Nassau leaves taxpayers with standing room only
Rally towels are seen on the seats prior to game three of the Eastern Conference Quarterfinals between the New York Islanders and the Washington Capitals at Nassau Coliseum on Sunday, Apr. 19, 2015 in Uniondale. Credit: Jim McIsaac
Nassau County has handed over its public property to a private developer who is selling it for profit. And the county won't earn a dime.
Nassau Events Center, the Coliseum tenant controlled by developer Bruce Ratner and Brooklyn Nets owner Mikhail Prokohorv, is using memorabilia company Steiner Sports to sell Nassau Coliseum's old seats for $500 a pair. If they sell just 4,000 seats, they'll earn $1 million, minus any percentage Steiner gets. The Coliseum is owned by Nassau County. So why aren't the profits of a seat sale going to the county? It seems no one was thinking creatively, or paying attention, or both.
There isn't a mention of the seats in the arena lease. The county didn't sign them away, but it didn't ask for a piece of the pie, either.
It's a baffling example of officials who can't manage the county's money or property. That's true of the county executive and the legislature, which approved the lease two years ago. Minority leader Kevan Abrahams is objecting now, but didn't say a word then. No one did.
The lease says during the renovation, Nassau Events Center can remove whatever isn't "useful." But why does the tenant get to sell items that belong to county taxpayers and keep the profit?
The lease should have given the county the proceeds, or a high percentage of the proceeds, of any furnishings or fixtures NEC sold. And the county might have earned even more and eased the pain of the Islanders' departure if season ticket holders had had a first shot at buying the specific seats they had sat in for years.
County officials must start minding their store, before everything in it is sold -- for someone else's gain.
