Jon Ledecky wanted to make something crystal clear, the hope being to quiet the questions surrounding his Islanders and their pending arena impasse.
“We have a singular focus at playing at Belmont Park,” Ledecky said at a media luncheon Tuesday afternoon. He and co-owner Scott Malkin recently submitted a bid to New York State to developing a site at the race track for a new arena. “Take away all the other noise. That’s the objective that will give the New York Islanders the best chance to win a fifth Cup. Everything about going here, there and everywhere else is absolute noise to us right now.”
It was a strong message from Ledecky, who has been the face of this new ownership group since they took over the majority stake before last season. But they inherited a bad set up with Brooklyn’s Barclays Center, now in the third season of being their home.
Last April, those running Barclays triggered the window to begin negotiating an opt-out of the 25-year lease, and the two sides have been in “good faith” talks since. Ledecky confirmed that his team is contractually obligated to play next season in Brooklyn, but from there, it’s up in the air where they might play before their new building is ready — assuming they do win the bid.
“The contract says there are good-faith negotiations going on that would include factors like that,” Ledecky said. “But we’re focused on getting that shovel in the ground and moving forward on Belmont.”
There doesn’t seem to be any set timeline for New York State to make a decision on who wins the bid, but the assumption from Ledecky is that a new arena would take 20 months to build. That would make 2020-21 the first season they could realistically play there, leaving 2019-20 as the one year with no set home. It’s possible that they would negotiate a one-year stay at Barclays Center, but if Barclays would have them, they would have all the negotiating leverage.
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One landing spot Ledecky emphatically shot down was the refurbished Nassau Coliseum, where the Islanders had played for the first 43 years of their existence. NHL commissioner Gary Bettman had already said the new-look, same-place arena was “not a viable option” for a team, and Ledecky said he “absolutely agrees with the commissioner.”
“Nassau Coliseum is a lovely spot, but the commissioner of the NHL is on public record as saying it’s not a viable for a NHL team, so that wouldn’t be our home either,” Ledecky said. “That’s not something that is being considered. We’re considering Belmont Park. Period. The End.”
Although most the specifics of the proposed arena are still being held private out of respect for the bidding process, Ledecky made it clear that the building itself was going to be privately funded. He and Malkin are working with Sterling Project Development, the company owned by the Mets, as well as Oak View Group, run by Madison Square Garden. Along with another outside investment group, Ledecky made it seem like they weren’t going to ask for any public money.
“Those three groups [in addition to ownership] have fully committed to financing the arena,” Ledecky said.
So now that it’s been made exactly clear where the Islanders stand, the waiting begins in earnest. Of course, Ledecky said he hopes the decision comes “sooner rather than later,” but what that actually means in terms of weeks or months is hard to say.
But the Islanders future hangs in the balance, and right now it’s Belmont or bust.
“The consequences of winning are all good. The consequences of losing are bad,” Ledecky said. “It’s pretty black and white.”