'Frustrating': Shinnecock Leader On Possible Sands Casino At Coliseum

SOUTHAMPTON, NY — As news was announced this week about a proposed multi-billion dollar casino plan at the site of Nassau Coliseum and its surrounding property, a member of the Shinnecock Indian Nation, which had once worked toward developing a casino on the parcel, spoke out about dreams derailed.

"It's really frustrating to me," said Lance Gumbs, tribal ambassador /vice president for the National Congress of American Indian for the Northeast Region. "We put in a lot of legwork, time, effort and funds to move our gaming out of the Hamptons because our neighbors don't want it out here. The Nassau Coliseum Hub was our number-one location!" he said.

Discussing all the hours put in, Gumbs said he and other members of the Shinnecock Indian Nation had met with Hofstra University and Nassau Community College, as well as local community groups in the Hempstead/ Uniondale area to address their concerns and work out solutions.

"We spent funds on architecture plans, which included talking with (New York Islanders owner) Charles Wang at the time about the purchase of the Marriott Hotel," he said. "It's like we are seeing our whole playbook, that got into the other team's hands, being played out in front of us."

He added: "We had looked to partner with several groups and the Sands project would have been ideal for us as a Long Island, NY tribe, especially when you have two other out-of-state tribes in the Seminole and Chickasaw Nation partnering with groups to come into our aboriginal territory for one of the remaining commercial gaming licenses."

It would have made sense, Gumbs said, "to partner with us to move our gaming out of the Hamptons and give a real reason for the Gaming Commission to consider a proposal that included us. That would have been a political win as well as satisfying all our billionaire neighbors, who don't want gaming in the Hamptons. Now, we are being left with no choice but to continue with our gaming plans out here."

Gumbs was one of the principles who "worked long and hard" on the Coliseum deal, he said.

The Las Vegas Sands Corporation has entered into a deal to purchase the lease for the Nassau Coliseum and its surrounding property and, if approved by the state, build a casino on the site.

The company announced the multi-billion-dollar deal Thursday. It plans to build a large hospitality, entertainment and casino complex on the site.

"Our company's track record of driving significant economic benefits to the communities in which we operate and the meaningful relationships and partnerships we have created in each of those communities gives us a unique perspective on what it takes to develop transformative tourism destinations that positively impact the local community. Based on that experience, we strongly believe Long Island can be home to one of the region's great entertainment and hospitality developments," said Robert G. Goldstein, Sands chairman and CEO.

The drive for the casino comes from a decision by the state to add three casinos in the downstate area. However, a casino at the Hub area is still not a done deal. The state has said no determinations or licenses are expected until late 2023 at the earliest.

Sands, though, has big plans for the site, regardless of whether a casino is approved. The resort portions of the site would include outdoor community space, four- and five-star hotel rooms and a performance venue that "honors the legacy" of performances at Nassau Coliseum. Sands said the resort would also feature celebrity chef restaurants, experiential events and flexible meeting and convention spaces.

The casino, if approved, would be less than a tenth of the project's total square footage, Sands said.

Possible Shinnecock plans for the site stretched back more than a decade: In 2010, according to Sports Business Journal, then-Nassau County Executive Edward Mangano “shook up stalled development plans” for Nassau Coliseum by “announcing that he has been talking to the Shinnecock Nation about putting a casino alongside a revamped arena for the Islanders, according to Hadrick & Harrington of Newsday."

Mangano said at the time that he had been "in discussions with Shinnecock leaders since January, 2010, about creating an ‘entertainment-sports resort’ on the 77-acre Coliseum site that would include a minor-league baseball stadium, a convention center and new hotels," the post said.

While “many regulatory hurdles still have to be cleared before the Coliseum could even be considered for a casino and several other sites also are in contention,” Mangano said that the Shinnecocks “agreed . . . to list the Coliseum as a preferred site in its application to the state to build a casino," the post said, in 2010.

Then- Shinnecock Tribal Trustee Chair Randy King said that discussions for a Coliseum casino “wouldn’t necessarily preclude any other location, including Belmont Park racetrack.”

In 2011, with reports saying a Shinnecock casino deal with Nassau was imminent, Wang instead unveiled a plan to replace the aging coliseum with a new facility located next to it that did not include Shinnecock gaming.

At that time, when Wang and Mangano unveiled plans in 2011 for a new Islanders hockey arena that did not include a casino, officials said talks would continue with the Southampton tribe for a casino sited at Belmont Park. Former Suffolk County Executive Steve Levy was also pursuing a Shinnecock casino at county-owned land in Yaphank.

"The Shinnecock Nation has always made clear that we are ready to partner with communities that want to partner with us, in both Nassau and Suffolk counties, as we pursue economic opportunities for our people that also provide jobs for our neighbors," then-Shinnecock Tribal Trustees Chairman Randy King said in a statement. "We welcome the support from Nassau County Executive Mangano and Senators [Dean] Skelos and [Jack] Martins. We are prepared to discuss siting a facility at Belmont with the state, the local community and all the stakeholders there."

The roadblock was one in a series of disappointments for the tribe, which also saw a former member of the gaming authority plead guilty to illegally accessing emails that some said hindered future economic growth for the tribe in 2016; the actions "led to the downfall of the tribe's billion dollar casino project," Gumbs said at the time.

"It also led to the loss of 4000 acres of land which was just as devastating, " Gumbs said this week.

Gumbs said he could not discuss any future plans for a casino in the Hamptons.

With reporting by Alex Costello.