Nassau Coliseum contract drift: no need for Nets pre-season game (after giving up requirements regarding Islanders and minor league hockey)

The Nassau Coliseum deal keeps changing, bit by bit, and promises get dropped. As Newsday reported 10/1/18, in Laura Curran files benchmarks for $1.5 billion Hub redevelopment in Nassau, the County Executive has proposed lease changes that relax previous requirements, including that the Brooklyn Nets play an NBA preseason game at the Coliseum.

Also, BSE Global (formerly Brooklyn Sports & Entertainment), via its parent, Onexim Sports & Entertainment) would get full control of the arena lease, eliminating (buying out?) Forest City Ratner, which, of course, had originally wrangled the lease but ultimately sold all but 15%.

As Newsday staff writer Jim Baumbach tweeted:

Back when this year’s Nets preseason schedule came out, I noticed there was no Coliseum game listed. Asked the county what’s up. Same with the Nets. Let’s just say both seemed somewhat flummoxed I’d hold them accountable to something that’s, well, contractually obligated to.

He wrote an article about it, in which the Nets cited the league's new limitations on pre-eeason games, and noted:

But I love that the reaction is, well, this is something the county bargained for, and now, hey, let’s get rid of it... (Thinking surely is we have the Long Island Nets, so no need to bring an NBA preseason game here. Still...)

Other promises dropped

And it's hardly the only promise that has drifted:

It’s the third clause the county has given up. They also eliminated the clause calling for a $1 million penalty for no Islanders games, citing the deal bringing them here for three seasons, as well as the clause that requires an AHL team to play here.

That means there's no anchor tenant and, after the Islanders (presumably) move to Belmont, they'll be scrambling.

That Baumbach quote is pretty memorable: "Let’s just say both seemed somewhat flummoxed I’d hold them accountable to something that’s, well, contractually obligated to."

Perhaps, at least on the Nets' side, it's because other obligations in the history of Atlantic Yards/Barclays Center have fallen by the wayside, such as the promised $15 tickets (for one season) and the Independent Compliance Monitor to report back on the Community Benefits Agreement (never happened).