An Islanders' timeline, 1971-2014
Islanders captain Denis Potvin holds the Stanley Cup after his team beat the Edmonton Oilers in four games to win the Cup in Uniondale on May 18, 1983. Credit: AP / Bill Kostroun
1971: Roy Boe, who made his fortune in women's apparel, wins an NHL expansion franchise to play in the Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Uniondale. He pays $10 million. Boe already owned the American Basketball Association's New York Nets, which opened the new arena the following year.
Oct. 7, 1972: The Islanders debut, losing 3-2 to the Atlanta Flames. They finish the season with a record of 12-60-6.
1974-75: The Islanders make the playoffs, beating the Rangers in the first round, but losing to the Philadelphia Flyers in the semifinals.
1977: The Nets move to New Jersey, depriving the Coliseum of a major tenant.
1978: Boe, losing money, sells the team to venture capitalist John O. Pickett Jr., who signs a lease to remain at the Coliseum through 2007.
1980: The Islanders win the first of four consecutive Stanley Cup championships. They have not won the cup since.
1996: Dallas businessman John Spano buys the Islanders for $165 million.
1998: Spano fails to make a loan payment and relinquishes the club when he is arrested on federal charges of bank and wire fraud. The Islanders are sold to Howard Milstein, from a powerful New York real estate family, and Steven Gluckstern, a co-owner of the Phoenix Coyotes, for $195 million
1998-99: Upset by the condition of the arena, the new owners threaten to move the team. However, bound by a revised lease that did not expire until 2015, the Islanders are forced to stay put. The owners sharply cut the team's payroll.
2000: Charles Wang, co-founder of Computer Associates, buys the team along with CA chief executive Sanjay Kumar for $74.2 million plus assumption of $97 million in liabilities. Wang buys out Kumar in 2004.
2003: Wang meets with then-County Executive Thomas Suozzi, who tells him Nassau cannot afford to upgrade the Coliseum and encourages Wang to come up with a plan for the site.
2004: Wang unveils his Lighthouse Project plan to renovate the Coliseum and develop the surrounding area.
2007: The Lighthouse Group applies to the Town of Hempstead for the creation of a planned development district. The initial application is rejected on the grounds of missing maps, typos and other issues; the application is resubmitted in February 2008.
2009: Frustrated by the inability to win a plan to refurbish or replace the arena, or to clear the way for a $3.7 billion Lighthouse Project, Wang says he wishes he had never bought the team, which is costing him $20 million a year. "If I had the chance, I wouldn't do it again," Wang tells Newsday, adding that if he did not have an answer from local officials by the following year, he would "explore all my options."
Aug. 1, 2011: Voters in Nassau County reject a proposal to borrow up to $400 million toward a taxpayer-funded new arena to replace the Nassau Coliseum.
Oct. 24, 2012: Wang announces the hockey franchise will move to the new Barclays Center in Brooklyn in 2015.
Aug. 19, 2014: Wang agrees to sell a minority stake in the Islanders to Jonathan Ledecky and Scott Malkin, who will gain majority control in two years, pending NHL approval of the deal. Financial terms are not disclosed.
Compiled by William Goldschlag
