A new chapter in Nassau County’s "decadelong struggle to overhaul the Nassau Coliseum" starts Wednesday as the arena reopens with a Billy Joel concert after an 18-month, $165M makeover, according to Robert Brodsky of NEWSDAY. For the first time since the arena opened in '72, the building has "no professional sports team as an anchor tenant." The NHL has yet to approve Forest City Ratner Chair & CEO Bruce Ratner’s plan for the Islanders to "play four regular season and two preseason games at the renovated arena." The D-League Long Island Nets will "play at the arena beginning this fall." Brooklyn Sports & Entertainment CEO Brett Yormark said that he is "negotiating with a second minor league team he declined to identify." Yormark predicted that the Coliseum "will prosper even without an anchor tenant." He said that without a professional sports team occupying 40-plus dates per year, there is "more 'flexibility' to attract an artist-in-residence who would play on a regular basis or to host multiday events" (NEWSDAY, 4/3). On Long Island, Mark La Monica noted the UFC will "host an event at the renovated Nassau Coliseum on Saturday, July 22." The card will air on Fox, putting Long Island and the Coliseum in "primetime on national television"(NEWSDAY, 4/1).
