Report: Nassau Coliseum shutting down indefinitely

It appears the New York Islanders won't be returning to Nassau Coliseum for the 2020-21 season after all.

Billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov, whose Onexim Sports and Entertainment operates the arena under a lease from Nassau county, is planning to shut down the venue while it searches for investors to carry on operations and pick up the debt that remains on the building, according to sources of Bloomberg's Patrick Clark.

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced in February that the Islanders would be returning to the Coliseum for all home games during the 2020-21 campaign before moving into their new building at Belmont Park the following season.

The Coliseum closed in 2015 for renovations and former Islanders owner Charles Wang moved the franchise's home games to the Barclays Center in Brooklyn. In 2017, Cuomo arranged for the club to share home contests between the two locations.

Originally opened in 1972, the Islanders have called the Coliseum home for the majority of 40 years and captured each of their four consecutive Stanley Cups in the 1980s in the building.

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