ELMONT, NEW YORK – SEPTEMBER 23: New York Islanders co-owner Jon Ledecky, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo and Islanders captain Anders Lee join others in the groundbreaking ceremony for the Islanders new hockey arena at Belmont Park on September 23, 2019
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Earlier this week, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo hosted a groundbreaking ceremony for the Belmont Park arena that will serve as home ice for the New York Islanders. Later this month, Islanders ownership will continue the celebration by welcoming season ticket-holders to an event on the same grounds. These celebrations are set to commemorate the future of the NHL franchise on Long Island and a larger development project that will reshape the community. But will the festivities actually end up being part of a going away party for one of the league’s most storied franchises?
This sports-led development project received final go-ahead from state government authorities at the end of the past summer. It features a 19,000-seat arena serving as centerpiece to a $1-billion-plus plan that will include a 250-room hotel and 350,000-square feet of retail space. In the first place, it brings the Islanders a step closer to completing what has so far been a two decade-long search for a new home of its own. It also brings with it all sorts of visions about what a development of such magnitude will do to and for the community, economically and socially.
New York Arena Partners, the developers behind the project, is one stakeholder that seems clear on what that could mean and look like. The partnership brings together sports-related owners and operators—the Islanders, Sterling Equities, and Oak View Group—with interests that have the capacity for creating change by reshaping the retail, residential, and entertainment contours of this area just east of New York City:
- Islanders co-owner Scott Malkin is chairman of Value Retail, the U.S.-based parent company of luxury discount shopping “villages” located near European airport and hotel hubs in London, Milan, Munich, Dublin, Barcelona, Madrid, Paris, Brussels, Antwerp, Cologne, Düsseldorf, and Frankfurt, and Suzhou and Shanghai in China. Co-owner John Ledecky is an investor in sports properties, including a prior stake in the NHL’s Washington Capitals;
- Sterling Equities, the commercial and residential real estate firm led by the Wilpon and Katz families, controls both the MLB franchise New York Mets and Andbox esports outfits, along with associated media broadcasting through the Sportsnet New York regional sports network. Over the course of the past 20 years or so, the firm has been at the forefront of would-be redevelopment projects that would place the likes of a casino and a soccer stadium somewhere in proximity of the 13-mile stretch between the Mets’ home at CitiField and available space around Belmont Park race track;
- Oak View Group is the venue investment and advisory vehicle spearheaded by Tim Leiweke and Irving Azoff. Leiweke was previously the president and CEO of two sports business powerhouses—Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment and Anschutz Entertainment Group—while Azoff chaired a turning of fortunes for music and entertainment companies such as MCA Music Entertainment Group, Ticketmaster, and Live Nation, before partnering to manage live event venues held by the Jim Dolan-owned Madison Square Garden Company.
Given that level of background and reach, it may take little imagination to render images of a future around Belmont Park that go well beyond anything drawn-up by even the sharpest architects and city planners.
Those prospects, plus some relief from the twists and turns in the Islanders’ search for an arena, is lending lots of excitement to many fans, public officials, and residents. So, too, are the promises of the boosts that a world-class, state-of-the-art arena development would bring to the local economy, public transit network, and neighborhoods across the community.
Of course, as goes with projects of this sort, there are individuals, groups, and municipalities cautioning about pitfalls that could result in too many negative impacts. Some of them are so concerned that they have filed lawsuits and legal complaints to slow down and even shut down the project. Taken together, the claims are contending that state-run entities Empire State Development and the Franchise Oversight Board, New York Arena Partners, the Hempstead Town supervisor, the Nassau County executive, and the Water Authority of Western Nassau have variously engaged in flawed environmental impact studies, disregarded traffic and homeland security issues, potentially compromised human and equine safety, advanced dubious plans for a new $105 million Long Island Rail Road station and shuttle service to the Belmont venue, and essentially placed publicly-owned property at Belmont in the hands of private developers. The complaints are also nipping at the NHL for creating pressure to move the project along swiftly in the hope that the arena would be open and operational early in the coming decade.
There are, to be sure, many economic, political, and social angles and levers to this project. And they going off in any number of different directions. The only wrinkle that seems to have not yet cropped up is a tweet from President Donald Trump weighing-in on the trifecta of Governor Cuomo, major league professional sports, and a New York real estate deal.
What, then, is the right direction in this case?
The answer to that question starts with another, that is, “What do you want this place to be?”
Generating revenue and profits has to be of interest to anyone connected—directly or indirectly—to this project. In fact, it would be mismanagement and irresponsibility to regard any differently. But the real attention needs to be focused on whether this project is about improving economic opportunities as a means to improving quality of life or vice versa.
Stakeholders across the community envision strengthening the connection between people and where they work and live. If this project is primarily about improving economic opportunities, then we already know it indulges in feeding the model of sports-led development that worked through the end of the 20th century but which has since become obsolete. If it is primarily about improving quality of life, then we know it fits with the model of investment, innovation, and growth that is defining the present and future.
Which of those routes ends up being taken has implications for the long-term future of the Islanders on Long Island. One signal will be how remediation of the issues put forth in the lawsuits is managed. Another signal will be the extent to which realities align in a way that yields a particular status and function for the Islanders: Will a future at Belmont resemble something more along the lines of the franchise’s history at Nassau Coliseum on Long Island or its spell at Barclays Center in Brooklyn?
Putting shovels in the ground at Belmont now represents a few milestones for the Islanders, their partners, and the community. Whatever the project amounts to, in one way or another, will be groundbreaking. Whatever happens to the landscape will bring a new dimension to business and daily life in the area.
As dignitaries put shovels in the ground at Belmont, word came that the Islanders will be playing more games at Nassau Coliseum this season than at Barclays Center. Meanwhile, a few key decisions will determine whether those same shovels are preparing a safe harbor that keeps the Islanders on Long Island or a platform for waving goodbye to the franchise. We know the points to be on lookout for in this New York story.