G League Watch: Important Update About Nets’ Long Island Arena

The Long Island Nets’ home arena will not be the site of a proposed multi-billion dollar casino.

The Las Vegas Sands conglomerate intended to build a casino and resort project on the property of the Nassau Coliseum, which hosts the Brooklyn Nets’ G League affiliate team. In August 2024, the Nassau County Legislature had approved a 42-year lease of the Coliseum's property to Sands.

The proposed casino, priced at $6 billion, faced criticism from local actors. Hofstra University pushed back publicly, as did various environmental groups. Michael Levoff, Sands’ senior vice president of strategy and public affairs, had previously argued that the casino project "would absolutely have beneficial impacts for the community" in terms of traffic and infrastructural changes for Nassau County residents.

A Nov. 2023 Newsday/Siena College poll said that 49% of Nassau County residents opposed the construction of the Sands casino, while 42% supported it. On Long Island as a whole, each side had 46% support.

The Nets’ G League team played six games on the outskirts of Montreal, Canada this season. Long Island was hosted by Laval's 10,000-seat Place Bell arena on Jan. 24 and 26, Feb. 5 and 8 and March 13 and 14. The team finished 17-17 in the regular season. Long Island has played at the Nassau Coliseum since 2017.

Sands withdrew its casino plan on Wednesday due to concerns over online gambling, which can also be referred to as iGaming. Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman, who backed the project, said that there was “strong interest from gaming organizations which have been in confidential discussions with Nassau County in taking the place of Las Vegas Sands in the licensing application process.”

That means that the Nets’ G League home arena could still face an uncertain future. For now, though, it does not seem like there is any immediate danger. Blakeman added that the decision of "whether or not to entertain a casino component or develop the site without" would "crystalize" in the next 30 days.

Interestingly, the Nets have another indirect connection to Sands. Brooklyn will play a pair of preseason games in China on Oct. 10 and 12. Those games will be hosted by the Venetian Arena in Macao, which is owned by the conglomerate. Patrick Dumont, the president and CEO of Sands who is also the new governor of the Dallas Mavericks, was an "integral driver" of the NBA's new initiatives in Macao.

“Sands is honored to bring the NBA China Games to Macao so that the most elite level of basketball can be experienced directly by the fans who are so passionate about it,” Dumont said about the NBA’s first games in China since 2019 in a press release.

In other Nets-related G League news, the team will surely evaluate the upcoming G League Draft Combine from May 9-11. The best players there get called up to the main draft combine. Success stories from last year’s event include Isaac Jones (Sacramento Kings) and Enrique Freeman (Indiana Pacers).