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Arms Race

Just curious if the NBD people have been on campus for a 16k football event pre-Rentschler?
 
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cohenzone said:
What ever. All I said is that it dominates the landscape. It does A bowl doesn’t. It has nothing to do with the arrangement of their athletic facilities and I’m sure is fun on game day.
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Yeah, well it kind of does because suggesting that a football stadium in the middle of a paved parking lot for 100,000 patrons surrounded by other buildings, is somehow violating the "natural surroundings" of a parking lot and other buildings just doesn't make any sense.

That said, I replied to a different poster and you asked me a question about that reply, which I've answered. You seem to be taking that personally... to which I offer my relatively unenthusiastic shrug.
 
LoyalFanCT said:
Busses means kisses. Buses is the plural of bus. Maybe you also could tell us how many FBS football programs play in a non-pro stadium that is a 40-minute drive from campus.
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You have to think that coaches, players, and freshman recruits wouldn’t mind just walking to practice or to a game instead of a bumpy 40 min bus ride to Pratt & Whitney Field.
 
cohenzone said:
Why so defensive? It’s out in the countryside and isn’t all that attractive.
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It's a beautiful thing. Wish we had one, especially full of fans chanting "We are......UConn!) Yes, a Bowl would be prettier though. Have you been to Athens GA? You drive though campus and all of a sudden you see a stadium down there, complete with hedges.

I'm sure long range planners already have a number of sites where a stadium could go either on campus or at Depot Campus. Are those train tracks still active and where do they go? I've heard of stories of students getting on a train to New Haven for a trip to Yale Bowl, way back when.
 
AllHusky said:
It's a beautiful thing. Wish we had one, especially full of fans chanting "We are......UConn!) Yes, a Bowl would be prettier though. Have you been to Athens GA? You drive though campus and all of a sudden you see a stadium down there, complete with hedges.

I'm sure long range planners already have a number of sites where a stadium could go either on campus or at Depot Campus. Are those train tracks still active and where do they go? I've heard of stories of students getting on a train to New Haven for a trip to Yale Bowl, way back when.
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Been to the Big House in Ann Arbor 3 times and being a bowl, you really can’t see it until you get pretty close. VTech stadium doesn’t really stick out either. Yale Bowl originally built for 77000 also doesn’t stick out. My comment had nothing to do with game day atmosphere. I’ve had UConn season’s tickets from when they were still in Storrs and suffered through the last decade plus. Lots of room to spread out.
 
with all these NFL stadium re-development announcements (just saw carolina panthers today), i wouldn't be totally against seeing a mockup of an expanded and TRULY modernized Rent, along with commitments to get the funding to do so, obviously. It would be a beautiful facility, and we have so much Pratt & Whitney land to do it on. The site is really really not bad.

so imagine it with the proper landscaping, exterior design covering the soviet concrete, lighting/entertainment package, party/happy hour decks, diverse dining options, updated pressbox, glass-enclosed player entry tunnel with access to the glass to see them walking out to the field, massively upgraded & larger mitsubishi scoreboard, 360 ribbon LED displays around the whole mezzanine, not just the visitor side, etc. etc. etc....

I'm thinking of Ryan Field, for northwestern, as inspiration, but to a lesser degree, to justify the savings compared to building in storrs.
I know lots of people will disagree with me and let me be clear that i would NOT object to a statdium in storrs obviously.

but i sense that we're sick of the rent because we're sick of the team that plays inside it lolol. If UConn was winning and CT made the decision to invest in the rent the way Penn State is investing in beaver stadium, I think there'd be fewer naysayers to the idea of staying in East Hartford, close to 91/84.
 
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baggerbob said:
If Uconn is to build a stadium in the Northeast make it a domed stadium, and use it as a multi-purpose facility.
Graduations, Concerts, other sports, etc.
That way you can satisfy the Polititions, because it can be used year round for many things.
Can you imagine 40,000 to watch Geno and the women's team?
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I suspect that the potential competition for concerts and events with the XL center might make that unattractive to the state legislature.
 
We would all love to see the Rent used for more concerts, events, sports etc . I looked at Foxboro who just hosted a Stones concert last week. The big difference is Foxboro is privately owned and makes economic decisions that boost the venue. The state of CT has many different stakeholders that aren't always in the best interests of fans and taxpayers.
 
BigTenFan said:
We would all love to see the Rent used for more concerts, events, sports etc . I looked at Foxboro who just hosted a Stones concert last week. The big difference is Foxboro is privately owned and makes economic decisions that boost the venue. The state of CT has many different stakeholders that aren't always in the best interests of fans and taxpayers.
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No the big problem is the Rent is managed by the quasi-public CDRA, that has somehow managed never to make a profit on even a single venture for decades. It's really a staggering record.
 
CL82 said:
People complain about traffic leaving Renschler field as well, but as you know well, that's a bigger problem for people rushing out at the end of the third quarter than it is for people who leave after having a beer and a sandwich after the game. People complain about leaving games at Michie stadium at West Point. I've never had an issue, Because I don't struggle to rush out. Instead I'll walk down to the monuments, or often join at y tailgate as a guest of West Point fans. it really doesn't take much time to avoid traffic.

Again, I think the comparison to gamble isn't apples to apples because everyone arrives at practically the same time and everyone leaves at practically the same time.

I can't believe that Storrs CT Is the only place in the world that can't host football games without a limited access highway leading up to the front gate. West Point leverages tailgating, Rutgers leverages smart traffic management techniques, dedicated one direction roads etc. It's eminently "doable" without investing millions in infrastructure for six games a year.

The better question is should we do it, to which my answer is no while Rentschler Field remains a viable alternative and does not need substantial additional investment. That should be true for at least the next 10 years.
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Storrs certainly could do it but…

At this point between the rent and playing half our basketball games at xl we’ve conditioned fans to have that convenience factor. So at a time when we are already begging fans to come to football games, telling them to drive further with worse traffic is a tough sell. Staying after for tailgating is certainly more fun than sitting in traffic but it’s still adding to the time commitment factor.

I wish we could go back in time and build on campus. I also think if we ever got back to our peak and the program had some buzz we should be thinking on campus because there certainly are advantages to it. But right now where we’re at I don’t think it would be the right move even if we had the money and could figure out the politics
 
kemba said:
Storrs certainly could do it but…

At this point between the rent and playing half our basketball games at xl we’ve conditioned fans to have that convenience factor. So at a time when we are already begging fans to come to football games, telling them to drive further with worse traffic is a tough sell. Staying after for tailgating is certainly more fun than sitting in traffic but it’s still adding to the time commitment factor.

I wish we could go back in time and build on campus. I also think if we ever got back to our peak and the program had some buzz we should be thinking on campus because there certainly are advantages to it. But right now where we’re at I don’t think it would be the right move even if we had the money and could figure out the politics
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Fully agree that isn't to make the case for a new stadium coming off a 3–9 year. Football stadiums have a stated life of 30 years, though after 20 years they require large investment. When it comes time to invest a significant amount of money at the Rent, the state should consider whether that money would be better spent in Storrs. That's probably a debate for 2033 though.

I will respectfully suggest that going to a game in the middle of a former airfield might be considered less attractive than going to a game back on campus. You may be right and fans coming from the west of Hartford may be unwilling to travel an extra 30 minutes to go back to campus six times a year, but somehow every other fanbase in college football seems to be able to endure the inconvenience.
 
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