Dave Benedict on future of XL Center

[Kemba Time]

Actually, it's not. Google it if you are curious.
I think that is a false metric. Population within reasonable driving distance. What's outiside of Lawrence? More suburbs? Are there 1M within 45 minutes drive?
But Hartford is within reasonable driving distance to Storrs. You have to be pretty faint hearted to let a half hour dissuade you from driving to a game.
Mmm, there are a whole lot of banners there because of this guy



I think the real discussion is whether the XL continues to be a viable location; whether it is worth having the state lose in excess of $2m a year to keep it, whether the current accounting is unfavorable to UConn pushing CDRA losses on the AD balance sheet.

Obviously, the FFC fans are passionate and involved and we should look to accommodate them to the greatest extent possible, but that doesn't make the XL any better a venue or the existing deal less unfair to UConn.

1. I see a city of 16,000 with a median age of 20.4 (Storrs, CT | Data USA). I also went to UConn and don't remember seeing a whole lot of Storrs residents who weren't UConn students. Definitely not an expert here if there is something unique to the way it is reported.

2. The definition of reasonable driving distance seems to be at the heart of this. If you consider the immediate surroundings of UConn to be easy driving distance, it's unquestionably the smallest of any major college hoops school. If we're calling that 30 minutes or less, you'd still be very hard pressed to find a major school with fewer people than UConn.

If we start expanding it beyond that, it starts to open up a bit. I think anyone who is doing that is greatly overvaluing how many people are willing to regularly drive 30+ minutes to a game and consider it 'easy driving distance.' Not to go all Chief, but the casual fan is needed in addition to people posting here.

The key to what you said is "dissuade you from driving to a game." That is absolutely true, if UConn were to shift to a Storrs-primary model, it needs fans willing to make that drive repeatedly not just for a game or two a year. I personally make the drive to Storrs from Middletown for a couple games a year and to Hartford 8-10 times but would not increase beyond that because of the logistics of getting to Gampel.

Lawrence, KS has a population of 100,000 people AND is within 35-40 minutes of downtown Kansas City. It's also right off a major highway, not a one-lane road that Guapo is going to someday widen with his personal highway funds.

3. Geno actually might have something to say about Jim Calhoun being the only reason banners hang in UConn's two buildings, but Calhoun would be one of the first to admit how much being CT's pro team, playing in an NBA-capacity downtown arena and having the status that came with it helped turn UConn into a power.

4. Agree. It's why I said "Any discussion should be how to keep the formula that works in play, not how to piss off half our fans." I was actually very appreciative of Benedict's comments because he seems to grasp exactly that. Whether the XL Center is a dump and the deal is poor for UConn is worth figuring out because of what playing in Hartford means to such a sizable portion of the fan base.

 

[Guapo]

My final two choices for college were UConn and KU, I know plenty about Lawrence and Kansas which is why I called you out in the first place. Speaking out of your backside about college towns you know nothing about is your move, not mine Mr. Lawrence, Bloomington, Chapel Hill and Charlottesville.

Sure, people leave their offices at 3 p.m. from KC to get to Lawrence for 7. The same as people here have said they do it from Fairfield County and elsewhere for some Gampel games. Having a larger population close by that doesn't have to do anything like that to makes up for the fact that those numbers don't add up to full arenas for an entire season.

I know these places well, too. Hawk knows Kansas even better (he went there). Its how I know that a large number of the people at the games are not locals, but rather alum who have moved to Indianapolis, Raleigh, DC or KC.

it’s you that needs to reckon with your low expectations of this fanbase.

I‘ve been hard on @Waquoit in the past in the millions of the other threads we’ve had on this topic. He’s a smart guy, I promise he doesn’t need you to defend him.

 

[Guapo]

Lacking is an understatement, especially on fund-raising. I mentioned in another thread recently that UConn's endowment is about $100 Million less than that at a small liberal arts school (1500 students) in Michigan with an endowment of about $550 million. They do it by engaging people with money.

They offer a wide variety of free online programs on interesting topics and host a number of free seminars in different parts of the country that build an affinity for the school even for those who never matriculated there. And those free seminars come with excellent meals, happy hours and great speakers. You just have to pay for your hotel. So, it costs them some serious money upfront but they know who might be a good target by the fact people are willing to pay to travel and stay for the seminar.

My wife and I are grads of UConn and can't recall any similar programming or outreach by UConn. Sure there may be some alumni staff at games like the Charleston Classic and some "receptions" before big games but always "on the cheap".

it’s awful. Josh Prolux, god bless him, does what he can but he’s basically a one man army.

I was involved in the UConn alumni group in DC and the whole thing was so frustrating on so many different levels.

 

[Kemba Time]

it’s you that needs to reckon with your low expectations of this fanbase.

My expectation of our fan base is that we have one of the best damn fan bases in all of college basketball and that it has very little do with how many miles are on anyone's odometers in the parking lot.

 

[Guapo]

My expectation of our fan base is that we have one of the best damn fan bases in all of college basketball and that it has very little do with how many miles are on anyone's odometers in the parking lot.

I agree! That’s been my point all along.

 

[Umami Zen]

Post -COVID.. Put a good "product" on the floor (the team)..Fans will come.. This year's team is UConn's best "product" since 2014 season.. Tonight starts the real season..

 

[Adios]

sorry you want an NBA team in Hartford. UConn ain’t it. Maybe the Whalers will come back one day and fill that missing pro-sports hole in your heart.

Aren't college players going to get paid now? Geez.

Maybe UConn should join the G League as the Connecticut Huskies. High end collegiate sports is all about money now. Sorry you yearn for the days when it was so pure. Which is maybe 100 years ago.

 

[Guapo]

Aren't college players going to get paid now? Geez.

Maybe UConn should join the G League as the Connecticut Huskies. High end collegiate sports is all about money now. Sorry you yearn for the days when it was so pure. Which is maybe 100 years ago.

This is facetious, right?

 

[HuskyHawk]

My final two choices for college were UConn and KU, I know plenty about Lawrence and Kansas which is why I called you out in the first place. Speaking out of your backside about college towns you know nothing about is your move, not mine Mr. Lawrence, Bloomington, Chapel Hill and Charlottesville.

Sure, people leave their offices at 3 p.m. from KC to get to Lawrence for 7. The same as people here have said they do it from Fairfield County and elsewhere for some Gampel games. Having a larger population close by that doesn't have to do anything like that to makes up for the fact that those numbers don't add up to full arenas for an entire season.

Unless you are a college basketball player, those are a strange final two colleges. How did that happen?

 

[Adios]

This is facetious, right?

UConn sports has ended up doing much more for the state than the Whalers. Hello?

Hockey crowds for home games in Bridgeport is an issue.

 

[Guapo]

Unless you are a college basketball player, those are a strange final two colleges. How did that happen?

@Kemba Time from Colorado too, right? I’m very interested to hear the answer to this and also how you decided on UConn

 

[BPT2Storrs]

Its actually a bit more complicated.

What people in the northeast have a difficult time understanding is that “old money” in the rest of the country send their kids to the flagship state school so the alumni base generally has much deeper pockets.

For instance, kids that go to Lovett, Westminster and Paces (old money prep schools with 30K+ tuitions here in Atlanta) go to UGA and Georgia Tech whereas kids like that in CT do not go to UConn.

I don’t believe this is talked about enough. As one of the wealthiest states in the country we certainly should have a larger and wealthier donor base. It’s kind of crazy that a lot of people in this state or willing to drop a ton money on out of state education or on small liberal arts schools that in most cases don’t offer as good an education as UConn.

People can spend their money as they want, but I would think given the amount of taxes people pay to live here, the quality of education and the resources that are offered in Storrs - why wouldn’t more of the wealthier residents push to send their kids to UConn? I get it Harvard, Georgetown, Yale, etc. are in the mix but I’m sure not all kids are getting into those schools, even with family money behind them.

 

[Guapo]

I don’t believe this is talked about enough. As one of the wealthiest states in the country we certainly should have a larger and wealthier donor base. It’s kind of crazy that a lot of people in this state or willing to drop a ton money on out of state education or on small liberal arts schools that in most cases don’t offer as good an education as UConn.

People can spend their money as they want, but I would think given the amount of taxes people pay to live here, the quality of education and the resources that are offered in Storrs - why wouldn’t more of the wealthier residents push to send their kids to UConn? I get it Harvard, Georgetown, Yale, etc. are in the mix but I’m sure not all kids are getting into those schools, even with family money behind them.

100%. The thinking that private schools, no matter what, are better than state schools is so engrained in the New England culture; although I’ve heard it’s been waining a little bit (?) (maybe?)

I remember reading a couple years ago that the QU student section was chanting “safety school” at the UConn hockey team, which is insane.

 

[Adios]

That's ironic when QU aims for 23 year old freshman hockey players.

 

[Kemba Time]

Unless you are a college basketball player, those are a strange final two colleges. How did that happen?

Long story short, I prioritized being at a school with a program that could win a national championship while I was a student. Narrowed it down to one per region of the country -- KU was my closest to home, UConn my East Coast pick -- and UConn won out for a few reasons.

I was Class of 2004, so I made a good decision.

 

[Guapo]

Long story shot, I prioritized being at a school with a program that could win a national championship while I was a student. Narrowed it down to one per region of the country -- KU was my closest to home, UConn my East Coast pick -- and UConn won out for a few reasons.

I was Class of 2004, so I made a good decision.

That’s as good an answer as could possibly be expected.

 

[UConnJim]

I don’t believe this is talked about enough. As one of the wealthiest states in the country we certainly should have a larger and wealthier donor base. It’s kind of crazy that a lot of people in this state or willing to drop a ton money on out of state education or on small liberal arts schools that in most cases don’t offer as good an education as UConn.

People can spend their money as they want, but I would think given the amount of taxes people pay to live here, the quality of education and the resources that are offered in Storrs - why wouldn’t more of the wealthier residents push to send their kids to UConn? I get it Harvard, Georgetown, Yale, etc. are in the mix but I’m sure not all kids are getting into those schools, even with family money behind them.

Fundraising/alumni relations has been a long standing problem at UConn. They have gotten slightly better, but they are not where they need to be. UConn's biggest problems when it comes to fundraising are the makeup of the Board of Trustees, the cailber of the fundraising people employed by UConn, and the development of students to become donors in the future. The UConn BoTs has never been made up of a significant number of deep pocket members and normally, members of the BoTs are some of the largest donors to a school. And, they should have contacts to other potential big donors. The fundraising people at UConn need to be upgraded. If you are trying to sell to CEOs and high net worth individuals, you need to be perceived to be a peer. If you are selling to the C-suite, you don't send in the junior salesman. Finally, if you want to be successful with alumni fundraising, there needs to be volunteer class agents who reach out to classmates for donations.

 

[Guapo]

Fundraising/alumni relations has been a long standing problem at UConn. They have gotten slightly better, but they are not where they need to be. UConn's biggest problems when it comes to fundraising are the makeup of the Board of Trustees, the cailber of the fundraising people employed by UConn, and the development of students to become donors in the future. The UConn BoTs has never been made up of a significant number of deep pocket members and normally, members of the BoTs are some of the largest donors to a school. And, they should have contacts to other potential big donors. The fundraising people at UConn need to be upgraded. If you are trying to sell to CEOs and high net worth individuals, you need to be perceived to be a peer. If you are selling to the C-suite, you don't send in the junior salesman. Finally, if you want to be successful with alumni fundraising, there needs to be volunteer class agents who reach out to classmates for donations.

Spot on. It’s not like they’re landing on the moon or inventing something out of thin air. Almost every other flagship state school (outside the northeast for reasons discussed above) have figured this out. Learn from what other schools like you are doing successfully and do your best to implement similar procedures and programs. As best as I can tell, there’s been very little effort put into it.

 

[superjohn]

100%. The thinking that private schools, no matter what, are better than state schools is so engrained in the New England culture; although I’ve heard it’s been waining a little bit (?) (maybe?)

I remember reading a couple years ago that the QU student section was chanting “safety school” at the UConn hockey team, which is insane.

It's idiotic and I truly never grasped how bad it was until I moved to the Midwest where everyone loves their state schools and has so much pride in them.

 

[HuskyHawk]

It's idiotic and I truly never grasped how bad it was until I moved to the Midwest where everyone loves their state schools and has so much pride in them.

It is truly night and day. Not comparable at all.

 

[Guapo]

It's idiotic and I truly never grasped how bad it was until I moved to the Midwest where everyone loves their state schools and has so much pride in them.

I feel like I always knew that was the case but it didnt really hit home for me till I met my now wife and started spending a lot of time in Athens where there is the whole concept of “old row” Greek life etc.

I remember interacting with these people and thinking “oh, these are the kids I grew up with in Connecticut who went to Trinity, Williams, Bates etc“

 

[Adios]

We go from UConn not being a pro team to it being bad that we have the Ivies and NESCAC in our backyards? We sure our concern is academics? Sister went to Wesleyan. She doesn't care for sports. I don't think the majority of college students really do.

Only on the UConn message board would it be bad to have Yale and Wesleyan in our state. How dare them. Public schools or die.

God have mercy on us.

 

[Guapo]

We go from UConn not being a pro team to it being bad that we have the Ivies and NESCAC in our backyards? We sure our concern is academics? Sister went to Wesleyan. She doesn't care for sports. I don't think the majority of college students really do.

Only on the UConn message board would it be bad to have Yale and Wesleyan in our state. How dare them. Public schools or die.

God have mercy on us.

that’s not what’s being said here

 

[CL82]

1. I see a city of 16,000 with a median age of 20.4 (Storrs, CT | Data USA). I also went to UConn and don't remember seeing a whole lot of Storrs residents who weren't UConn students. Definitely not an expert here if there is something unique to the way it is reported.

2. The definition of reasonable driving distance seems to be at the heart of this. If you consider the immediate surroundings of UConn to be easy driving distance, it's unquestionably the smallest of any major college hoops school. If we're calling that 30 minutes or less, you'd still be very hard pressed to find a major school with fewer people than UConn.

If we start expanding it beyond that, it starts to open up a bit. I think anyone who is doing that is greatly overvaluing how many people are willing to regularly drive 30+ minutes to a game and consider it 'easy driving distance.' Not to go all Chief, but the casual fan is needed in addition to people posting here.

It's debatable but under an hour is a reasonable drive to me. Opinions can differ on that though. That's the pool. Note there are a lot of diehards who would travel significantly further than that, and already do.

The key to what you said is "dissuade you from driving to a game." That is absolutely true, if UConn were to shift to a Storrs-primary model, it needs fans willing to make that drive repeatedly not just for a game or two a year. I personally make the drive to Storrs from Middletown for a couple games a year and to Hartford 8-10 times but would not increase beyond that because of the logistics of getting to Gampel.

[Shrugs] I guess. That's the point of having a large pool, though isn't it? You don't need the same 10K people every game.

3. Geno actually might have something to say about Jim Calhoun being the only reason banners hang in UConn's two buildings, but Calhoun would be one of the first to admit how much being CT's pro team, playing in an NBA-capacity downtown arena and having the status that came with it helped turn UConn into a power.

"Wrong board"

I suspect Geno would express equal skepticism if you told him the 11 natties his teams have earned were actually due to the civic center, rather than the player and coaches.

(FWIW, Geno doesn't particularly like playing at the XL. Neither does Hurley.)

4. Agree. It's why I said "Any discussion should be how to keep the formula that works in play, not how to piss off half our fans." I was actually very appreciative of Benedict's comments because he seems to grasp exactly that. Whether the XL Center is a dump and the deal is poor for UConn is worth figuring out because of what playing in Hartford means to such a sizable portion of the fan base.

We agree on that. The question is how many millions should our financially troubled state pay annually to make fans commutes up to 35 minutes easier? The Civic Center had a great run. The XL has kept the doors open. But that run is coming to an end. That is a certainty. It is just a question of when.

In the meantime, if the state decides to keep the XL open, they should treat UConn like a primary tenant not like a state subsidy. That means FMV rent (or less) and give deference to UConn as to dates.

 

[XLCenterFan]

I'll have to change my BY name.

I live in Wethersfield. I love being able to drive 5 minutes and watch a huge matchup while I sip my Lil' Heaven. Haven't been too many lately, but was looking forward to those games coming back. Nothing beats a rocking XL center (and in the past, HCC) when 2 ranked teams are playing.