Newsday’s Sid Cassere on the competition to house a new minor league baseball team on Long Island.
Developers Charles Wang (above) and Scott Rechler said a state-of-the-art, 6,000-seat minor league stadium will house the second Atlantic League team on Long Island if their proposal to develop the Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum hub is chosen.
The team would be about a 30-minute drive from Central Islip, where the Long Island Ducks play.
Wang and Rechler are competing with another group of developers who previously announced a minor league baseball team would be part of their plan.
“Our proposal knocks the ball out of the park … and would be a major attraction for more industry and tourism,” said Rechler, the head of Reckson Associates, at a news conference at Reckson Plaza (formerly the EAB Plaza) in Uniondale.
Frank Boulton, the league’s chief executive and owner of the Ducks, told the media gathering to “forget the Subway Series, we’ll have a Long Island Expressway rivalry.”
The other developers competing for the job dismissed the proposal by Reckson and Wang.
“Imitation is the highest form of flattery,” said David Blumenfeld, of the Blumenfeld Development Group, which is allied with the Mets Development Co.
Jeff Wilpon, the chief operating officer of the Mets Development Co. said: “Our proposal … is superior in every way. … Our plan has always included a first-class ballpark and Mets-affiliated minor league ball club as a major component.”
Given that the Mets already own a NY-Penn League team operating on Coney Island, if Wilpon is succesful, New York’s long association with Binghamton seems at risk.