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By JEFF CAPELLINI, WCBSTV.com Senior Sports Producer
NEW YORK (CBS) ― The inevitable, or seemingly inevitable, is starting to take shape in Uniondale.

And it's not the long-awaited replacement of the ancient Nassau Coliseum. This is bad news for tri-state area NHL fans and the worst possible situation in which to put fans of the Islanders.

This isn't a new stadium fight; it's a new stadium stare-down, one that just got a lot more interesting and worrisome.

In a nutshell, the Islanders have been pushing for a state-of-the-art multi-purpose development project in the area where the current arena sits. The Lighthouse Project, as it is named and proposed by team owner Charles Wang and developer Scott Rechler, is an ambitious endeavor that would include a new or refurbished arena, a luxury hotel, conference center, sports training center, housing units, retail stores and restaurants, minor-league baseball field and acres of underground parking.

Obviously, when a franchise owner hints that he or she wants a new arena, visions of a public funding feud and battles involving politicians come immediately to mind.

The Islanders have wanted a new place to play for years and they've been extremely patient. Their reasons are well documented and, they believe, justified. The Islanders say Wang is losing $20 million per year. It's no secret the current arena is falling apart, though, to be fair, it still offers as good sight lines to watch a game as any arena or stadium in the tri-state area.

But this, unfortunately, isn't about watching the game. It never is. It's all about what the arena or stadium offers a public that will be asked to spend an exorbitant sum to watch a professional sporting event.

The Islanders have never threatened publicly to move, but have sat around anxiously for a few years with the project proposal on the table. The Town of Hempstead and the team have gone back and forth about specifics. Hempstead Supervisor Kate Murray has said she's all for renovating the existing area. The Islanders have brushed that off, saying that to succeed in the NHL they need to have the entire Lighthouse Project.

Hard-core Islanders fans could care less about hotels and training facilities. They want this team to attract top talent to Long Island so it can finally get serious about adding the franchise's fifth Stanley Cup championship, the last won in 1983.

But the Islanders say they really need to have the entire project to be successful and NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman has basically scolded both sides, saying something needs to be done so shovels can be put in the ground by this July.

With the way things have gone over the last few years, good luck with that, Gary.

So, having waited while this project has been shelved, dusted off, shelved again and now rekindled, the Islanders have fired their first serious salvo in the debate. They have scheduled an exhibition game next season in Kansas City, a city starving for an NHL franchise, or so most experts say.

Kansas City tried to woo the Pittsburgh Penguins and Nashville Predators, and tried to get an expansion team in recent years and is considered by many the most logical place for NHL expansion or franchise relocation. Considering the economic climate, though, expansion is probably out of the question, but relocation could be a very real possibility.

One would be foolish to think the Islanders' perceived threat isn't real, regardless of the number of times Wang has said he has no intentions of selling or moving the team. Wang, the co-founder of Computer Associates International, didn't become the businessman he is by betting on losers. He rescued this franchise from years of dreadful ownership and mismanagement. His track record as an owner, however, has been one of a good guy with little to no hockey sense trying to infuse the everyday running of a corporation on a sports franchise.

After having some initial success, the team has gone into a death spiral of sorts, developing the reputation as a clueless organization that is poorly run with no vision.

In other words, the Islanders are the NHL's laughingstock, the butt of every joke and the place where veterans at the end of their careers go to get traded to contenders.

The Islanders currently have the worst record in the league and have all but abandoned spending money in favor of a youth movement that has yet to show any real progress.

The good news is as bad as the Islanders are this season they will likely earn the No. 1 pick in this year's draft. If everything goes right, they will pick John Tavares, a Canadian prospect who is said to be the next coming of Sidney Crosby, a player viewed by many as the best in the game right now.

But all that will mean little to the fiercely loyal Islanders fan base if Tavares or whomever is playing in Kansas City or, perhaps, Las Vegas or Hamilton, Ontario in a few years.

Hempstead's Murray doesn't seem fazed by the Islanders' exhibition game in Kansas City. The media is, however. The New York daily newspapers, specifically Newsday, the team's paper of record, are starting to give this stadium situation on Long Island serious coverage. That's because they know nice-guy Wang has lost his patience and they know that the Kansas City project isn't run by amateurs.

But, think about it. Why should Wang relent? He's reportedly ready to fund most of the Lighthouse Project. Why should he settle for just a refurbished arena?
 
While both sides haggle and grandstand keep the name Tim Leiweke in mind. He's the millionaire spearheading the Kansas City push for a franchise. This guy is a power broker of the highest order and has gotten pretty much whatever he's wanted over the years.

Leiweke, 51, has an impressive resume. He's the president and CEO of Anschutz Entertainment Group (AEG) and the Los Angeles Kings and a member of the NHL's Board of Governors. He also the man most responsible for the sudden hockey madness that has gripped Kansas City as the driving force behind the $276 million Sprint Center. He built the Staples Center in Los Angeles and got soccer star David Beckham to come to the United States, according to Newsday.

In December he was listed as the 11th-most influential person in sports by Sports Business Journal, two spots ahead of NHL commissioner Bettman.

Newsday has reported AEG Worldwide also owns 30 percent of the Lakers, the Los Angeles Galaxy and the Houston Dynamo of Major League Soccer, a total of five hockey teams in the United States and Europe, and a soccer club in Sweden. It owns or manages facilities such as the Prudential Center in Newark and the Rose Garden in Portland, Ore.

If you're an Islanders fan, now is a pretty good time to panic.

But do keep in mind Leiweke once had his sights set on franchises like the Penguins and he failed. Mario Lemieux knew what the team meant to Pittsburgh and did what needed to be done to keep it there. Now the Pens are one of the league's better-run organizations.

At this point, though, the Islanders do not appear to have that kind of white knight waiting in the wings for the opportune moment to step in and save the day. That is unless all-time franchise greats Bobby Nystrom, Mike Bossy, Bryan Trottier, Clark Gillies, Billy Smith and Denis Potvin decide to pool together their beer money or execute a hostile takeover.

In a perfect world, the Lighthouse Project will be green-lighted, the Islanders will get their arena, who knows how many jobs will be created and Nassau County will have a new hub for everyone to visit, whether they are a hockey fan or not.

But as we've seen a lot lately, we don't live in anything resembling a perfect world. We live in a place where you simply can't bring a knife to a gun fight.

And make no mistake, Wang has both barrels loaded now and this game of chicken could very well end with the tri-state area having just two NHL franchises.

And with fans of the orange and blue on an island somewhere, utterly refusing to adopt the Kansas City Islanders.

(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)

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