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September 3, 2011
Homage to Nassau County
The Ice House Gang
By Kevin Baker
Atlantic Yards is a monumental waste of government subsidies, but at least it is useful in that it serves as a bad example.
As usual, the owner of the Islanders—a once proud team that has been about as decrepit as their home arena for a generation now—and his supporters promised that the reworked Coliseum would more than make up what its renovation would cost, thanks to extras like a minor-league ballpark to be attached, and an enhanced ability to attract conventions and rock concerts.
This is a large helping of bologna, one that is customarily served with almost all such sports arena giveaways. Long experience has shown that ballparks and ice hockey rinks and their ilk only draw discretionary income away from other diversions. The few, mostly temporary and minimum-wage jobs they create count for little against the staggering costs.
Such projects are mostly about appeasing construction unions and politicians, as the Atlantic Yards fiasco is still demonstrating. After the failure of Mr. Wang’s referendum, there was talk about moving the Islanders to that site, to share the space with basketball’s New Jersey Nets. But that seems unlikely, as the wizards who imposed that overgrown college fieldhouse on the good people of Brooklyn failed to make it big enough to accommodate NHL-sized ice.
Posted by steve at September 3, 2011 9:45 PM