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The Islanders can never have a dull off day can they? Bloomberg reports that a group featuring the Wilpon family, who owns the New York Mets and Charles Dolan who owns the New York Knicks, Rangers and Madison Square Garden are interested in investing in a new arena for the Islanders. The new arena would be near Belmont Park in Elmont, New York.
This is from Bloomberg:
The new arena proposal is a joint venture between the Islanders, Oak View Group and Sterling Project Development, said the people, who asked to be anonymous because the talks are private. James Dolan’s Madison Square Garden Co., which controls the Rangers, long the Islanders hated rivals, is an investor in Oak View Group, the private equity group run by Tim Leiweke and Irving Azoff. The Wilpon family, which owns the Mets, controls Sterling Project Development.
NHL rules permit the owner of one team to have a stake in another club’s arena. The Islanders, MSG and Oak View Group declined to comment.
… New York Governor Andrew Cuomo has taken part in the proposed arena talks and is seeking to attach infrastructure improvement projects to it, the people said without being specific.
Back in Summer 2016, Crain’s initially reported that Scott Malkin and Jon Ledecky were in talks with the Wilpons for an arena project:
The Islanders, who are owned by Value Retail Plc founder Scott Malkin and Jonathan Ledecky, and Sterling Equities, which owns the Mets, have been discussing a possible move to Queens for months, said the people.
The team is being advised in the talks by Oak View Group, a consulting firm founded by ex-AEG CEO Tim Leiweke and Irving Azoff, who is a business partner of the Madison Square Garden Company, which owns the Knicks and the Rangers. MSG CEO James Dolan once gave Azoff credit for bringing hall-of-fame basketball coach Phil Jackson to the Knicks.
Bloomberg reported last month that the Barclays Center is looking to dump the Islanders following the 2018-19 season. Neither side has commented on that report due to the fact that it would volated the "good faith" negotiations both sides would have to undergo.
Would Dolan have say in Islanders decisions? Like naming Isiah Thomas the new team president or banning Eric Cairns or Radek Martinek from the new arena.
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