Bittersweet times at Nassau Coleseum

On Tuesday my sportswriting class got to experience what it felt like to cover a live sporting event.

We wen t to go see the New York Islanders take on the Pittsburg Penguins. An hour before the game we were given a tour of Nassau Coleseum by Islanders staff. We saw how the team is trying to generate more revenue since they took over arena operations from Nassau County. They also showed us how the team is making a major push to gain young fans through social media outlets like Facebook and Twitter.

Even though it was an overall great experience for myself & my classmates, it also felt strangely sad for me. It wasn't because of anything involving the tour, it was because of the situation the Islanders find themselves in.

The Islanders, who lost the game to the Penguins 3-0, are stuck in a long standing guagmire with Nassau County over the possibility of a new arena to call home. The Nassau Veterans Memorial Coleseum as its formally known, will turn 40 next year. That's pretty old for an indoor sporting venue. As such the current owner of the Islanders, Charles Wang, has pushed for a new arena to be built as part of his Lighhouse Project to develop land Nassau County. Wang was been denied his wishes twice, once by the town of Hempstead and recently in a referendum vote on August 2nd.

This has put the Islanders in a tough spot. Their lease with Nassau County ends in 2015 and Wang has made it very well known that a team move to Kansas City, MO is in the cards. While it would make sense for Wang to move since it looks like he can't build an arena with his own money on Long Island, it doesn't feel right.

The Islanders are Long Island's only major pro sports claim. The community has grown tight with the team thanks to their Stanley Cup fourpeat from 1979-1983. Even as the tean hasn't been able to recapture that success since there are many diehard Isles fans. Losing the team would be a huge blow to the island, both fiscally and emotionally.

Unfortunately for both the team and the fans there is almost a perfect storm against them. The bad economy and lackluster performances all seemed to have charted a course leading to the Midwest.