Nassau looking at downsizing Coliseum once Islanders leave

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Nassau County Executive Ed Mangano was set to announce a plan last night to scale down Nassau Coliseum to between 8,000 and 12,000 seats, and everyone is so excited that nobody has bothered to report on it at all! (Okay, Newsday seems to have said something about it, but it’s behind their iron paywall so I have no idea what it says — I’m actually an Optimum TV subscriber, but not Optimum Online, so no dice.)

The upshot seems to be: Once the New York Islanders leave the year after next, scale down the Coliseum to be able to host more mid-sized concerts that don’t need a 16,000-seat facility. It sort of makes sense — New York is desperately lacking any venues in between 6,000 seats (Radio City Music Hall) and 18,000 (Barclays Center). Except, of course, that Nassau Coliseum isn’t really all that close to New York City, so it’s not clear whether touring acts will be looking to pass up a trip to Manhattan or Brooklyn in order to find cozier digs in Uniondale.

But that’s the current plan, anyway. And apparently lots of people are set to bid on the operating rights, so now all that’s left is … let’s see, there must have been something … oh, right, figuring out how much it’ll cost to do the renovations, and whether any of the prospective operators is offering enough money to actually pay for it. Details, details…


4 comments on “Nassau looking at downsizing Coliseum once Islanders leave”

  2. …. ok, just because it’s the obvious joke… Nassau could have cut capacity in the coliseum to 12,000 for the last two decades of the Islander’s tenancy there and no-one would have been inconvenienced in the least.

    The main problems this franchise has are it’s nutbar owner and the fact – as noted in Neil’s piece – that it uses the name “New York” but is located a long, long way from what most people consider to be actual New York.

  3. Who would be the main tenant in this 8,000 to 12,000 seat arena? Or will it be a mid-size arena version of the Sprint Center in Kansas City, MO?

  4. Yeah, that. Though they could always try to get some minor-league team as well. (Arena football? Indoor lacrosse?)