Nassau County Exec Edward Mangano yesterday said that the reopening of Nassau Coliseum "could be pushed back from mid-December" until early '17, according to Robert Brodsky of NEWSDAY. Mangano said that the $260.5M, privately funded project "would open in the 'first quarter of 2017.'" Mangano: "Maybe we’ll get lucky and it will be a little bit earlier." Brodsky notes Forest City Ratner Exec Chair Bruce Ratner has "targeted the Coliseum reopening for no later than Dec. 10" when the Univ. of Kentucky men’s basketball team is scheduled to play Hofstra in the first game at the renovated arena. A clause in the Hofstra-Kentucky contract "calls for the game to be moved to Barclays Center if the Coliseum is not ready." Mangano said that Ratner "faced delays in reaching a deal with local labor unions to begin work on the arena, pushing back the start of construction from August to November." Forest City Chief of Staff & Senior VP/External Affairs Ashley Cotton said that the company "still expects to reopen the Coliseum" by winter of '16 (NEWSDAY, 1/6).
