Residents of Nassau County, New York will head to the polls today to vote on a proposal to fund construction of a new home for the NHL's New York Islanders. The results could be worth watching for NBA fans in a number of markets.
If the $400 million bond issue passes, the county and team will build a new arena, a minor-league baseball stadium and other developments on the site of the current Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum. If not, the Islanders could wind up looking for a new home - and there's no guarantee they'd stay in the area. The Nets' new arena - currently under construction in Brooklyn - might seem like an obvious destination for a homeless hockey team looking to stay in the metro New York area. Problem is, the Barclays Center isn't set up to accommodate an NHL team without a substantial reconfiguration.
That would leave team owner Charles Wang with a couple of options: build somewhere else in the general area, move, or sell. The latter two options may be of interest to NBA fans.
As I wrote back in June, there are a couple of groups kicking the tires on the idea of a new multi-purpose venue in the Seattle area that would serve as home to NHL and NBA franchises. The Islanders going on the market might kick-start that development.
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