Connecticut governor declares UConn is 'all in' on big-time college football despite its current spot at bottom (Yahoo Thamel) | Page 5 | The Boneyard

Connecticut governor declares UConn is 'all in' on big-time college football despite its current spot at bottom (Yahoo Thamel)

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jostar1 said:
1) Gov. Lamont is not paying for UConn football, or giving them more money for a coach. Funding for UConn comes out of the state budget, which is already set. It is up to UConn to allocate more money to the Athletic Dept. As someone else posted, Lamont's public support of UConn football may give political cover for UConn to do that.

2) There would be public outrage from Connecticut citizens if money was allocated for a new stadium. There is no political will to do that. Especially for a team that has been losing for years.

3) Why people continue to talk about an on-campus stadium baffles me. It is totally unrealistic based on the fact that a) there is already a stadium for UConn football and b) the residents of Mansfield will never support it.

People need to be realistic about things.
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And, most of us that go to games like the Rent and just don’t care about an on campus stadium that much. When we win, the Rent rocks.
 
jostar1 said:
1) Gov. Lamont is not paying for UConn football, or giving them more money for a coach. Funding for UConn comes out of the state budget, which is already set. It is up to UConn to allocate more money to the Athletic Dept. As someone else posted, Lamont's public support of UConn football may give political cover for UConn to do that.

2) There would be public outrage from Connecticut citizens if money was allocated for a new stadium. There is no political will to do that. Especially for a team that has been losing for years.

3) Why people continue to talk about an on-campus stadium baffles me. It is totally unrealistic based on the fact that a) there is already a stadium for UConn football and b) the residents of Mansfield will never support it.

People need to be realistic about things.
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Agreed and moving the games further from New Haven and Fairfield counties (with more difficult access) is simply a non- starter for fans. It's not gonna happen. Let's move on from this topic. Someone start a new topic that most of us can ignore.
 
from our friends at Underdog Dynasty:
www.underdogdynasty.com

The Time is Now for AAC Schools To Build On-Campus Stadiums

USF, Temple, and even Memphis continue to play their games off campus in rented stadiums. In the changing landscape, that needs to end now.
www.underdogdynasty.com www.underdogdynasty.com

"it’s clear on-campus stadiums help programs grow, build fanbases, and create experiences. They get alumni and future generations of students to campus, and they’re easier for students to get to on game day. They may not be as big, and the seats might not all have two cupholders, but they’re more intimate, proud, loud, and cherished. They, along with all the rest of your facilities, also show a commitment to football and athletics on the whole."

"So, if you want to make your program viable in the next round of realignment, which the Big 12 is thought to be a part of, then you need an on-campus stadium. If you just want to have a better atmosphere and experience, you need an on-campus stadium. If you want to build a better football program, bring money into the school, and invest in your university’s future, you need an on-campus football stadium."
 
East Hartford is less than optimal. On campus is less than optimal. The facilities aren't the biggest issue the biggest issue is paying for coaching and recruiting (in the legit way). The program was building just fine until the 2008 economic meltdown occurred then the belts tightened. The state is realizing that UConn is the flagship for the state like other state universities. Even more so in CT which lacks a pro team.

CT like other Northeast states thrives on existing culture, its not based on economics per se. Big businesses would move tomorrow if it was about just the dollar and they could get the workers elsewhere. Connecticut keeps the nice things because they bring in highly educated people through the schools and they come for the schools because of their elite sanctioning and for the cultural standards. So, you need to generate more culture as tax rates go higher and higher... otherwise you're going to lose people. To that end, spending money on football is a small money return in contrast to the billions that will be generated by giving people to come and to stay in the state, economically. As long as the workers are in place because of cultural and social commitment the state can make money off of them to provide what they will.

The only reason we won't spend 10 million on a coach is because the regular people are going to balk at the idea, but I'll get you he will bring back more than 10 million to the state writ large even if its not 10 mill back to UConn itself.
 
I'm all in on paying 3 million for a new coach. I am against building a stadium in Storrs for 300 million. It's a waste of money when we have a good stadium and it would likely be a smaller stadium (25-30k).
 
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As a non alumni but CT native, I could care less about an on Campus stadium. My family who are alumni do not go to football games. They may get some more students at the games but really non students make up a much greater percentage of attendance.
 
shizzle787 said:
I'm all in on paying 3 million for a new coach. I am against building a stadium in Storrs for 300 million. It's a waste of money when we have a good stadium and it would likely be a smaller stadium (25-30k).
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Agreed. Now, if we got a mulligan, I’d build in Storrs, not East Hartford but it makes no sense to build another stadium we’ve got a perfectly good one.

The only logical solution is to continue to expand the Storrs campus until it reaches East Hartford… problem solved.
 
I really hope this isn’t lip service.

This program was butchered by incompetence. Hathaway hired a caretaker in Pasqualoni who put us on the wrong track.

Herbst and Manuel were out to lunch.

Even in the suboptimal AAC. The program had a chance to distinguish itself. You can’t tell me that this school could not compete with UCF, Cincy and Houston.

Diaco was a joke, but look at who worked for him. It was obvious that he didn’t get much money to hire a decent staff. The best he could do was an OC who had never called his own plays.

I don’t think people realize how badly Herbst and company screwed up. It’s really really hard to be this bad.
 
CONN78SEJ said:
Lots of uses for it. The state high school playoffs for one, negotiate with the Pats to play a couple games there each year, major league soccer, and as you say Central, WesConn, Holy Cross, UAlbany and even Umass might be interested.
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Pats would not play there.
 
ZooCougar said:
I really hope this isn’t lip service.

This program was butchered by incompetence. Hathaway hired a caretaker in Pasqualoni who put us on the wrong track.

Herbst and Manuel were out to lunch.

Even in the suboptimal AAC. The program had a chance to distinguish itself. You can’t tell me that this school could not compete with UCF, Cincy and Houston.

Diaco was a joke, but look at who worked for him. It was obvious that he didn’t get much money to hire a decent staff. The best he could do was an OC who had never called his own plays.

I don’t think people realize how badly Herbst and company screwed up. It’s really really hard to be this bad.
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Appeared to me he only hired people he worked with previously or from the Hayden Frye tree.
 
CONN78SEJ said:
Lots of uses for it. The state high school playoffs for one, negotiate with the Pats to play a couple games there each year, major league soccer, and as you say Central, WesConn, Holy Cross, UAlbany and even Umass might be interested.
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You're dreaming about the Pats. No way.
 
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ZooCougar said:
I really hope this isn’t lip service.

This program was butchered by incompetence. Hathaway hired a caretaker in Pasqualoni who put us on the wrong track.

Herbst and Manuel were out to lunch.

Even in the suboptimal AAC. The program had a chance to distinguish itself. You can’t tell me that this school could not compete with UCF, Cincy and Houston.

Diaco was a joke, but look at who worked for him. It was obvious that he didn’t get much money to hire a decent staff. The best he could do was an OC who had never called his own plays.

I don’t think people realize how badly Herbst and company screwed up. It’s really really hard to be this bad.
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no, it’s easy to be this bad. It’s hard to get things right. Hopefully, however, lightning strikes on this next hire.
 
CL82 said:
no, it’s easy to be this bad. It’s hard to get things right. Hopefully, however, lightning strikes on this next hire.
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It’s easy to be bad. It’s very hard to be this bad.
 
is it easy to Annex per Connecticut law? I kinda like the expansion of the Storrs campus all the way to East Hartford.

LOOK: In my lifetime, I have seen Houston morph into a massive wasteland. (not that I am saying UCONN is a wasteland)
 
IS this guy really serious about getting the Pats to play a "home" game in East Hartford? The same team that screwed CT out moving the team to the state so that Kraft could get Mass to build him a new stadium. I'm a Pats fan, but Kraft burnt all bridges to CT.
 
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Pudge said:
is it easy to Annex per Connecticut law?
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If anyone cares, the answer is NO. There is no annexation of unincorporated land in Connecticut as there is in most other states. The simple reason why is that 100% of the land in Connecticut is already incorporated, and has been for generations, into one of Connecticut's 169 municipalities.

In case anyone else is a big enough weenie to want to know this. (Meaning me Pudge, not you.)
 
Pudge said:
is it easy to Annex per Connecticut law? I kinda like the expansion of the Storrs campus all the way to East Hartford.
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I'm sure Raytheon would be willing to sell Pratt - cheap.
 
LoyalFanCT said:
Though we are concerned about UConn on this board, I could see Central CT upgrading to play teams like URI or Maine in the Colonial Athletic Association. Get someone like Lou Spanos in charge of their football program and give them some extra cash and the upgrade is possible.
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A few problems here... part of the lease prohibits "money losing" events from being run right now (because then UConn's required subsidy of the stadiums operating expenses would be used to support non-UConn entities). Estimates from UConn have said they need about 20k in attendance to break even on running an event at the stadium.

Just two FCS schools (Jackson St. & Montana) averaged enough fans to make playing at Rentschler Field profitable. Yale was 13th in FCS with 12,133 per game. You can make the top 25 in average FCS attendance with 9500 fans... Rentschler Field is not viable as a home field for any other college in the state of Connecticut.



Central currently plays in 5500 seat stadium. They don't sell it out.
Neither Maine nor URI would travel in enough numbers to get the Rent to 20k to break even.

You could pretend that Maine sells out all 10,000 seats at Alfond Field and then you'd need to assume that not only does CCSU develop a fanbase that sells out their stadium, they double that fanbase AND Maine then brought every fan that would fill Alfond Field and you might have a profitable game at the Rent for CCSU.
 
LoyalFanCT said:
Better to lose money on the Rent and use it regularly than to tear it down...
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Are those the only two options? Because it seems like there should be more.
 
LoyalFanCT said:
Better to lose money on the Rent and use it regularly than to tear it down...
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Better to fix the football program and get back to making Rentschler profitable for the one entity in the state that can do so. The Storrs football stadium ship sailed decades ago... even when Kraft was stroking Rowland's ego the thought was an upgraded UConn would join the Patriots there. When reality set in... well they downsized the stadium, took off the dome and moved it to cheaper land.
 
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JMick said:
under Herbst/Manuel, yes, but it seemed like Dave wanted to get him a real OC and he scoffed at it. I think it was a mix of the money and his ego. he needed yes men
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Oh yeah totally. Bobby D could have saved his job if he had accepted the help. Really stupid, career altering mistake.
 
ScottVib said:
Better to fix the football program and get back to making Rentschler profitable for the one entity in the state that can do so. The Storrs football stadium ship sailed decades ago... even when Kraft was stroking Rowland's ego the thought was an upgraded UConn would join the Patriots there. When reality set in... well they downsized the stadium, took off the dome and moved it to cheaper land.
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We just don’t have the culture for an on campus. Yeah more students will show, and then leave early.

When we were good we had a great thing going at the Rent. Great tailgate atmosphere etc.
 
huskymedic said:
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The key will be if we pay a capable head coach $2 million, that we pay his staff accordingly. If we try to make up for paying more for a head coach by pinching pennies on his staff, it won’t work.
 
Does Diaco still wear a bucket hat? I high fived that jackwagon on the way into his first game against BYU. They walked from the grey lot towards the south end of the stadium and I still remember the look in his eye. He needed help on offense and rejected it which resulted in the Navy fiasco which killed one of the better comebacks in UConn football history and eventually led to his firing. Edsall 1.0 was encouraged to hire Joe Morehead to upgrade his program which it did. Then PP came in and made Joe QB coach and killed the program with Deleone at OC which ended his job. Our next coach has to be fluent in modern football offense to the point he can run the team and call the plays because he is such a genius.
As to a stadium in Storrs it would have been nice as would a 15,000 seat Gampel but "it's ova". We like to kick it around on here, never going to happen. The Pats playing at the Rent or the Celtics or Knicks playing at the HCC would be amazing but never in a million years.
We have a great stadium in East Hartford, excellent tailgating setup and vehicle access, as well as sight lines in the building and if someone competent can be hired it will be a great experience again for all involved. The smaller crowds in there now make a lot of noise. Beat MTSU! Go Huskies!!
 
I am 100% in favor of an on-campus stadium - but I understand that will not be happening anytime soon.

I believe the State should have initially invested in an on-campus stadium but I’m assuming they did not go in that direction due to opposition from Mansfield. Is that accurate?
 
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