A satellite view of Nassau Coliseum in Uniondale.

Hip hop mogul Jay-Z was among four teams of companies that pitched their visions Thursday for the aging Nassau Coliseum property to a committee that will later pick the winning proposal.

The four ideas were split in two camps: Three groups that suggested refurbishing the 40-year-old arena versus one that wants to demolish it and build anew. All the plans reduce the number of seats from the current 16,800, which Nassau County suggested in its latest request for proposals for the infamously difficult-to-redevelop prime real estate.

“Long a victim of the Long Island ‘no,’ we are encouraged that one of the proposals today holds the key,” County Executive Ed Mangano said during the presentation hosted by his Business Advisory Council, which will decide the winner this summer.

Proposing a new arena is the Blumenfeld Development Group, which made its fourth pitch for the land since the 1970s. Refurbished coliseum plans were unveiled by New York Sports & Entertainment LLC, the Madison Square Garden

Jay-Z, right, shares a laugh with Nassau County Executive Ed Mangano on Thursday, May 2, 2013.

Company and Jay-Z’s group, led by the Forest City Ratner Companies, which built the new Barclay’s Center and lured the Islanders from the coliseum.

“We need to create a new identity for Nassau—one that’s bold and new and fresh,” said Brett Yormark, CEO of the Barclay’s Center and the Brooklyn Nets. The surrounding property would feature a movie theater, restaurants, an exhibition hall and an outdoor amphitheater.

“Programming is really the fuel for this engine,” he said, pointing to plans to host upward of 300 events annually, including six Islanders games, 38 minor-league hockey games and 54 family events among the line up.

MSG, which was spun off from Bethpage-based Cablevision Systems Corp. in 2010, likewise rolled out plans that included creating an “entertainment district” surrounding a refurbished arena.

“We don’t have time to pick a plan that doesn’t work,” said RXR Reality CEO Scott Rechler, who joined the MSG pitch team. He was alluding to his prior plans to redevelop the coliseum in the ambitious Lighthouse project with Islanders’ owner Charles Wang.

Wang has also reportedly been considering moving the Islanders to Brooklyn before their lease is up on their original Uniondale home in 2015—adding even more urgency to the proposal process.

Jim Johnson, who made the presentation for Bernard Shereck, CEO of New York & Sports Entertainment LLC, emphasized their Long Island roots and joked that “the Bernie’s our biggest celebrity” compared to the competition.

“Nobody can ever dispute that Long Island is a hotbed for lacrosse,” Johnson said while touting plans to bring a lacrosse team to the arena and create more space within the existing facility for an exhibition hall.

Starting off their presentation with a video of a Nassau Coliseum lookalike being demolished was Ed Blumenfeld, whose firm joined with SMG, the current Nassau Coliseum management company.

“We think we have something that will be difference and iconic to Long Island,” he said, adding that the company would buy a minor-league hockey team if it won the bid.

Jerry Goldman, the current general manager of the coliseum, expressed his support. “Long Island deserves a brand new arena, not a refurbished arena,” he said.

Tom Suozzi declares his intention to run for Nassau County Executive.

Three years after Tom Suozzi narrowly lost Nassau’s top-elected position, the former county executive is aiming to get his old job back.

Suozzi, a Democrat, made the announcement Wednesday on his campaign’s official website in a letter addressed to Nassau County residents, declaring his intention to challenge Republican Nassau County Executive Ed Mangano to “restore fiscal stability to our county government and to stop the irresponsible borrowing and skyrocketing debt that shifts the responsibility to our children and grandchildren.”

The former four-term Glen Cove mayor and two-term county executive’s campaign intentions have been one of the worst-kept secrets in Nassau political circles for months. Suozzi has made no secret of his love of politics or intentions for higher office, stating during a debate against former New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer during his failed bid in the 2006 Democratic gubernatorial primary that he’d like to be president one day.

Mangano, a veteran county legislator from Bethpage, defeated Suozzi in December 2009 by less than 400 votes following a razor-thin recount that ended in New York State Supreme Court. The following month, Suozzi was hired by one of his largest campaign contributors, Bethpage-based Cablevision Systems Corp., as a consultant to its Local Media Group, which includes holdings Newsday, am New York and News 12. In April 2010 he was hired as a senior advisor to Manhattan-based global advisory investment bank Lazard Ltd. Most recently, Suozzi was of counsel to Harris Beach, a law firm with 13 locations throughout New York State, including Albany and Uniondale.

“Nassau County was once the ideal suburb and we can be again,” Suozzi declares in the letter, dubbing himself “a problem solver” who loved his job as county executive.

During his time away from public office, Suozzi writes, he’s seen “the county mismanaged from one man-made crisis after another” and notes its financial takeover by state watchdog Nassau Interim Finance Authority.

Former Nassau County Executive Tom Suozzi, a Democrat, conceded a razor-thin defeat to Republican Ed Mangano for the county’s top-elected position in December 2009, losing by less than 400 votes. (Christopher Twarowski/Long Island Press)

He also reflects on the continued departure of recent college grads who can’t afford a future in Nassau because “this suburb of opportunity for my parents, my grandparents, and my generation now has little to offer them.”

“I’m running to demonstrate that we’re all in this together and to stop shifting the burden to our school property taxpayers,” Suozzi continues. “I’m running to stop the deficit spending and the phony budgets.”

A Mangano spokesperson wasn’t immediately available for comment.

Nassau County Democratic Committee Chairman Jay Jacobs will be holding a press conference to discuss Suozzi’s candidacy Wednesday afternoon. Although there is already one announced Democratic candidate for the position, Rosyln School Board member/businessman Adam Haber, and another currently exploring a possible run, North Hempstead Town Supervisor Jon Kaiman, political insiders tell the Press Suozzi is the party favorite.

“Jay [Jacobs] is in Tom’s corner, that is well-known in party circles,” says a Democratic Party source.

“I believe that everything I have done in my life has prepared me for this moment,” continues Suozzi’s letter. “My training as a certified public accountant and attorney, my years as a mayor and county executive, and my recent private-sector experiences have prepared me for this job.”

Now that 2012 firmly in the rear view, it’s high time for a little New Year’s retrospection to see what readers love most about us.

These are the top 10 most-read Press stories from last year, as voted by readers, based on the best metric known to journalism—the number of clicks each story got on our website over the past 12 months.

Some are predictable. Others make you wonder. Add them all up and it’s a list that reveals much about our readership’s interests and offers a trip down news memory lane.

10. LI Doctors Among 98 Arrested in Drug Raid: Long Island’s deadly prescription drug abuse epidemic continued to spiral out of control last year as authorities cracked down on dealers and the physicians accused of supplying them with black market pain pills. And still they’ve just scratched the surface.

9. Septic County: Remember how Suffolk County is slowly poisoning its own drinking and surface waters through its septic systems because most of the county lacks sewers? Yea, that’s still a monumental problem.

8. 100 Sickened, 1 Arrested at Nassau Coliseum: Right before Sandy, 100 intoxicated teens were hospitalized during a rave at the coliseum. And a helicopter pilot was arrested for landing near the chaotic scene for some reason. Unconfirmed rumors of up to seven people dying are likely what made this story so popular.

7. Amityville Horror: Second Gun Found? It’s been nearly 40 years since Ronald DeFeo murdered his family, but one filmmaker is among those who believe he didn’t act alone. The new evidence? A handle of a handgun found in the canal behind the house last year.

6. 4 LI High Schools Among Top 100 in US: It seems readers like good news, too. This one came when U.S. News & World Report ranked high schools in Rockville Centre, Jericho, Commack and Locust Valley among the nation’s best.

5. Paper Tiger: Newsday, once a flagship daily, has become a shell of its former after being bought by monopolistic Cablevision, the horrific cable company everyone hates. Its staff revealed to us the depth of their despair over the changes since the takeover.

4. Suffolk Authorities Dispel Serial Killer Suspect Rumors: Armchair detectives solved the Long Island Serial Killer case and broadcast their suspect’s name on the Internet. Except it turns out they were wrong, anyone can post anything to the Internet regardless of validity and the real detectives had to take the rare move to publicly stamp out false rumors.

3. Identifying Princess Doe: Thirty years after a teenage girl believed to be from Long Island was found dead of a brutal murder in a New Jersey cemetery, investigators continue their quest for justice for the unidentified victim.

2. Ripple Effect: While Suffolk has leaching septic tanks poisoning the aquifers that our drinking water comes from, residents of Bethpage and surrounding areas have carcinogenic toxic plumes from the region’s military industrial past to thank for death from the faucets.

1. Sandy: Anyone really surprised that the storm of the century topped this list? Although the homepage for all our coverage was most-clicked, if we listed every Sandy story separately, it would have taken up most of the top 10.