Charles Wang, who has spent $23 million annually keeping the New York Islanders afloat, says he regrets buying the NHL franchise.
Charles Wang, who has spent $23 million annually keeping the New York Islanders afloat, says he regrets buying the NHL franchise, according to a Newsday interview.
Though the numbers aren’t verified, NHL insiders say Wang’s losses are real: the team has been a loser and not drawing to capacity at Nassau County Veterans Coliseum. But even if the team had been drawing to capacity, the team would be losing money: the aging facility just isn’t capable of generating the same level of revenue as the newer facilities in the NHL, and arena manager SMG sucks most of the revenues from concessions and parking.
Hence Wang’s efforts to basically rebuilt the arena as part of a larger redevelopment project, first proposed several years ago.
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