The Business Council of Westchester”™s annual dinner Thursday night offered a rousing “welcome home” to the county”™s defeated ”“ but still quipping ”“ candidate for governor and an orange-and-blue-colored welcome, too, for the council”™s new member business bringing a new game to town.
In a banquet hall festooned with orange and blue balloons ”“ the colors of the New York Knicks and The Madison Square Garden Co.”™s White Plains startup, the Westchester Knicks ”“ about 600 Business Council members and guests gave a standing ovation to County Executive Robert P. Astorino in the wake of his Tuesday defeat in the gubernatorial election by another Westchester resident, Democratic incumbent Andrew Cuomo.
“What if I got 51 percent?” Astorino mused in response to the sustained applause for a Republican candidate who received about 41 percent of the statewide vote in a race widely expected to be a more resounding slam dunk for Cuomo.
Perhaps hinting at another bid for the governor”™s seat in 2018, Astorino, at an event replete with basketball-themed trappings and allusions from a lineup of speakers, chose to quote Babe Ruth to describe his own loss at the polls: “Every strike brings me closer to the next home run.”
The county executive noted he won 46 of New York”™s 62 counties in the election. “The problem is, the ones I won have the population of Pound Ridge. The ones that Cuomo won, five of them have the name New York City,” he said, referring to the five boroughs.
Returning to his governing duties at home, Astorino told his business audience there will be no increase in the county tax levy for the fifth consecutive year of his administration.
A budget-minded Astorino noted that Westchester County”™s official colors are the same as the Knicks, whose new NBA Development League affiliate, the Westchester Knicks, will play home games at the County Center in White Plains. “So we save on paint” at the team”™s new home, he said.
The county will save, too, on upgrading equipment for the County Center court. Former Knicks All-Star Allan Houston, who now works for the team owner, The Madison Square Garden Co., as Knicks assistant general manager and as general manager of the Westchester Knicks, said MSG will bring its own playing floor and scoreboard to the county facility.
Houston and Tad Smith, president and CEO of The MSG Co., were interviewed before a packed banquet-hall crowd at the Westchester Marriott in Tarrytown by Al Trautwig, longtime sports commentator at MSG Network.
Asked by Trautwig what the Westchester Knicks will look like, Houston quickly replied, “I hope it looks like this room tonight.”
While training team members to become both better professional players and better people, Houston said, the Knicks also will use their Development League affiliate “as a training ground here for new metrics, for new mechanics” to help young players develop.
Smith, a Westchester resident, said the county is “key to our future” as the home of the D-League team and the Madison Square Garden Training Center in the town of Greenburgh.
“Westchester is really special,” Smith said. “It”™s the crown jewel of the southern part of New York state and really for all of the metro area.”
Asked what his greatest challenge is as MSG CEO, Smith said it was the same as that of many other business executives in the audience: “Attracting, developing and retaining really outstanding talent.”
Business Council President and CEO Marsha Gordon in her annual address said the county”™s largest business organization added 160 new members this year. They include the Westchester Knicks.
Gordon announced the Business Council will move its headquarters in March to the RPW Group”™s 800 Westchester Ave. in Rye Brook from 108 Corporate Park Drive in Harrison.
