Mr Doctor

Charles Wang is currently the majority owner of the New York Islanders hockey franchise, of which he had become a part-owner in 2000. He later bought out the share of business partner Sanjay Kumar in 2004, and acquired the New York Dragons Arena football franchise. He is the master developer of the Lighthouse, a property transformation of the Nassau Coliseum and surrounding 150 acres (0.61 km2). The project was to include a five-star hotel; condominiums; an athletic complex featuring four ice rinks, a basketball facility, and a state-of-the-art health club that would have served as the Islanders’ practice facility and also be open to the public. The development would also have included a sports technology center, open-air plaza, and conference center. The project was deemed to be too large by the Town of Hempstead Supervisor Kate Murray, who made a counter-proposal that was about half the size of what Wang had originally intended. Wang balked at Murray's proposal, and decided to try to finance the building of a new arena for the Islanders with public funds, rather than paying for himself as part of the Lighthouse Project. In May 2011, Mr. Wang, along with Nassau County started an 82-day campaign for a $400 million bond to fund a new arena for the Islanders, as their lease on the Coliseum ends in 2015.[12] On August 1, 2011, the proposal was defeated by a margin of 57% to 43%.[13]

Wang initially had a willingness to spend money with the goal of making the Islanders competitive; however, recent team payrolls have only barely scraped the cap floor. He also has a reputation for making decisions that go against conventional wisdom. Occasionally these unorthodox decisions, such as hiring Ted Nolan as coach, receive praise. Others inspire criticism that Wang is being contrarian for its own sake and not following logic or reason (i.e. retaining Mike Milbury as general manager of the Islanders despite numerous poor decisions and trades that were detrimental to the team)....