The Point: Championship politics in NYC, Long Island
New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio Credit: Ed Reed/Mayoral Photography Office
New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio held a City Hall ceremony Tuesday for New York City Football Club’s championship win, an event that’s also a big marker for him — it's the first championship earned by a major pro sports team in Gotham under his tenure.
The Red Sox-fan mayor almost went through his full time in Gracie Mansion without an NYC win, something that hadn’t happened in decades — which the New York Post was happy to chide the mayor about this fall, noting that Fiorello La Guardia nabbed a bountiful nine championships.
The last-minute win for both the Brooklyn Democrat and NYCFC (which pulled off the victory in penalty kicks) got us wondering how Long Island’s current county executives have fared in the pro sports department.
In Suffolk, Steve Bellone presided over the Long Island Ducks’ 2019 win in the Atlantic League Professional Baseball Championship Series.
And Laura Curran can boast a 2019 conference title for the Nassau-based Long Island Nets, an NBA G League outfit. In the National Premier Soccer League, there was also a regional crown for the New York Cosmos in the same year, after a win at the Mitchel Athletic Complex.
Then there are the Islanders, about whose hockey and home ice woes much ink has been spilled. They failed to earn a Stanley Cup while Curran was in office.
But Curran did get to celebrate a homecoming earlier this year for the Islanders at the new UBS Arena at Belmont Park. Development at Belmont has been a long and winding road, including, incidentally, a one-time proposal for an NYCFC stadium. But that didn’t happen, to de Blasio’s gain.
Mark Chiusano is a member of the Newsday editorial board.
