The building sits empty most of the time.

What becomes of the Nassau County arena that is just open occasionally for minor league indoor football games and college graduations? That is what Nassau County, New York officials are trying to figure out. The Las Vegas Sands Corporation has pulled out of its bid to land a gaming license for a casino on the Nassau Coliseum property and that has left Nassau County officials to ponder the next move. The Las Vegas Sands Corporation was the latest group of investors who wanted to develop the 77-acre plot of land in Uniondale that surrounds the 53-year-old Nassau Coliseum. The building at one time housed the National Hockey League’s New York Islanders and the American and National Basketball Association’s New York Nets. It is pretty much a ghost town. The building is 13 miles east of the Islanders arena at Belmont Park. That building has hockey, concerts and some mass transportation. For decades speculators have wanted to develop on the property that the County owns. Howard Milstein and Steven Gluckstern bought the Islanders franchise in 1998 with the thought of building an arena-village. The plan fell apart.

The Las Vegas Sands Corporation paid $241 million in June 2023 to acquire the leasing rights to the Coliseum and its surrounding grounds. The Las Vegas Sands wanted to put a casino on the property. New York State announced that it is offering three downstate casino licenses, one in Westchester County just north of New York City, another in New York City and one on Long Island. The Las Vegas Sands did not seem to want to keep the Coliseum around. The initial plan was to build a casino village that would include a 4,500-seat concert hall, two hotel towers and three parking garages. It is just the latest plan that has fallen apart.

Evan Weiner’s books are available at iTunes – https://books.apple.com/us/author/evan-weiner/id595575191

Evan can be reached at evan_weiner@hotmail.com

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. (AP) — Jordan Shipp remembers the conversation with his roommates after learning Bill Belichick was North Carolina’s new coach.

“It was just like, ‘That’s the greatest coach of all time,’” the receiver recalled, “‘and he’s about to be coaching us.’”

Belichick’s arrival has triggered plenty of change for the Tar Heels, who are making a big bet on the man who won six Super Bowls as an NFL head coach to spark their football program. No one knows that better than the players — both the holdovers and the transfer-portal arrivals — after months of Belichick overhauling the roster and building the foundation on his first college team.

North Carolina players hadn’t spoken to reporters since last year’s team ended its season with a Fenway Bowl loss to UConn three days after Christmas, all of which came after Belichick had been hired as coach for the 2025 season.

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So Tuesday marked the first time UNC had made players available to reporters since then to discuss Belichick’s arrival. That has meant being coached by someone with a long track record of success at the sport’s highest level, along with getting a peek behind the terse and grumpy persona he was known for with the New England Patriots.

Defensive back Will Hardy said the players are used to curiosity that comes with being coached by the NFL lifer now giving college a try.

“There’s a lot of that, you get a lot of ‘How is Coach Belichick? What’s new? What’s different?’” Hardy said. “So I’ve rehearsed these questions a lot with family and friends.”

Formative stages

The school hired Belichick in December to elevate the program at a time when football’s role as the revenue driver in college sports has never been bigger.

He and general manager Michael Lombardi have described their goal as building a pro-style model at the college level. It’s been a key pitch as the 73-year-old Belichick made his first foray onto the recruiting trail, as well as the volume of players transferring in and out of the program.

Belichick’s first on-field work in Chapel Hill came during spring workouts, lodged between portal windows in December and April.

“Look, these are great kids to work with, they really are,” Belichick said Tuesday. “We’ve had great buy-in. There have really been no problems at all. These guys are on time, they’re early, they work hard, they put in the work in the weight room, out on the field. They spend time on their own, whether it’s doing extra training or coming over and watching film and that type of thing.

“They’ve made a ton of improvement and these guys are a lot better than they were when we started in January, on every level. So it’s exciting to see where that’s going to take us.”

Enticing opportunity

For the players, part of the adjustment had been the reality that their coach was winning Super Bowls with quarterback Tom Brady while they were growing up and watching on TV.

Intimidating much?

“I mean, maybe at first when you see him, all you see is the Super Bowls that he’s won,” said offensive lineman Christo Kelly, a Holy Cross transfer and Belichick’s first portal commitment. “But when you get here and you see the way he cares, you see the way that he approaches the game, you see how hard he works, there’s no question why he has the success that he has.

“The attention to detail, the emphasis on fundamentals, and really just kind of creating competition for the guys, that’s what’s getting built here. Guys are embracing it. He treats everybody with tremendous respect and it’s been great.”

Defensive back Thad Dixon had met Belichick before when he was at Washington, playing under Belichick’s son Steve — now the Tar Heels’ defensive coordinator and linebackers coach. The two shared a few conversations then, and he jumped at the chance to head east.

“I really just wanted the opportunity just to learn from somebody like that, that had did it in the league for so long,” Dixon said.

Behind the curtain

Yet not every surprise has been about X’s and O’s. Sometimes it’s simply when Belichick has dropped the all-business facade to expose an unexpectedly humorous side.

“I feel like that’s the biggest curveball, you’re coming to the first meeting and you’re expecting it to be serious, 100% locked in,” said Shipp, who played 12 games for UNC last season. “He comes in and he introduces himself and then he busts a joke. That’s the second thing he said.”

Hardy pointed that vibe, too.

“There are times when he’ll just crack a joke out of nowhere,” he said. “And just him being kind of monotone sometimes will make those jokes so funny.”

Still, Hardy noted it’s mingled amid the work, such as film sessions when “there’s no hiding” when Belichick highlights a mistake.

UNC opens the season on Labor Day against TCU in a college version of Monday Night Football.

“I’ve loved having 1-on-1 conversations with him,” Hardy said. “It’s cool to see and meet him personally, because you grow up and see him on TV and everything. And he’s just a completely different coach and guy when you get to be around him all day. It’s cool.”

___

AP college football: https://apnews.com/hub/ap-top-25-college-football-poll and https://apnews.com/hub/college-football

By: Ali Hussain

Kamaru Usman beat Joaguin Buckley at UFC fight night in Atlanta, his first win in four years.

Usman beat Buckley via unanimous decision on the 15th of June, after five brutal rounds.

Usman started the fight strong, as he implemented his gameplan well, which was to nullify Buckley’s attacks with his wrestling.

Usman controlled a large portion of the first half of the fight in control, and was very successful with the takedowns. 

The 38 year old ‘Nigerian Nightmare’ took Buckley down four times out of 13 attempts throughout the entirety of the fight, a 30% takedown percentage. 

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However, Usman rolled back the years as he mixed wrestling with thudding and accurate strikes in the first two rounds.

However Buckley made some adjustments throughout the rounds by tightening his takedown defence later into the fight.

Going into the third round, Buckley persevered by finding success with his strikes for the first time in the fight, however Usman was already far ahead on the scorecards at this point.

The fourth round became a full blown war, despite the intense pace and ferocity of the fight, Usman remained composed and landed a beautiful takedown despite Buckley’s initial resistance which set the tone for the round.

However in the fifth round, Buckley gave it everything he got by landing the beautiful four-punch combination, he threw over double the amount of strikes compared to Usman and landed 20 signature strikes compared to Usman’s 10 in the final round.

However, it was too little too late for Buckley as Usman did enough to come out victorious.

Usman got emotional after getting his hand raised and thanked his fans for the support, and reassured them that he still has more fight left in the tank.

Coming into the fight, Usman was winless in the past four years, and with wounded knees, there were doubts from fans and pundits alike if the former welterweight champion still had what it takes.

The 38 year old’s last win before this fight was against Colby Covington in November 2021, the two subsequent losses to Leon Edwards knocked the wind from his sails, and the tough loss to Khamzat Chimaev left his UFC career in limbo.

However, Usman bounced back in a big way and reminded everyone he is still one the best in the world.