New York Islanders: A timeline

1971 -- Roy Boe, who made his fortune in women's apparel, wins an NHL expansion franchise to play in the Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Uniondale. He pays $10 million. Boe already owned the American Basketball Association's New York Nets, which opened the new arena the following year.

Oct. 7. 1972 -- The Islanders debut, losing 3-2 to the Atlanta Flames. They finished the season with a record of 12-60-6.

1974-75 -- The Islanders make the playoffs, beating the Rangers in the first round but losing to the Philadelphia Flyers in the semifinals.

1977 -- The Nets move to New Jersey, depriving the Coliseum of a major tenant.

1978 -- Boe, losing money, sells the team to venture capitalist John O. Pickett Jr., who signs a lease to remain at the Coliseum through 2007.

1980 -- The Islanders win the first of four consecutive Stanley Cup championships. They have not won the cup since.

1996 -- Dallas businessman John Spano buys the Islanders for $165 million.

1998 -- Spano fails to make a loan payment and relinquishes the club when he is arrested on federal charges of bank and wire fraud. The Islanders are sold to Howard Milstein, from a powerful New York real estate family, and Steven Gluckstern, a co-owner of the Phoenix Coyotes, for $195 million

1998-99 -- Upset by the condition of the arena, the new owners threaten to move the team. However, bound by a revised lease that did not expire until 2015, the Islanders are forced to stay put. The owners sharply cut the team's payroll.

2000 -- Charles Wang, co-founder of Computer Associates, buys the team along with CA chief executive Sanjay Kumar for $74.2 million plus assumption of $97 million in liabilities. Wang buys out Kumar in 2004.

2003 -- Wang meets with then-County Executive Thomas Suozzi, who tells him Nassau cannot afford to upgrade the Coliseum and encourages Wang to come up with a plan for the site.

2004 -- Wang unveils his Lighthouse Project plan to renovate the Coliseum and develop the surrounding area.

2007 -- The Lighthouse Group applies to the Town of Hempstead for the creation of a planned development district. The initial application is rejected on the grounds of missing maps, typos and other issues; the application is resubmitted in February 2008.

2009 -- Frustrated by the inability to win a plan to refurbish or replace the arena, or to clear the way for a $3.7 billion Lighthouse Project, Wang says he wishes he had never bought the team, which is costing him $20 million a year. "If I had the chance, I wouldn't do it again," Wang tells Newsday, adding that if he did not have an answer from local officials by the following year, he would "explore all my options."

Aug. 1, 2011 -- Voters in Nassau County reject a proposal to borrow up to $400 million toward a taxpayer-funded new arena to replace the Nassau Coliseum.

Oct. 24, 2012 -- Wang announces the hockey franchise will move to the new Barclays Center in Brooklyn in 2015.

Compiled by William Goldschlag