ISLANDERS' LEASE MAKE RELOCATION DIFFICULT
February 5, 2009
Uniondale, N.Y. - Even if billionaire Charles Wang wanted to move his New York Islanders off Long Island anytime soon - as worried fans have speculated in recent weeks - it wouldn't be easy. That's because the hockey team's lease with Nassau County contains strong language that prohibits such a move - at least for six more years.
The agreement says the Islanders can't play any home game during the regular season anywhere but the Nassau Coliseum, which is owned by the county, until 2015. And legal experts say the lease can't be broken by paying off the remaining years because the prohibition, written as part of the 1985 lease and upheld by a Nassau State Supreme Court justice in 1998, says the team's presence on Long Island is what's important.
If the owner attempted to move the team, Nassau County Attorney Lorna Goodman said, he could be held in contempt and face the possibility of jail time, high fines and the payment of any damages incurred by the county.
Wang has expressed frustration over the slow progress of getting a new arena and his Lighthouse redevelopment off the ground. His comments, coupled with the team's recent announcements that it will play an exhibition game in Kansas City, Mo., which is actively seeking a National Hockey League franchise, and hold a training camp in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, have fueled concern over the team's Long Island future.
If the Islanders were to contest the lease, Alfred Brophy, a University of North Carolina professor of commercial real estate law, said the county would win the case in court.
"It's a more extreme lease than you typically see," Brophy said. "If I'm the New York Islanders, I'm not sure I would want to sign this lease. From their perspective, it's a bad lease. But just because it's bad, it doesn't mean you can get out of it."
To go elsewhere, then-Justice Burton Joseph said, "would cause the county irreparable harm." The Islanders have generated at least $2.5 million in revenue for Nassau County just from admissions and advertising since 2006, county comptroller records show. (Newsday)
