The Sunday Rant against TheEvilDolanEmpire

Otherwise known as Newsday

I love reading the Sunday paper at 7 am. It’s that quiet time when the coffee is brewing, the cinnamon rolls are in the oven and the brat baby is still asleep not asking for money or to drive her somewhere. I’ll sit at the table alone reading and relaxing -- until something in Newsday will inevitably give me agita. It happens every week. It’s Newsday’s gift to me for not taking up the guy at Pathmark’s offer for the Daily News at only $1 a week.

So here’s the deal. While Newsday has been almost fair and balanced (almost) in their coverage of Ed Mangano’s proposal to Nassau County for the new arena referendum, today they chose to print submissions from three readers, two of whom are clearly against the idea and one who just wanted his name in the paper.

The last one was in “TheRant” blurb of the sports page. “Hey Einhorn, for an additional $200 million, you can save the Nassau taxpayers and personally build the new Coliseum.” Grant Hendricks, Bay Shore. Not as clever as many of the other Rant quotes they’ve published. Also a little fuzzy on the math since David Einhorn’s investment of $200 million is already in the Mets and they need $350 million to build a new coliseum. So in actuality, in order to “personally build the new Coliseum” David would need to write a check for $350 million and not $200 million. Got that Grant? Okay. And if there were over runs, NY Islanders owner Charles Wang would probably STILL pick up the tab for the balance. Although I don’t think it would be named the Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum any longer. It would probably be called the Einhorn Palace.

Let’s move on to the Letters to the Editor page. There were two today titled “Not in favor of a new Coliseum.” The first was written by John Volpe of Seaford who offered up an accountant’s take on the financial situation. However, veiled in his logic and suggestion is an extreme dislike for Charles Wang and possibly also Ed Mangano.

While his suggestion of “economic participation” is not far fetched, Mr. Volpe fails to take into account that the Islanders and Charles Wang are merely tenants in a County owned facility on County owned land. I believe his suggestion is too one sided. Ed Mangano already has a revenue sharing plan on the table which could be beneficial to both parties. And for Pete’s sake, if Kate Murray actually is backing it, you know damn well it is more slanted to the County and Town of Hempstead than it is to Charles Wang!

I also take offense not only to Mr. Volpe’s final comment “…he can find someone in another state willing to blindly subsidize his business venture.” BLINDLY SUBSIDIZE???

Mr. Volpe, do you realize that Charles Wang already won an RFP for the property and spent over $14 million developing the plans and the environmental impact study MORE THAN ONCE? Do you know that Charles Wang has paid for Town of Hempstead studies THEY needed? No one is BLIND in this situation other than the public who has to sit and listen to the political banter of warring politicians who all want their piece of the pie.

Next is the four paragraph letter from Ethell Smith from Freeport who either has never been to a hockey game or is a Ranger fan. (I'm guessing the first one.) Perhaps she has never been to a baseball game either as she puts the attending of a minor league baseball team in the same category with pee-wee teams and high school games.

As someone who has had to traverse the country for travel softball for years, I can tell you there is a vast difference between a minor league such as the Ducks and a high school game. Duh. Also what Ms. Smith misses is the entertainment value of a ball park. It would be a less expensive family outing in a picture-perfect setting in our own back-yard on Long Island. NOT the budget busting, over-priced day in a behemoth of a stadium with 60,000 fans miles away.

She also says that “even if the Coliseum is in poor condition, it doesn’t appear to affect the acts that play there.”

Um, Ms. Smith, without a major full-time tenant, the County will not be able to RUN the current Coliseum so there won’t be any acts there at all. It will be a vacant shell on an unkept lot.

Finally she says she believes the Islanders should leave New York since they haven’t won a Stanley Cup since 1983. Ma’am, if everyone felt the way you do, over 50% of the league’s clubs would have to leave their cities.

The Stanley Cup is the hardest trophy in all of sports to win. Of 30 teams, only ONE each year gets to claim it. The Islanders winning or losing should REALLY not be what matters most to the residents of Nassau County. The potential loss of tax revenue and jobs should be the only thing that matters most to the residents.

Nassau County currently has a professional sports team within their borders. That team brings revenue and jobs to the area. Without the New York Islanders the County and the Town of Hempstead will LOSE money.

It really IS that simple.