Local Officials Call Lighthouse Decision By October 3 Unlikely

Hempstead Officials Say Lighthouse Zoning  Decision Unlikely Before Wang's Deadline

Hempstead (NY) Town Board members yesterday said that there is "almost no chance the zoning application" for the Lighthouse Project "will be decided by Oct. 3," Islanders Owner Charles Wang's self-imposed deadline for a ruling on the development, according to Eden Laikin of NEWSDAY. All seven board members said that they are "still awaiting answers to many of the issues raised at Tuesday's contentious zoning hearing." Hempstead Supervisor Kate Murray: "We don't give Mr. Wang deadlines on bringing the Stanley Cup back to Long Island, and we don't respond to developers' timetables for zoning decisions." Hempstead board member Edward Ambrosino said that he "found it ironic 'that the developer has been demanding certainty' but hadn't provided the town the certainty it had sought on such details as the specific number of buildings." Wang has said that on October 4 -- the day after the Islanders' first home game of the '09-10 season -- he will "not stop working with the town but will start to entertain other options for the hockey team." But Hempstead board member Gary Hudes said the project is "way too important" to set a deadline. Hudes: "I want to be sure the scope of the project, as they submitted it, is right for the site" (NEWSDAY, 9/24). NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman Tuesday on a video feed aired at the zoning hearing said, "There is probably no worse major-league facility right now in North America than the Nassau Coliseum" (NYPOST.com, 9/23). ESPN.com's E.J. Hradek wrote, "The Islanders could really use a new building. I just wonder why it has to be tied to a multi-billion real estate development" (ESPN.com, 9/23).

STRANDED ON THE ISLAND? On Long Island, Arthur Staple reports Nassau Coliseum "wasn't even close to half full" for last night's Devils-Islanders preseason game, the home debut of Islanders rookie LW John Tavares. However, the "vocal die-hard fans came out and said what they wanted." One fan during the national anthem yelled, "Build the Lighthouse!" (NEWSDAY, 9/24). NEWSDAY's Staple notes the "4,000 or so" who attended last night's game made it feel like the "end of last season's dismal run instead of the beginning of the Tavares era." The official attendance was 8,256, but that "would have been true only if the Coliseum held 27,000 at capacity." Staple: "This was bad. Coming so close on the heels of Tuesday's political grandstanding session at the Lighthouse hearing across the road, so close to the mediocre showing by the fans in Kansas City, so close to the news that Russian billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov wants to purchase the Nets and wants to make a splash with the new arena in Brooklyn, the Islanders and their fans had a chance to make some sort of statement with a good showing. It didn't happen" (NEWSDAY, 9/24).

RIGHT WHERE THEY BELONG: ESPN.com's Pierre LeBrun wrote a sold-out Sprint Center in K.C. for Tuesday's Kings-Islanders exhibition game "would have rammed the point home" that the city is a "bona-fide alternative for Mr. Wang should he finally decide to cut the cord in New York." But only 9,792 fans filled the 18,000-seat Sprint Center. LeBrun: "Brutal. Nice way to show your interest. ... Show the folks on Long Island a good product and they will come out" (ESPN.com, 9/23). SportsNet N.Y.'s Adam Schein said of Tuesday's game in K.C., “I was surprised not more people showed up at that game. If you want a hockey team, you’d think they would." However, he added that he believes the Islanders "are going to end up moving ... within a couple of years” (“Loud Mouths,” SportsNet N.Y., 9/23).