"New arena shot down

With the Nassau Coliseum coming up on its 40th year — and looking worse for the wear — owner Charles Wang spent years trying to privately finance a new arena, each plan getting shot down by the county legislators. The end result was County Executive Ed Mangano asking to borrow $400 million from the taxpayers to fund a new arena, which was voted down on Aug. 1 with about 56 percent of the small 100,000-person turnout voting no. Now the franchise's future is in limbo, as their lease at the Coliseum ending in 2015 and there being no plan to stay there one second longer than they have to.

Free agents still say no

With the outdated facilities and a dim snapshot of Long Island for visiting players, free agents continue to turn down the opportunity (and substantial money) to come play for the Islanders. Veteran goalie Evgeni Nabokov chose not to report after being claimed off waivers last season (although he decided to play with them this season) and defenseman Christian Ehrhoff refused to sign last season and forced the team to trade his rights to the Sabres."