I don't know about the rest of you, but I'm at the point where I just wish we had a different owner, one who puts the priority of owning an NHL franchise first and foremost, who knows what needs to be done, who will put money into the roster and hire hockey minds to run the show.

Isn't that a task for our GM, to convince our owner what money's needed to put in to be competitive. Especially if the owner isn't interested in hockey.
I think Wang should stay as long as he keeps the team floating and we find an owner who really wants to win something.

So, the option I would vote for isn't really there.

• "Yes, but not until we find a buyer who really cares."

I want a trifecta of incompetence OUT along with their outside the box hockey thinking and insane experiments.
WANG, Dey and Gordon.

I'd keep Snow on board. I agree with Magnus too.

As an 'outside fan" I am tired of being the joke of the NHL.

I vote no.
A new owner means they move....
although Hamilton is alot closer to me. ;)

I voted yes. It would be nice to find an eccentric rich guy who wants to win, but has no interest in partying with DP. Or making the hockey decisions. Isn't there enough to do to keep Wang busy at the software company?

I voted yes out of frustration,because of the on ice product. We needed two capable defensemen this off season,and a real enforcer. If you do a rebuild, do it right, not on the cheap.

Too bad no one like Bossy (like Mario with the Pens) wants to buy the team to ensure the team stays here.

:cheers:

Emphatically NO. Wang rescued the Islanders, brought them back to respectability, restored intelligent long-range planning to our hockey ops department, and is valiantly trying to secure the franchise's future on Long Island by pursuing a new arena development with reasonable diligence.

Of course Wang has made mistakes---chief among them, the retention and long-term employment of Mike Milbury, who brought years of ruin to an unstable franchise with his erratic and often incomprehensible roster moves that exiled a dozen young stars (not to mention lots of NHL captains---I'm looking at you, Mr. Chara, Mr. Brewer, Mr. McCabe, and even Mr. Luongo). But he did fire Milbury eventually, and Snow's hiring has resulted in some surprisingly positive moves. Yes, I would do things differently than Wang in some respects. I would love to just renovate the arena and forget everything else. But anyone in Wang's chair is going to break even on costs or make mistakes. Was John O. Pickett perfect? He got the team out of debt and into glory, but also never marketed the team, signed the SMG lease, and ran LaFontaine off the Island. No one's perfect.

Wang has done many things right, especially recently. Renovations to county property. Going first class with team travel and support, player development (IceWorks and SoundTigers instead of splitting players between Kentucky and Utah), fan outreach (blogbox and NYITV), and many other things. Most importantly of all, he supports a solid, patient rebuild from the ground up. Not a quick fix.

I see folks upset that we lack depth at forward and defense. So what?!? Two more expensive free agents would not get us any closer to a Cup. We're in for another lottery pick this year, my friends. This is good news, not bad news: It's the lottery picks whose names will grace our next Cup. Not guys like Alex Tanguay.

One more thought: We wanted a new owner to replace Pickett. How did that work out? Let's exercise caution when wishing for a new steward for the Islanders.

Wang has poured his heart, soul, money, and time---time that he can't buy with dollars, and will never get back---into getting this team turned around. He isn't perfect, but he definitely deserves our support.

Emphatically NO. Wang rescued the Islanders, brought them back to respectability, restored intelligent long-range planning to our hockey ops department, and is valiantly trying to secure the franchise's future on Long Island by pursuing a new arena development with reasonable diligence.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Respectability? Is this what you call it? Wow.

:disgraced:

:rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl:
IS THERE ANY QUESTION???

I want a new owner. Wang went from hero in the beginning to zero now. The only AND I MEAN ONLY thing I like about him is that he hasn't moved the team. But obviously that's 1000000000000% of a possibility now that's not getting Wang's World on time so screw him.

Yes....just as long as we have an owner that wants to keep the team here.



I wonder how much the Islanders would go for...low payroll, a team filled with alot of ahl players, and 3rd and4th liners..Surely, if we got all Islander fans together we could chip in and buy the team from him....with one very big hometown discount. ;) :D

I'm really sick of not even the team, but the fans being put down as some of the worst in the NHL. We're accused of being a crappy market, and its all BS. This website alone shows how strong our fanbase is. Those stuck up fans of Canadian teams think they are better than us. They need to be put in their place. When was the last time a Canadian team one the Cup?

To Wang, I think he is determined to stay on the Island, but you can't expect him to lose 20 mil a year in order to do so. Lets not forget he brought us the Sound Tigers. It was an ambitious plan that is most likely going to fail because of the incompetence of town officials. I guess he could have budged a little, changing things here and there, but still, as he stated, this has gone on for years. Tweaking, changing and altering the plan can only go so far.

Wang Rules :torrey:

good luck finding an owner that would even try to keep the team here.
Wang has not made the Islanders a laughing stock he has just carried on the tradition.
at this point if he keeps them here or at least in NY and they get a new building i am happy. once he gets money coming in i think he will spend it on the team, like he did the first few seasons.

:thumbsup:

We have to see this rebuild through. Snow has been a pleasant surprise overall. I think most on the board stated they would be patient, but when the rubber hits the road, its more difficult to actually go through with it.

This is year 3 for Garth and any good rebuild probably needs 5 years to judge. Lets wait it out and see what he produces. Other than not signing an enforcer, Garth has done a prettty good job in acquiring young talent.

Did Wang buy the team this summer? No, I'm grading him based on this decade.

And say what you want, but we re-earned the respect of the NHL with the 2001-2004 Islanders squads and guys like Yashin, Peca, Aucoin, Osgood, and so forth. Take out Toronto's disgusting cheap shots against Peca and Jonsson in the 2001-02 DSF and we might well have advanced as far as we did in 1993 or further.

Sure, people still diss the Isles. People mocked Wang for his long-term signing of Yashin and DiPietro (myself included). Now we see a fair number of stars getting signed for 12+ years. People mocked Wang for hiring a recent NHLer as GM. Now we get some uncannily good free agent signings and judgment from a guy who's been down there on the ice recently. I remember people also mocked our previous owners for alienating our former stars and disrespecting our past. Now we have Trots and Boss around the building every night. But go on, keep knocking ownership, even though it's the best it's been in 20 years.

Kicking Wang right now is like kicking a guy on your own team when he's down.
I'm not going to do it. Let's support the guy while he's trying to get us a new home on Long Island.

* * *

PS The rebuild started in earnest last season; Ted Nolan still had a mandate to win now in early 2007-08. So I judge this stage rebuild as Year Two, and I figure we have plenty more knocks to absorb before this thing really gets turned around. Just wait! Patience is *really* tough in Years 3-5. That's why Milbury dealt all of our young stars once they had 1-2 years of experience with our club. To paraphrase Gatorade, let's not be like Mike. Let's hang in there, gang.

Out. ONE! His results and actions have seen us go downhill more and more the more he gets involved. Our only successes were when he stayed out. Lavy and Milbury were given free reign and won.....but then he meddled. Nolan and Smith.....didn't last long. Now the Overspeed Doctrine has been a failure except for Bridgeport but that doesn't help us play two, nevermind three periods well.

No respect, the GM can't sign players for years, the roster shakeups are a joke, the summer headlines are a joke.

OUT! Wang has been an abject failure with the cheapest hires and most intrusive ownership. OUT!

There is no more respect for the franchise. To think otherwise, is putting one's head underneath a truck and pretending nothing is happening.

Really, when you call Wang cheap, after he's spent tens of millions on renovations, star players, fan-friendly initiatives, and even bought out Alexei Yashin, you just make a really unsound argument.

And when you call him our "most intrusive ownership," I wonder if you were paying attention during the Gluckstern and Milstein era. Was it intrusive of Wang to leave milbury in charge for seven years? I only wish he had "intruded" earlier and canned Milbury years ago.

Listen, you've got your mind made up about Wang. I respect that. But I'm wondering what the real reasons are, because "cheap" and "intrusive" are grossly unfair and inaccurate complaints to throw at the man.

:thumbsup:

Dr., there's no denying that he's grown cheaper and cheaper these past 2 years. Like a switch went off when he fired Smith as GM and hired Garth, then promoted his son-in-law to president. That's when our payroll dropped to CBA minimums, radio station expense cut, radio personality expense cut, hired AHL coach, scaling down ticket holder events, consolidated offices, we don't even get a gametime when attending games now. Yes he's losing money, and our roster/hockey personnel and team are suffering for it.

The "Plan" all along when it was decided that's what they'd call it, is spend as little as possible until they know what Wang's real estate future is.

The best post of this thread. :cheers:

:cheers: :cheers: :cheers:

But don't tell that to the LH lackey's Wang has working for him perpetuating his rhetoric
for economic and uh, I mean team prosperity (cough-cough) yeah team prosperity is what they want you to believe.

THE LH LACKEY'S

:rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

OK, my 2c*: a well-organized group of interested citizen-fans create a corporation (New York Entertainment Traditions -- conveniently abbreviated NYET for a chuckle from our Russian friends) sell 10,000 shares or so to raise a boatload of $ and organize the team as a professional sports corporation. Each game could be considered a management meeting so you can write off various expenses. Subsidize transportation via creation of the country's first (plug in trendy alternate fuel)-powered transportation hub system, federally underwritten as part of the Good for the Burbs, Good for the Planet campaign -- who could say "nyet" to such a politically correct initiative? Hey, maybe we can even tie it to healthcare reform -- active participation in live events is GOOD FOR YOU! Root More, Live Healthier! Use healthcare $ to pay for season tickets, I mean active participation obesity reduction and heart / circulatory system stimulation sessions.**


*Equally as likely as "getting" a new owner, as if we could go to the new owner store & pick one out.

**Presuming that there is something stimulating to cheer for, may need some backup for auditors on that one.

Unfortunately, rebuilds ARE done on the cheap.

SO I GUESS RETURNING THIS DEFECTIVE ONE FOR ONE THATS WIRED CORRECTLY IS OUT OF THE REALM OF POSSIBILITY

Snow's tenure hasn't been a salary dump or a non-stop run to the bottom of the standings. Indeed, I recall Snow coming in as GM and getting Ryan Smyth to play here as part of a move to compete right now. He's the only GM in Isles history to get the team to the playoffs in his first year on the job.

After we had a ton of free agents depart for greener pasture...and who can blame them when Toronto's throwing money away...Wang, Snow, and Co. took another path. They signed some more free agents and tried to replicate their old formula. It failed. They then wisely committed to rebuilding the team.

Yes, the rebuild is cheap. It should be cheap. Adding two more free agent would just make this team a better non-playoff team. We need to finish in the lottery to rebuild for real.

The other cuts you've mentioned might add up to a million dollars, okay, maybe two. Wang is paying a star athlete, Alexei Yashin, SEVENTEEN million to play in Russia. A move that almost everyone here applauded. We didn't hear anything about "cheap owner" that week.

We're all frustrated at the team's status, and the lack of progress on the Lighthouse. No reason to take a dump on the most committed owner we've had in two decades, and the only owner in our history who has invested tens of millions and never made a profit.

I don't like everything about Wang, but calling him cheap is (cue Crazy Eddie:) insane.

Dr., all I know is when I spoke to Dey about terminating the radio coverage, he said it was cost savings, and wouldn't me as a fan rather that money be spent on a player instead. If they are making cost cutting decisions like that (500k) then they are being as cheap as they can.


I understand that the payroll will be near the minimum for a rebuild, but dont stop running the org like a professional team, and start running it as Charlestown Chiefs(even they had a radio guy). They think that by punishing the fans they will pressure the politicians, and it's a suck ass way to treat the fans.

Well said.

The vote is pointless. The 'yes' hinges on some mythical owner who wants to keep the team where it is with the awful SMG lease (who will probably lose money just like Wang) and I'm sure the 'no' is just going to incite those who think the fans who aren't continually critical are drinking kool-aid.

In a perfect world, I want an owner who can make money with the team and then put that money back in to sign free agents and create a competitive team. This could be Wang. He certainly did so in the early years of owning the team. The problem today is that everything is so screwed up that it seems like a new owner is the answer. If Wang wasn't being cheap right now, would Chris Dey elicit such a negative response? I think it's one of many questions to consider.

Until the arena is settled, the answer is not going to be a new owner.

WOULD WE EVEN KNOW WHO THE HELL CHRIS DEY IS

:rocker:

DEY-O
DEYYYYY--OOO.
DEY-LITE CUM & ME WANNA GO HOME........


:fear:

Some of you are completely out of your minds or you expect Wang/anyone to lose 60 million dollars a year or more to give you everything you want.

The billionaires are all lining up to throw away 500m or more their money and get abused to take the team off his hands.

You failed Wang, you failed the previous owners and you stop showing up a few years after winning the cups and it did not matter if Arbour-Torrey were in the front office or Milbury-Dey. You proved yourselves to be front-runners and a bad hockey fanbase regardless who owns the team now or in the future.

I have an idea why don't all of you who want Wang out mail me 50,000-100,000 of your yearly income because that's the equivalent of what Wang goes through owning this team.

Someone's going to come along, lose 60m a year to play in a building with no revenue streams and have everything they do be criticized?

Only answer most of you have is I don't care, lose more money or you are a terrible owner and I will not support this team.

I guess Milstein was right to cut the payroll and sell off everyone, Wang for all the crap he gets should sell Tavares and Okposo immediately because spending hundreds of millions on players did not make you show up nor did the playoffs.

Not even billion dollar corporations will want to lose this kind of money every year, that's not how you become rich but go bankrupt.

Meanwhile you expect someone to be as dumb as Wang and pay hundreds of millions of dollars for hockey players with no revenue generated from it that will pay him back because most of you sit here and never will support this team and just criticize him. Then when he tries to do something to get back the money because Nassau does not have to renovate their own building you blame him?

I know, it's not your problem, you want star players 100m dollar contracts and 1970 ticket prices or you wont' support any owner. Yes, Charles (insert x owner) go spent 400m on an arena for Nassau County so they can make all the money off the building with TOH/Murray and you better make sure only Nassau/Murray supporters build it and make all the money from construction.

And after that go spend 200m on player contracts so 11,000 people show up on weeknights only after you cut the prices down to 1975 prices.

Hey, don't you dare change the name of that building for our veterans, how dare you, go lose more money on no naming rights or you are a terrible owner.

Players know the deal too, they don't want to play for this fan base and will want out as soon as they can escape and it has nothing to do with any owner. Tavares, Okposo, Moulson and whoever else becomes a star would get better fan support in the AHL than here.

Hey Charles, go hand WFAN five million a year for radio coverage, but I'll never listen to a game on any channel anyway unless you buy me the radio and pay for the electricity in my house or your a bad owner.

Maybe this topic should be re-named, does any Islander owner want this fan base, the worst and least knowledgeable in pro sports.

Now go draw some funny pics and make some jokes, our fan base always proves itself a laughingstock and it has nothing to do with any owner or the teams record.

What about us fans being failed by this team over 3 decades? 1 playoff series victory in 25 years? I've been a season ticket holder for a while an I'm not in it for charity. I want to win and I've been pretty patient.

Successfully run companies make a profit, unsuccessful companies lose money. If a pro sports team's success is measured in it's success in post season play, then show me how this or any of the previous owners since 1984 have been successful.

Don't give me this crap about most of us don't care, are a terrible fan base, wont support the team. Why don't you look to where the blame should be placed, in the success (or lack thereof) of this team's accomplishments in the last 25 years.

:yea: :moon: :rotflmao: :goofy2:

Digging up a month old thread to bash Islander fans on an Islander fan message board. Brilliant!