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The process of replacing the New York Islanders' home venue was a long and torturous one, an agonizing 30 years in the making.
Now as the team nears T-minus one season and counting at Nassau Coliseum, the eulogies and the regrets will only grow as people try to make sense of how so many politicians and so many developers could cough up Long Island's "only major team" on land that really should have been easily turned into something useful.
Islanders play by play announcer Howie Rose took his shot during Tuesday night's game, in what may be the first of several rants before the move is made, stunned by the irony of Nassau County finally getting itself together on a (minor league) arena redevelopment proposal once the Islanders had signed their exit to Brooklyn.
We pick it up as the MSG camera pans to the Nets old ABA championship banners, as captured by LHH user ArsenalLI (@NoFunPat on Twitter):
Transcript for the video challenged:
And you look at the Islanders banners, and you look at this building and remember what was, and how Long Island was major league in every respect.
And once the Islanders leave here and go to Brooklyn, now the objective is to bring a minor league team here?
So you look at this place, and you think of what was, and this is all you need to know about what's happened in Nassau County: Now they aspire to be minor league. And that's just an absolute shame.
At the end of a long season, Howie was in rare "housebound agoraphobe" form there.