A Piece of the Action: Minor stake in Islanders may be available, per report

File this under, “It’s always something.”

The New York Post reported late Monday night that a minority stake in the Islanders is available if you’ve got a few extra bucks laying around.

The owners of the New York Islanders have been trying to sell a minority stake in the NHL club for months — but have not had any luck, The Post has learned.

The owners, Jon Ledecky and Scott Malkin, are looking to sell a 15 percent stake at a $500 million valuation, three sources close to the situation said.

According to “a source,” the owners want to diversify their investment. Or, at least, that’s what they’re telling people. Needless to say, the many ongoing questions surrounding the franchise may be dissuading buyers from signing up.

(Does “$500 million valuation” mean, like, buy “15% for $500 million?” Because that sounds like a bad deal considering Ledecky and Malkin paid $485 for the entire damn franchise in 2014. This is why I let my wife handle all of our money and I go to the flea market to buy vintage G.I. Joes.)

The author of the Post piece is Josh Kosman, who periodically appears with Islanders arena strife news like The Great Gazoo popping up every once in a while to torture Fred Flintstone and Barney Rubble. Kosman was the first to announce that Barclays Center wanted the team out of Brooklyn and has also written various other articles about NHL ownership regime changes that never took place. Major grains of salt are required.

Even if the story is accurate, I’m willing to bet half of the professional teams in the world are owned by folks who would like to bring someone else in to pick up part of the tab. Certainly the headline about not finding any takers (along with the photo of a beleaguered John Tavares), paints a pretty sad picture, but it sounds worse than it probably is. Mikhail Prokhorov has been trying to sell half of the Nets for months. Neither story portends disaster.

Islanders fans have a tendency to react emotionally to any and all news, especially regarding arena and ownership stuff. This seems like one issue we can pass on for now.

But there. It has been discussed.

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The title here is a reference to the great original Star Trek episode, also called “A Piece of the Action.” Kirk, Spock and McCoy beam down to a planet that’s entire civilization is based on a book about 1920’s gangsters, and get caught in the crossfire between two rival gangs, one of them led by Vic Tayback, a.k.a. Mel from Mel’s Diner on Alice. It was on TV the other day. Mike b will definitely appreciate this.