John Spano - Purchase of New York Islanders

Purchase of New York Islanders

In October 1996, Spano agreed to buy the Islanders from longtime owner John Pickett for $165 million: $80 million for Pickett's 90 percent stake in the team and $85 million for its lucrative cable television contract with SportsChannel New York, which at the time earned the Islanders $13 million a year. He later agreed to buy the remaining 10 percent of the team held by the management group that had been running the Islanders' day-to-day operations since 1989.

Spano billed himself as the owner of a leasing operation that he'd built from one company with four employees to a group of 10 companies with 6,000 employees worldwide in just six years. He claimed to be worth $230 million largely based on money inherited from his wealthy grandfather Angelo. He claimed to own his University Park house free and clear; the house was supposedly worth $3 million.

Pickett and NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman thought that Spano would be a lifesaver for the Islanders. The once-proud franchise, best known for their meteoric rise from also-ran to four-time Stanley Cup champions, had missed the playoffs in five of the last eight years. They had also been suffering at the gate, and rumors abounded that they were about to move to Atlanta, Nashville or Houston. Spano promised to keep the team in Long Island and either renovate, rebuild or replace the aging Nassau Coliseum. He paid for the team at signing with a loan from a syndicate of banks headed by Fleet Bank. He and Pickett agreed to a five-year installment package for the cable rights, and the league's other owners approved the sale in February 1997.

The first $16.5 million payment on the cable rights was due on April 7. The money wasn't there that day, but Spano promised Pickett it would be made, showing him a letter from Lloyds Bank in London promising that the money would be wired out. This was enough to satisfy Pickett, and he closed the deal.

Even before the deal closed, Spano pumped $2.5 million into the team's payroll and forced head coach/general manager Mike Milbury to give his coach's role to Rick Bowness. He also let it be known that he intended to be a major player in the free-agent market.