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February 19, 2009
Mayoral Hopeful Wants Islanders in Brooklyn
Spin Cycle [Newsday blog]
by Bill Murphy
The Brooklyn Islanders?
That’s something more than a whimsical thought when it’s pushed by a politician who would like to be mayor of New York City less than two years from now.
“I’m looking for the Islanders moving to Brooklyn,” U.S. Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-Kew Gardens) said Thursday morning on WFAN Radio. Weiner, an avid hockey player who is among a handful of Democrats vying to challenge Mayor Michael Bloomberg in 2010, said he thought the current economy made it unlikely that the entire Atlantic Yards project would be built as planned, but there probably would be a new arena to house the Nets basketball team.
As Newsday reporter Steve Zipay recently pointed out, “the numbers show — and have shown for decades — that economically viable arenas generally have two professional sports teams as anchors.”
NoLandGrab: Since we already have four arenas in the area (Madison Square Garden, the Izod Center, the Prudential Center and Nassau Coliseum), and only five NBA and NHL teams (the Knicks, Nets, Rangers, Devils and Islanders), it would seem we already have more arenas than we need. And the same goes for mayoral candidates.
Posted by eric at February 19, 2009 10:24 AM