This one may be too far fetched for reality.
Neither the National Basketball Association nor the National Hockey League is looking to add another team in the New York City metropolitan area but that apparently is not dissuading an investor in Suffolk County or county officials from putting up a building in Ronkonkoma. The planned building would seat 17,500 people and would be surrounded by a 500-room hotel, two community ice rinks, retail, dining, offices and a sports medicine facility. It would be privately financed although there is no such thing as privately financed as governments always work out deals that include incentives to help out the investors.
In Nassau County, which is not that far from Ronkonkoma, the renovated Nassau Coliseum will be battling for the entertainment dollar with an arena that will be built less than 10 miles from Uniondale. The Suffolk County arena proposal ignores the Nassau County building and the proposed Belmont arena that would be home to the NHL’s Islanders. Instead the backers of the Suffolk arena have pointed to not being in competition with Madison Square Garden or the Brooklyn arena. In the New York City market, there is a building a Newark, New Jersey, an arena that is dormant in East Rutherford, New Jersey, the Garden, the Brooklyn building, the Nassau Coliseum, a smaller building in Bridgeport, Connecticut and the prosed renovation of the Kingsbridge Armory in the Bronx that would include a 5,000 seat arena. The NBA, which has no plans to expand in the near future, has Seattle at the top of the list for potential expansion or relocation purposes. The NBA has expressed an interest in Mexico City and there is a group in Louisville, Kentucky that wants an NBA team. The NHL will be placing a team in Seattle soon. The NHL might also be interested in Houston and Quebec City backers want a team. The Suffolk arena backers have a long row to hoe.
The NBA is not putting a third team in the New York City area.
