New York Mets owner Fred Wilpon apparently wants to add more than just a new Queens baseball park and a regional sports network to a portfolio that already includes the Amazins and the Brooklyn Cyclones. Wilpon is now bidding along with Islanders owner Charles Wang and two others for the right to renovate the Nassau Coliseum and develop the property around the Islanders’ home arena.

With businessmen and politicians swarming all around it, the Coliseum and the surrounding land may become the battleground for a business war unlike any that has been fought in the past – a war that could result in a fourth NHL team in the New York area.

Come December, the Nassau County Legislature will decide on who will control the Coliseum’s future, and if that body selects someone other than Wang to develop the land and redo the Coliseum, it promises to cause serious problems for Madison Square Garden Network owner Charles Dolan (who also owns the Knicks and Rangers),and for two sports commissioners. Dolan wants to prevent more competition for the Knicks and Rangers, and neither NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman nor NBA Commissioner David Stern want to saturate the New York market with additional teams.

If Wang loses the bidding, he’ll have a few options: remain a tenant at the Coliseum or move the Islanders. The latter option is not outside the realm of possibility. Wang has been talking to Suffolk County officials about building an arena near the Nassau-Suffolk County border.

With Wang out of the picture, the building’s renovations could become NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman’s biggest post-lockout crisis. If Nassau County officials decide that any of the three bidders – Wilpon, developer Engel Burman, and developer Vincent Polimeni and his Cordish Company partners – should win the right to develop the Coliseum land, the Islanders may be sold or could move. Bettman and the NHL would prefer that Nassau County accept Wang’s proposal to renovate the Coliseum and develop the land around the building so that he keeps his franchise in Uniondale and things remain the way they are now.

Last spring, Wang reached a deal with Nassau County Executive Thomas Suozzi to renovate the Coliseum, as well as extend his arena lease by 10 years through 2025. As part of the agreement, Wang would also build a 60-story hotel/residential tower, which would bring in money to help pay for his billiondollar redevelopment plan.

For his part, Wilpon has said he wants to renovate the Coliseum and build a minor league baseball park along with retail and commercial development and housing. Polimeni claims he would develop the land but not necessarily the Coliseum. Burman would not renovate the Coliseum.

Wilpon could conceivably buy the Islanders from Wang and add the franchise to his sports properties, but that would create another problem – Wilpon would own a team that could not be shown on the Mets’ new regional cable sports network that starts next spring, because the Islanders have 25 years remaining on their cable deal with Charles Dolan’s Cablevision-MSG Network.

Last spring, Wilpon had an acrimonious split with Dolan when he decided to launch a regional cable sports network in time for the 2006 season. As a result, Cablevision sued Wilpon and the Mets in an attempt to stop the new network. Hence, it’s unlikely that Dolan would let Wilpon out of the contract so Wilpon could put the Islanders on the Mets’ network.

Wilpon’s group would immediately seek a new NHL franchise should Wang decide to move the team to Suffolk or sell the team. Wang likely would get far more money for the Islanders if he sold the team to someone in the New York market than, say, Kansas City, Portland, Ore., or Houston because of the huge Cablevision contract. The Islanders get the same rights fees through 2031 in Brooklyn as the team would in Uniondale or Suffolk. As it happens, Nets owner Bruce Ratner wants a hockey team in his proposed Brooklyn arena and the Islanders would be a good target for him.

To the outsider, it would appear that neither Wilpon nor Polimeni could get an NHL team in Uniondale if Wang decided to keep the Islanders and move to nearby Suffolk or sell the team to, say, Ratner, because the NHL doesn’t want a fourth team in the New York area.

But not so fast. Cleveland forced the NFL into an unwanted expansion back into the city after Brooklyn native Art Modell took a big-money offer from Maryland and moved the franchise to Baltimore in 1996. Charlotte, N.C., got an NBA franchise within months after George Shinn moved his Hornets to New Orleans three years ago. The fact is, the NHL Board of Governors would have a difficult time stopping Wilpon from buying an existing franchise and moving it to Uniondale should Wang go to Suffolk or sell the team to Brooklyn interests.

The Islanders franchise still has 10 years left on its lease with Nassau County. The county would be in court within minutes if Wang broke the contract and moved the team to Suffolk or sold it to someone who could take it to Brooklyn. As far as Dolan’s Rangers territorial rights, he could be paid off, or he could simply read the court transcripts from the trial that confirmed the right of Al Davis to move his NFL Raiders from Oakland to Los Angeles without the permission of his fellow NFL owners.

Meanwhile, Wilpon still needs winter programming for his new TV network – either an NBA or an NHL franchise. What would stop him from getting an NHL team back into Nassau if he wins the bidding for the land and Wang leaves with this Islanders? What would stop Wilpon from going after an NBA team as well if he got the Nassau Coliseum redevelopment rights? The NBA claims it’s not in an expansion mode, but money and governments talk. The NBA also has a number of owners looking for new arenas in Orlando, Sacramento, Milwaukee, and Seattle.

Wilpon, who knows cable television is a key component of sports funding, has a major selling point: A regional cable TV network with lots of available dollars.

Suozzi thought he had a deal with Wang to renovate the Coliseum and develop the county-owned property, and that it would be done by year’s end. But in the ongoing Islanders saga, nothing comes easy. Should Wang be beaten out by Wilpon or Polimeni, there could be a unprecedented shift in the New York sports landscape, one that would see the Islanders moving within the metropolitan area and possibly two teams – basketball and hockey – ending up in Uniondale.