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Post by timholycross on May 28, 2020 10:40:04 GMT -5
Perhaps when the pandemic's over, the State of Ct should hire someone from the Kraft Group to develop a plan for developing the land around the stadium.
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Post by alum on May 28, 2020 11:50:19 GMT -5
The patsies were never moving to Hartford, and everyone knew this except the chumps in CT who got played like fools. The principal chump, Governor Rowland, is a Villanova grad. 'Nuff said.
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Post by bfoley82 on May 28, 2020 12:25:55 GMT -5
I wonder how much of UConn's stadium mess was avoidable. That stadium (or one that would have been built a mile or two away) was supposed to be for the Patriots. They backed out of the deal, yet someone (or a lot of someones) went ahead with a scaled down plan. Stadium-wise, UMass might be in a better position even though the capacity is very small. If they decide to scale down or get rid of football, McGuirk will still have a function. W/o Uconn football, The Rent might as well meet The Wrecking Ball. And it's not cost-effective if they play 5 or 6 games there a year and draw 100K total or less.
There was an article a year ago lamenting the fact Renschler Field was getting no where near the projected bookings of events outside UConn football. It was expected to host many concerts each year but hasn't had one in over a decade. Expected development in and around the stadium never really materialized. Its main use for the 15+ years since its opening has been mostly limited to six UConn football games per year. Even these football games are greatly missing the mark as attendance has plummeted in recent years with an average of just 18,216 this past year in a stadium with a capacity of 40,642.
Empty promises and empty seats: After 15 years, Rentschler Field struggles to match expectations They host the NCAA Lacrosse Championships the next two years and the US Soccer program has been playing there over Foxboro the last few years...
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Post by A Clock Tower Purple on May 28, 2020 13:54:16 GMT -5
The union contractors are the ones who made $.
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Post by HC13 on May 28, 2020 17:21:35 GMT -5
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Post by timholycross on May 28, 2020 17:43:35 GMT -5
They're the doormat of the Ivy League, have won 2.8% of the league championships in the last 10 years.
And they claim the decision was going to happen, pandemic or not.
They did have 38 varsity sports, now down to 29; which is still a lot.
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Post by longsuffering on May 28, 2020 21:47:58 GMT -5
On an inflation adjusted basis I bet the cost per seat to build Polar Park exceeds the cost per seat of Rentschler Field. Hanover Insurance Park at Fitton Field has never cost taxpayers a dime and assuredly cost less per seat to build than the other two.
I'm looking forward to hearing the crack of the bat at Polar Park once it opens, but TD Garden, Gillette Stadium and most likely Fenway Park back in 1912 were all built with private funds except for infrastructure work that was done to facilitate development, so I'm not a big fan of the taxpayer subsidy to build it.
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Post by Tom on May 29, 2020 8:18:12 GMT -5
On an inflation adjusted basis I bet the cost per seat to build Polar Park exceeds the cost per seat of Rentschler Field. Hanover Insurance Park at Fitton Field has never cost taxpayers a dime and assuredly cost less per seat to build than the other two. I'm looking forward to hearing the crack of the bat at Polar Park once it opens, but TD Garden, Gillette Stadium and most likely Fenway Park back in 1912 were all built with private funds except for infrastructure work that was done to facilitate development, so I'm not a big fan of the taxpayer subsidy to build it. Without going into the pros and cons of taxpayer funded stadiums, Polar Park's primary tenant is going to host 70 events per year. Rentschler's primary tenant will have 6. I'm quite sure the cost per annual attendance at Polar will be quite less than Rentschler
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Post by longsuffering on May 29, 2020 16:42:55 GMT -5
On an inflation adjusted basis I bet the cost per seat to build Polar Park exceeds the cost per seat of Rentschler Field. Hanover Insurance Park at Fitton Field has never cost taxpayers a dime and assuredly cost less per seat to build than the other two. I'm looking forward to hearing the crack of the bat at Polar Park once it opens, but TD Garden, Gillette Stadium and most likely Fenway Park back in 1912 were all built with private funds except for infrastructure work that was done to facilitate development, so I'm not a big fan of the taxpayer subsidy to build it. Without going into the pros and cons of taxpayer funded stadiums, Polar Park's primary tenant is going to host 70 events per year. Rentschler's primary tenant will have 6. I'm quite sure the cost per annual attendance at Polar will be quite less than Rentschler Good point. That's enough potential spin off to open a bar called "The Dugout" next to Polar Park, while it wouldn't justify opening one called "The End Zone" next to Rentschler.
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Post by Tom on May 29, 2020 21:27:03 GMT -5
People go to football games with their own food and drink. They don't spend money in the neighborhood. I don't think there's anything real close to Rentschler for people to spend money at anyway. Football stadiums just aren't in neighborhoods.
Baseball parks and hockey/basketball arenas are frequently in the middle of cities where people can spend money before and after
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Post by HC92 on May 30, 2020 0:40:02 GMT -5
People go to football games with their own food and drink. They don't spend money in the neighborhood. I don't think there's anything real close to Rentschler for people to spend money at anyway. Football stadiums just aren't in neighborhoods. Baseball parks and hockey/basketball arenas are frequently in the middle of cities where people can spend money before and after Rentschler’s problem is not that it’s in an old air field in th middle of a East Hartford. Its problem is that UConn is not good at football and plays teams at home that no one cares about. They used to draw very well when UConn was in the Big East and winning.
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Post by bfoley82 on May 30, 2020 3:22:19 GMT -5
On an inflation adjusted basis I bet the cost per seat to build Polar Park exceeds the cost per seat of Rentschler Field. Hanover Insurance Park at Fitton Field has never cost taxpayers a dime and assuredly cost less per seat to build than the other two. I'm looking forward to hearing the crack of the bat at Polar Park once it opens, but TD Garden, Gillette Stadium and most likely Fenway Park back in 1912 were all built with private funds except for infrastructure work that was done to facilitate development, so I'm not a big fan of the taxpayer subsidy to build it. Without going into the pros and cons of taxpayer funded stadiums, Polar Park's primary tenant is going to host 70 events per year. Rentschler's primary tenant will have 6. I'm quite sure the cost per annual attendance at Polar will be quite less than Rentschler That is a big question mark if milb is ever played with the current labor situation and a likely strike coming in the next few years
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Post by Tom on May 30, 2020 6:04:56 GMT -5
People go to football games with their own food and drink. They don't spend money in the neighborhood. I don't think there's anything real close to Rentschler for people to spend money at anyway. Football stadiums just aren't in neighborhoods. Baseball parks and hockey/basketball arenas are frequently in the middle of cities where people can spend money before and after Rentschler’s problem is not that it’s in an old air field in th middle of a East Hartford. Its problem is that UConn is not good at football and plays teams at home that no one cares about. They used to draw very well when UConn was in the Big East and winning. I was referring to the concept of a spin-off bar. We started down a path of tax funded stadiums. One justification of that is spin off business on the neighborhood. I believe that football stadiums don't do that as well as other sports complexes
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Post by nycrusader2010 on May 30, 2020 7:15:35 GMT -5
Rentschler’s problem is not that it’s in an old air field in th middle of a East Hartford. Its problem is that UConn is not good at football and plays teams at home that no one cares about. They used to draw very well when UConn was in the Big East and winning. I was referring to the concept of a spin-off bar. We started down a path of tax funded stadiums. One justification of that is spin off business on the neighborhood. I believe that football stadiums don't do that as well as other sports complexes Correct -- football stadiums tend to hold far less occasions/events than other sports arenas. And they also come with expansive parking lots, meaning that attendees will tailgate as opposed to patronizing local businesses.
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Post by timholycross on May 30, 2020 7:33:29 GMT -5
At different points in the process (which went on forever), both the Patriots and the Red Sox were lobbying for building a stadium (or stadiums) in South Boston, either on or in the vicinity of the Convention Center.
The game experience for baseball would have been similar to what it is at Fenway; football would have been different and, IMHO, for most not as enjoyable. Parking would have been a whole different ballgame!
Also, having worked in that vicinity; the weather there was terrible. Always a few degrees colder than even a few miles inland, strong winds, fog, you name it. The place(s) had the potential to be the second coming of Candlestick Park. The losers would have been the fans and the taxpayers.
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Post by Tom on May 30, 2020 7:40:50 GMT -5
! Also, having worked in that vicinity; the weather there was terrible. Always a few degrees colder than even a few miles inland, strong winds, fog, you name it. The place(s) had the potential to be the second coming of Candlestick Park. The losers would have been the fans and the taxpayers. Former Red Sox pitcher Oil Can Boyd once commented after playing in bad weather in Cleveland "That's what you get for building a stadium on the ocean"
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Post by bfoley82 on May 30, 2020 19:35:27 GMT -5
At different points in the process (which went on forever), both the Patriots and the Red Sox were lobbying for building a stadium (or stadiums) in South Boston, either on or in the vicinity of the Convention Center. The game experience for baseball would have been similar to what it is at Fenway; football would have been different and, IMHO, for most not as enjoyable. Parking would have been a whole different ballgame! Also, having worked in that vicinity; the weather there was terrible. Always a few degrees colder than even a few miles inland, strong winds, fog, you name it. The place(s) had the potential to be the second coming of Candlestick Park. The losers would have been the fans and the taxpayers. Isn’t the San Fran baseball stadium on the water?
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Post by purplehaze on Jun 4, 2020 10:55:39 GMT -5
men's golf alums at UConn are anticipating the school dropping the program and are out in front of the announcement - they have a group that has pledged $500,000 to save the program. This might be happening at many schools in the coming months, just as we've seen at Alabama Huntsville (hockey saved) and Bowling Green (baseball reinstated).
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Post by rgs318 on Jun 4, 2020 12:02:58 GMT -5
Is this a growing form of "sport blackmail" against the fans of that sport?
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Post by purplehaze on Jun 24, 2020 11:00:45 GMT -5
The word from Storrs today is that only 4 sports will be cut after the 20-21 school year (fundraising saved some others) the cuts are: men's tennis, men's x-c, men's swimming and women's crew Their football program will continue to kill the bottom line in the athletic dept - now more than ever with limited attendance this fall (some would say 'how much worse can that get?')
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Post by alum on Jun 24, 2020 11:21:35 GMT -5
The word from Storrs today is that only 4 sports will be cut after the 20-21 school year (fundraising saved some others) the cuts are: men's tennis, men's x-c, men's swimming and women's crew Their football program will continue to kill the bottom line in the athletic dept - now more than ever with limited attendance this fall (some would say 'how much worse can that get?') So, when I read the article in the Courant and learned that women's crew team budget was $1.5 million and the men's swimming budget was $700,000, I was surprised at the difference. I was even more surprised to learn that there are 46 athletes on the women's crew team and only 27 on the men's swimming team. No men's XC will affect distance running recruiting for track, I am sure. Football carries on, losing games and money. These cuts don't make up half of the $10 million in savings they are supposed to find. Apparently, there will be cuts in scholarships in as yet unnamed sports as well as in operating expenditures.
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Post by Pakachoag Phreek on Jun 24, 2020 12:09:33 GMT -5
Women's crew is used by many FBS schools as a scollie offset for football. Women's rowing is allowed 20 full scollies, the most of any women's sport. Have no idea what UConn will do now to address the loss of this offset, maybe drop some scollies from men's sports?
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Post by Tom on Jun 24, 2020 12:59:23 GMT -5
So, when I read the article in the Courant and learned that women's crew team budget was $1.5 million and the men's swimming budget was $700,000, I was surprised at the difference. I was even more surprised to learn that there are 46 athletes on the women's crew team and only 27 on the men's swimming team. Me too. I guess I don't pay that much attention because a quick check says HC is in the same ball park. At least HC races 4's and 8's. From what I can see, UConn only ran 8's
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Post by bison137 on Jun 25, 2020 22:16:11 GMT -5
Women's crew is used by many FBS schools as a scollie offset for football. Women's rowing is allowed 20 full scollies, the most of any women's sport. Have no idea what UConn will do now to address the loss of this offset, maybe drop some scollies from men's sports? UConn women's rowing has 14.7 scholarships, worth about $650k, spread out among 25 rowers. There are also 22 others who do not get athletic aid. Men's swimming has 5.9 scholarships. Not sure about men's tennis and men's cross country, the other two sports being dropped. UConn is also cutting some scholarships in men's golf and men's T&F. Presumably these five men's sports will offset the 14.7 women's rowing scholarships that are being lost.
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