Florida Panthers Owner, Vincent Viola, Withdraws from Secretary of Army, NY Islanders May Play in Connecticut

Florida Panthers owner, Vincent Viola announced on Friday that he would be withdrawing his name from consideration as the Secretary of the Army. 

First reported by Bloomberg, and confirmed by the Miami Herald’s, George Richards, the Wall Street Billionaire did not feel that he could separate himself from his business interests. Viola, the founder of Virtu Financial Inc, informed President Donald J. Trump on Friday night that he would be unable to accept the nomination due to the inability to separate himself from the organizations he built over the last 35 years. 

He released a statement saying, “I am deeply honored to have been considered for this post, and appreciate the confidence President Trump has shown in me. I offer my continued support for President Trump and his administration, and look forward to redoubling my efforts to support the Army and its veterans as a private citizen.”    

Panthers President and Chief Executive Officer, Matthew Caldwell confirmed the report to the Miami Herald, following the Cat’s 2-1 victory over the Anaheim Ducks. 

Viola is the first Trump nominee to withdraw their name from consideration for consideration to any post. The Senate would have had to confirm the nomination. The full extent of his holdings and ownership stakes would have had to been disclosed in the ethics and financial disclosure forms during the confirmation process. 

In addition to the Panthers and Virtu Financial, Viola has a majority stake in Eastern Air Lines, the Miami based airline which was resurrected into a charter company. According a report in the New York Times, he was in the process of trying to swap his stake in Eastern, with Swift Air, a charter airline that has secured millions of dollars in federal government subcontracts. 

The 60-year-old West Point graduate would have transferred his trading firm Virtu Financial over to his partner and CEO, Doug Cifu and ownership of the Panthers to his family. 

While he did not donate to the Trump campaign, the Eastern Airline aircraft that the Panthers use for their travel, was repurposed for Vice President, Mike Pence’s campaign. An August Trump rally was also held at the BB&T Center in Sunrise, Florida. 

Friday also saw the New York Islanders being invited by the state of Connecticut, to play in the old Hartford Whalers arena if they need to and the Arizona Coyotes faced a setback in their struggle to find a new home. 

Connecticut’s Governor, Dannel Malloy and Hartford’s Mayor, Luke Bronin sent a letter to the Islanders offering Hartford’s XL Center, as an interim solution if they needed to find a new home arena following the 2017-2018 season. 

With the Islanders having the option to leave the Barclay’s Center in Brooklyn, New York after next season and the arena being able to evict them the year after, the team may have to start looking for a new location to play their home games. The National Hockey League has not given any indication if they would let the team leave the New York metropolitan area though. 

During All Star Weekend, Commissioner Gary Bettman said, “The owners are committed to the franchise. They are committed to New York and the great fan base that has followed the Islanders. There are some issues that about playing in Barclays that may be fundamental as to the ice system, and that is not something that can be fixed in the short term. I think as is prudent, Scott Malkin and Jon Ledecky are reviewing the situation very seriously what their options are.”

The team has explored building a new arena near CitiField in Queens as well as near Belmont Park. The fact that the metropolitan already has four arenas that are competing for concerts and other events could make it tough for a new venue to achieve some fiscal and logistical stability. The owners of the New York City Football club in Major League Soccer, has already been turned down by community activists and the politicians. 

The XL Center in Hartford, has plans in the works for a 250-million-dollar renovation, which will add a second concourse and bring the building up to NHL standards. Connecticut has been without a major-league sports franchise since 1997, when the Whalers left for Raleigh, North Carolina. 

Back in November Coyotes fans may have had some optimism as it appeared Arizona State University might have been willing to work with the franchise to bring the Coyotes to Tempe. On Friday, they may have seen a setback, as according the Arizona Republic, ASU has decided to back out of the deal. 

An ASU spokesperson said on Friday, “[ASU] has no intention of proceeding to sign a development agreement or an option to lease or any other agreement with the Coyotes.”

While there it is not clear, what caused this new development, the Arizona Republic reported that Senator Bob Worsley introduced legislation in hopes of keeping the Coyotes in Arizona. It could be just a coincidence, but maybe some of the wording in the proposal is what scared ASU off.