advice? Puh-leeze.

This is tough for me because I grew up reading Farber in Sports Illustrated back when it mattered. The only people who care about SI any more are the people who work there and the media-types who still think it's a call to the big leagues to get a job there. It's sad, but it's true.

I mean, hey, Michael--the Islanders have scouts! Lot of them! The assistant GM is a former scout who...get this...still does some scouting! Are we really thinking that they're going to discount all that travel and hard work just to chuck it all and go with the guy the fans pick?

It may be hard to see from Up There On High but this is why people hate the media, Mike.

In other great (but not surprising) news, would you believe that Kate Murray skipped another Lighthouse meeting on May 11? Would you? OK, that one was easy. But would you be surprised to learn that Ms. Murray has a father (not the surprise) who has a job paying $40 dollars an hour as a "part-time clerical aide"? And that he will be getting an annual public pension of $49,188 when he retires? And that the man is 83 years old?

According to Newsday's Eden Laikin, this is apparently all true. Maybe we should have a contest to select which of Kate Murray's relatives should get a new cushy job that they'll be way overpaid for! I'm thinking there have to be other Murrays out on the Island who can use a little money for nothing!

That's the real shame of government right there.

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.

PPD tonight; other thoughts on the season

Remember the STAR-STUDDED FINALE of everyone's FAVORITE REALITY SHOW is tonight when the NHL holds it's FABULOUS PING PONG DERBY to finally figure out who will have the right to select either JOHN TAVARES or VICTOR HEDMAN first overall in the 2009 NHL ENTRY DRAFT in MONTREAL this JUNE!!

(I just thought I'd write that sentence in the press release style that I have always wanted to do. All those CAPS are obnoxious, aren't they?)

So, yeah. Tonight's the night. It's worth noting that Tampa got to pick first overall last year (Stamkos) and that the Lightning have the second-best chance to pick first again. After the Bolts, there are only three teams that can move up to #1: the Avalanche, who had the worst record in the Western Conference, the mighty Thrash, and Los Angeles Kings. Everybody else falls in behind somewhere.

That said, the Isles and their 48.2% chance of landing the first pick can only slide down as far as second. They'll still get a good player but if it happens, it's going to be The Stomach Punch Felt Around Long Island. Seriously, not matter how much the boys improved in the second half, you'd like to get something substantial for your efforts when you're out of the playoff picture by Christmas.

But enough of that. The proposition of losing #1 overall to Tampa makes me want to throw up in my mouth.

So does all of the speculation about The Lighthouse. I love the lazy media and their ground-breaking journalism and how everybody and their brother who has an article of John Tavares has to mention that the team is moving to Kansas City or that Tavares is going to shoot down the Islanders like Lindros did with Quebec a lifetime ago. I guess it doesn't matter to our Canadian brothers that Tavares and his agent both issued statements shooting down the speculation and that anyone with like two minutes to search on Google can find news fro Newsday that the Isles have a pretty good lease until something like 2015.

Why let reality get in the way of silly innuendo that goes nowhere? Of course, they used to say that controversy sold newspapers but the way things are going now, it is harder and harder to sell an actual newspaper to anyone without a coffee ritual or long ride to work these days.

Enh, I feel like I have written this whole post before. Check the archives.

Just a few housekeeping notes for the website to finish for today.

We'll have our first-round predictions up wither later today or tomorrow. We are also working on a feature first suggested by Mrs. NYIFORLIFE a long time ago about our favorite hockey cards. I've been collecting since I was eight years old so I've got quite a few favorites. We hope to share that feature sometime over the long summer.

We also will select out 2008-09 NIFORLIFE.com ISLANDER OF THE YEAR. Last year Richard Park was the winner and you can read that posting at the left by clicking on his picture.

Finally, we'll go back in time for another RETRO LIVE BLOG or two over the summer months. For those who don't know, we'll do a live post of a great game or event from the past and comment on it like we are watching it in real time. The 1980 All-Star Game was a particular favorite; as was a 1976 WHA game with the Whalers taking on the Red Army.

Well, that didn't work

Kate Murray has removed her petition to try and get stimulus dollars to revamp the Coliseum. Looks like people know that her plan was full of crap. Botta

Looks like she's going to have to regroup and come up with another stupid reason why she can't support the Lighthouse. The overwhelming majority of the voters want it and one little petulant child who can't get her way doesn't.

Islanders in Washington to take on the Ovies tonight

Quick hits from around the hockey world:

Kate Murray has issued a press release (with a petition!) stating that she is trying to secure federal stimulus dollars to renovate the Coliseum.

I may not live on the Island but I can tell you this: it sure doesn't seem like she wants to do anything but stall on the Lighthouse Project. Some speculate she is afraid of the massive renovations and building that is key to the plan but as an outside, I don't see why. In her press release, Murray likes to mention that the stimulus dollars will create all sorts of jobs while the Coliseum gets renovated but does she not understand that the Lighthouse Project will bring not only those temporary construction jobs but also hundreds of other full-time jobs to the area once the project has been completed.

Oh, and she also tries to condescend to both the Veterans and the Islanders fans in the press release, but she lists the Islanders last Stanley Cup victory as having been in 1984 so right there, you know she is full of it because she can't even get that fact straight.

"Let's see...how can I suck up to the hockey fans in this thing...I know! I'll say that I am 'urging the county to score the Coliseum's biggest victory since the Islanders 1984 Stanley Cup Championship'!"

You just wonder how much effort and fact-checking comes out of that office when she can't even get the year the Islanders last won a championship straight.

The press release is out there if you want to read it. I don't want to have it printed here. I've consciously tried to not write much about The Lighthouse Project because I prefer the mature adult tact of sticking my head in the sand. Of course, when you do that, you expose your ass to everyone else but whatcha gonna do?

Also, who really uses a petition these days? With your help, maybe Kate Murray can become home room monitor!

Mark Streit has not traveled with the team to DC tonight for the game against the Capitals. He has a groin strain and is listed as day-to-day. Greg Logan, in Newsday, speculates that Joe Callahan and Andrew MacDonald are the likely choices to be in the lineup tonight.

Don't know if you've followed this but the Sound Tigers have now qualified for the playoffs and will be playing their first two games at the Coliseum instead of in Bridgeport.

That's good news for Islanders fans in the area but not so great if you're a Sound Tiger season ticket holder. The team will reportedly have busses leaving Bridgeport for the games on Long Island so at least they're trying to get something done for the locals.

The big reason for all of this seems to be that Sesame Street live was booked by the arena during the time period that was supposed to be saved for the rink's primary tenant's first round playoff series. Screw you, Storm--Elmo's in town!

The lesson today, kiddies: bureaucratic horsepies can ruin stuff you love.

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 Moves Forward; from Newsday

Islanders' Lighthouse project gets some good news
BY ANTHONY RIEBER

anthony.rieber@newsday.com,
ken.davidoff@newsday.com

11:25 PM EST, February 20, 2009

Islanders owner Charles Wang's Lighthouse Project took a small step forward on Friday when Hempstead supervisor Kate Murray called on the town board to approve a key environmental report at its next meeting on Tuesday.

"I firmly believe it will be approved," Murray said in a telephone interview.

She was referring to the environmental report, not the overall project, which she has not taken a position on.

If the board approves the report, Lighthouse developers will next have to answer concerns about how the $3-billion project that includes a refurbished Nassau Coliseum will impact the local environment.

Murray trumpeted the town's speed in producing the report -- which many Islanders fans and Lighthouse supporters will likely see as an excellent example of chutzpah since the town has been accused of dragging its feet on approving the Lighthouse project.

The town has put the onus on the developers, saying a new arena could have been built already had the scope of the surrounding project not been so ambitious.

"I'm very proud of the speed with which town officials have processed with this environmental review," Murray said.

"We got it done in less than nine months. It's just unprecedented in a development of this size."

Murray said the town has worked "very much hand and glove throughout the last nine months" with Lighthouse developers to expedite the environmental report and the developers' response.

Coincidentally, it will be "Town of Hempstead Night" on Saturday when the Islanders host the Devils. Supporters of the Lighthouse Project are planning a demonstration during the ceremonial puck drop.

Murray said she will be unable to attend as she has "three Fire Department dinners and other events" on her schedule.

Lighthouse Project officials did not return a call and e-mail seeking comment.