Six months after completing the $195 million purchase of the New York Islanders ¬ and announcing that they'd need a new facility for the team to play in to make their investment profitable ¬ sources say the principals of New York Sports Ventures are now frustrated by the slowness of negotiations with the county pertaining to that development plan.

Even before their purchase of the team was ratified by National Hockey League officials in mid-January, New York Sports Ventures' Howard Milstein, a prominent real estate developer in New York City, and partner Steven Gluckstern, had been discussing, in abstract, their concept for a new, more usable and use-friendly Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum.

According to the team's owners, a larger coliseum with enhanced amenities for fans, is critical to the Islander's future success.

As talks with representatives of the county progressed through the spring, however, the conversations about the development began to move on two distinct, though ultimately interconnected, tracks.

The first involved the building of a new sports facility and a related retail-restaurant mecca known as "Nassau Central"; the second track involved interim enhancements to the existing coliseum, including the installation of what's been described as a "removable" $2 million scoreboard.

Two weeks ago, sources close to the team began to suggest that the talks about the interim improvements had reached an impasse, slowing, in turn, negotiations regarding the proposed new coliseum.

Mort Certilman, the chairman of the Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum Privitization Committee, last Monday, letting out a sigh as he did so, described that characterization as "pretty accurate."

"I don't know who put it on hold or who took it off hold," he said. "What I can tell you is we have been in almost daily contact with the Islanders, discussing various aspects of the proposals out there."

Confirming that New York Sports Ventures has indeed proposed installing a new scoreboard in the existing coliseum, Certilman said the problem with such a proposal is that the team ownership group "also wants to reap the economic benefits of installing it [the scoreboard]."

"Now, we can't grant economic benefits to one party involved in the coliseum when it still has to resolve its relationship with another entity, the SMG Group, which is contracted to operate the coliseum for the county."

Asked to clarify what he meant by "economic benefits," Certilman replied, "all I'm saying is that the Islanders want to do several things to change the existing coliseum and are willing to put the money up to do so. At the same time, they want to reap the economic benefits from those changes.

"The problem is, we have to negotiate between all three parties, ourselves and SMG included, and we just haven't gotten around to doing it."

Pressed again on what economic benefits he was talking about, Certilman said, "In regard to the coliseum what we have are tri-party agreements that divide revenues among three different entities.

"Now, what they want is to receive all of the economic benefits from the changes they make.

"I mean, not to get into specifics, which should come from them, but the kinds of things we're talking about are things like any advertising revenue generated by selling space on the scoreboard, or, if they install additional club seats in the coliseum, they want the difference in revenue that those club seats generate.

"Essentially, those are the kinds of things we're talking about, Our problem is, we can't just disregard a three-way agreement, unilaterally, for the sole benefit of one of the parties."

With New York Sports Ventures and the county at loggerheads in regard to temporary improvements to the old coliseum, the speed of negotiations regarding the new coliseum have also slowed.

In regard to those negotiations, Certilman said "they're moving on track, but at a pace that... well, let me say this... we'd be happier if it was faster."

At present, the existing coliseum contains roughly 16,500 seats. Last winter, really the last time anyone involved with the team would discuss their proposals for the record, Milstein said he'd like to see a new coliseum, built adjacent to the site of the old one, containing closer to 18,000 seats.

"I don't believe we have to rethink the philosophy of the area, we just have to do something better [with it]," he explained at the time.

Back then, David Seldin, who is the new president of the Islanders organization, anticipated that the design and construction of an entirely new facility is something that would take between two to three years.

Asked whether it might be better to focus, say, on strengthening the team before razing and replacing the coliseum, Seldin demured.

"I think everything has to happen at once," he said. "In sports today, I don't think you can be successful unless you are successful across the board. If you don't have a certain level of success off the ice, you can't put a good team on the ice ¬ and remember, teams are really conduits, conduits for fan money and broadcast money and sponsor money. And they expect a high level of return for that money."

If they haven't exactly hit the ground running in regard to the new coliseum, Certilman said, some progress has been made and the plans, in general, have expanded.

Though he wouldn't go into details, again saying it would be better if the details came from New York Sports Ventures, he did allow that the new coliseum being discussed now is somewhat "larger than 18,000 seats."

"The pace has been slow, but I can tell you that we have come very, very close to agreements on the development of the 70 acres surrounding the coliseum, from a zoning point of view," Certilman said.

"We've shown preliminary plans to the Town of Hempstead, and right now, we are awaiting final proposals from New York Sports Ventures.

"Unfortunately, the problem we have is that there are too many entities involved and too many parties being addressed about the various issues relating to the proposed coliseum development," Certilman continued.

"As a result of that, sometimes information gets screwed up. We all hear something and each interpret it in our own way. Everybody has their own interpretation of things."

Certilman added, "We have every intention to have [a new coliseum] built by the end of 2001. If it is not, it won't be the county's fault."

In terms of the over-all plan for development, Certilman said the plan shown the Town of Hempstead is "very similar" to the plan widely discussed late last winter and into the spring.

That plan would make the new coliseum the central axis of a sports, entertainment and shopping complex within the larger Nassau Hub development plan.

"Essentially, where we are at is a question of quantifying what that development will be. When all is said and done, we have to quantify the density of what we intend to put on that site," Certilman said. "We think we are close to an agreement with the Islanders on that. Now the Town has to review it. And then, of course, as part of the process, we want to run it by the general public."

"We've done our job," Certilman said with something of a flourish. "It's reaching the point where we should be getting into the zoning stage and involving the public and town officials."

Without question the development of the coliseum ¬ and the surrounding 70 acres of what is presently, publicly owned land ¬ is crucial to the development of the much-discussed "Nassau Hub" in the heart of the county.

That concept, which has been laid out in detail in both the Nassau Hub Study prepared cooperatively by the county and the Town of Hempstead, and the recently released draft of the comprehensive plan for the county, links the coliseum to other area sports venues, to the retail malls along Old Country Road and to Hofstra University.

Asked in January about New York Sports Ventures' awareness of the Hub proposal before they committed to purchasing the Islanders, Milstein said that if anything, it was a key factor in his deciding to pursue the team.

"Working with local government, and working particularly with the county and the state governments has always been important to us, and the concept of the Hub fits very nicely into what we'd like to see happen in regard to the coliseum.

"Frankly, we think that a new, modern arena, an arena that's appropriate for the Islanders to play in, will be a great attribute to the Hub.

"Right now, operating in something less than an optimal situation, the Islanders pump between $85 and $95 million into the Long Island economy," he continued.

With the future of the coliseum still very much in limbo, Milstein, Gluckstern and company have been focusing their attention on reaching out to Islander fans, as well as local Long Island business men and women.

The most recent event was a fan day at which it was announced that next season, the Islanders would once again use the logo of their championship years.

As for the future of the coliseum, perhaps Milstein was something of a visionary six months ago when he said of his impending purchase, "There's always uncertainty when change is in the offing."