The Nassau Coliseum, which was home to the New York Islanders NHL hockey team until 2021, is a 16,000-seat arena that hosts graduations, minor-league professional basketball games and lacrosse matches. Under terms of the deal with the county, Sands would receive a 99-year lease on the land. Sands also has pledged to build a resort regardless of whether they win one of the casino licenses. They also said they knew that three casino licenses are to be awarded in downstate New York and that the county may as well be a beneficiary of the tax revenue the resort would generate. Legislators who spoke just before the vote said they favored the Sands plan because of the thousands of jobs the project would provide for construction and then on a permanent basis. Of the 53 people who provided testimony in the public hearing, 18 spoke in opposition to the casino plan while 35 spoke in favor of it. The Nassau County Legislature heard testimony from Sands executives, the county’s police commissioner and financial experts before opening a public hearing that lasted more than two hours. A court hearing is scheduled for Wednesday. Sands officials also must wait through a legal challenge as Hofstra University, which is near Nassau Coliseum, has filed a lawsuit against the Nassau County Planning Commission alleging that it approved a recommendation for the land transfer in violation of New York’s open meeting law. Decisions on who gets the licenses are expected late this year or in early 2024. Sands still has a long way to go before it can undertake the project.Īpproval of the land transfer officially puts Sands in contention for a New York casino. to develop a downstate New York integrated resort with a casino.įollowing a 5½-hour hearing, the Legislature voted 17-1 with one member absent to transfer the land to the Las Vegas-based company, which is one of several operators in the running for a casino license in New York. The Nassau County Legislature, the 19-member government entity that oversees Nassau Coliseum land, voted overwhelmingly Monday to transfer 72 acres to Las Vegas Sands Corp. Hockey fans make their way toward the entrances of the renovated Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Uniondale, N.Y., in 2017.

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