DeGuardia hopes MSG beats Barclays for Nassau Coliseum
By Keith Idec
Promoter Joe DeGuardia hopes Nassau County officials pick Madison Square Garden over Barclays Center as the company to renovate and operate the aged Nassau Coliseum.
Both companies plan to regularly schedule boxing events at Nassau Coliseum once the overhaul of the old arena in Uniondale, N.Y., and the surrounding area is completed. But the New York-based DeGuardia’s company, Star Boxing, has had a lot of success developing fan bases for fighters from Long Island and he’ll only be able to promote shows at Long Island’s premier venue if Madison Square Garden wins the bid.
Barclays Center works exclusively with Oscar De La Hoya’s Golden Boy Promotions, which has promoted four cards at the new Brooklyn building since it opened last year. Madison Square Garden has worked with virtually every promoter in boxing throughout its long, illustrious history in the sport, including DeGuardia.
Madison Square Garden and Barclays Center are the two finalists for the redevelopment project. Nassau County Executive Edward Mangano could announce the winning bidder sometime this week.
“I think it would be spectacular if MSG gets the bid,” DeGuardia said. “Firstly, MSG is the boxing brand for many years. And we’ve been selling so on Long Island because we’re focused not just on the big shows, but community-based shows, bringing in Long Island fighters, developing Long Island fighters. To me, that’s what you need to develop a series, as far as boxing is concerned.
“You need to develop a local fan base, develop a local interest. And you really need to be geared toward the local community. I think with MSG, that’s something that can take place. Let’s face it, Barclays, which is a competitor, is tied to one company. They’re tied to Golden Boy Promotions. That’s fine. That’s what they choose to do. That’s OK, but we’ve been developing a lot of stuff out in Long Island. And I think it’s just a nice segue, from the shows that we do, to be able to take these fighters who are basically selling out the venues. And we have a bunch of them that we’ve developed out on Long Island, and it’d be great to bring them to the Nassau Coliseum, with MSG.”
DeGuardia has had noteworthy success in recent years promoting popular junior welterweight Chris Algieri on Long Island. Algieri (17-0, 7 KOs) regularly helps sell out The Paramount in his hometown of Huntington, N.Y., where another Long Island-bred junior welterweight, Cletus “The Hebrew Hammer” Seldin (11-0, 9 KOs), also has become an attraction.
“I’d certainly love to promote in the Nassau Coliseum,” DeGuardia said. “We’ve really established something on Long Island. It’d be a great thing to have a bigger venue to work with, because we sell out every time. We would keep running at The Paramount, but it would be great to have that [bigger venue]. It becomes almost like a feeder program.”
Madison Square Garden’s $250 million proposal to renovate Nassau Coliseum includes the creation of a surrounding entertainment complex called “Long Island Live,” a mix of bars, restaurants and retail stores. A firm commitment to build a boxing series there also is part of the plan, which could accommodate large boxing shows (a configuration for 14,500 seats) and smaller cards (as low as 1,700 seats).
“Over the last 130 years, MSG has delivered some of the most memorable fights in history and, today, continues to bring the fights that fans want to see from all of our venues throughout the New York area,” a press release issued by Madison Square Garden stated. “We have terrific relationships with all of the top boxing promoters and, as part of our plan to create a thriving sports and entertainment destination on Long Island, look forward to leveraging those strong relationships, along with our expertise, to deliver boxing excitement to the Nassau Coliseum.”
Keith Idec covers boxing for The Record and Herald News, of Woodland Park, N.J., and BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.
