Islanders arena scuttlebutt, Feb. 10 edition

The Islanders' arena-related clamor of the day is the Queens Chamber of Commerce tossing a flare up to include the Islanders in its Willets Point redevelopment project, which includes a convention center. (Query: When was the last time the Daily News referred to the Islanders as "the four-time Stanley Cup champions?") This would be an alternative to the long-in-the-making Lighthouse Project, which redevelops the existing Coliseum (and surroundings).

Nick, ever counseling Dude-like calm and sanity at his Let There be Light(house) blog, responds:

First of all, the Town of Hempstead has not been procrastinating on the [Lighthouse] project since the environmental review has only been going on for 8 months....

[snip]

...Let's not forget that any other home for the Islanders would still be subject to the same laborious environmental review as the current project, and it's always at risk for community opposition.

Or how about the quote in the Daily News' own story:

But Yale University Prof. Charles Euchner, an expert on sports team relocations, mocked Willets Point as a "half-baked" option because it would require too many infrastructure changes.

Man, toy with people's emotions -- no matter how "half-baked" -- and they will respond. No matter what happens, people will ultimately just be relieved it's not Kansas City -- a convenient PR tool of a prospect (it's just an exhibition game!) that is hard to take seriously, anyway.