East Hartford’s Rentschler Field needs $63 million upgrade, new study says. ‘like walking into a time capsule’

[CL82]

A new stadium on campus would cost $500M minimum. And that's not even counting the infrastructure it would take the support the place. All for something that wouldn't sell one extra ticket.

Based on what? That seems high to me.

 

[AzHusky]

I believe that a stadium could be built on campus for less than 500M when you look at what it cost to build the Rent. Found this in a google search Construction cost: $91.2 million; ($134 million in 2021 dollars). Guessing the number's it looks like the Rent could be built on campus for around 200 million or so.

 

[HartfordHank]

Times change and so do perspectives. The same BC that blackballed our entry into the ACC now wants to establish regional rivalries and wants UConn to be among them.

Other than you no one, especially at BC, say they want to establish a regional rivalry with UConn. In most cases just the opposite.

 

[ZooCougar]

And so tell me which of the items in the existing proposal extends its life beyond 30 years. The caulk? Because I don’t think it’s the caulk. The fiber optic system, which is the big ticket item? Because I don’t think that’s gonna do it either. The new elevator? I mean maybe you can make an argument for repairing the roofs.

I think you are confused. Do you even have an argument?

There has already been enough information provided here. Feel free to read it.

I’m not an engineer but if they don’t do something to fix the damage done to the place caused by the elements then it will reach the end of its useful life very prematurely. The “caulking” you speak of is more than just “caulking”.

In typical Boneyard fashion you are oversimplifying this to a ridiculous degree.

 

[ZooCougar]

I actually I like the alternative where the broadcaster provides the components to make it functional.

You’re literally complaining about one of the least expensive line items that also provides one of the biggest ROI.

 

[uconnbill]

It was a piece of garbage when I first went in 2005. The most basic design. Want people there? Put covers over the seats like most European soccer stadiums. Even the 20-30k seaters have it

Suck it

 

[ZooCougar]

Next time you guys wonder out loud why Rutgers and Louisville are in and we are out.
Look no further than uninformed nitwits in this who are such tightwads they are against fixing the leaks and the cabling at The Rent.

 

[FfldCntyFan]

Bryant Denny Stadium has been the Alabama on campus stadium since 1929. Expanded in 1950, 1961, 1966...added on to in 1988 and 1998 (to 83,000).

Yes..Bama did play some of their games at Legion in Birmingham but moved major conference games to Denny after 1998 and they stopped playing at Legion Field altogether 19 years ago.

Of course, Legion Field became known as the neutral site for the annual Alabama-Auburn game (the Iron Bowl).

You may want to do a little research bud. Beyond the Iron Bowl, there was a nearly three decade stretch when Alabama's home games against Tennessee and LSU (alternating years before the SEC expanded to 12) were all played in Birmingham. Additionally non conference games against significant opponents (the 1970 USC game being the most famous) were also played there. There were quite a few seasons that Bama played at least as many home games at Legion Field (until the expansion of Bryant-Denny in the late 1980's Legion had more capacity) as they did on campus.

This does not mean that having an off-campus stadium doesn't have inherent disadvantages, it just means that the disadvantages can be overcome.

 

[Kolumbo]

Just watched Florida State defeat L-ville. Competitive game. Remember when L-ville and Cincy were nobodies in c-usa. They moved on to the Big East, AAC, etc. Both invested in their stadiums big time. On campus. It makes a huge difference.

 

[uconnbill]

Based on what? That seems high to me.

agree on what is that based on?

I do think the infrastructure would be costly

I will say in some states it could be built at
Protective Stadium

Team: UAB Blazers

Capacity: 47,100

Cost: 174 Million

Opening Date: July 7th, 2021
Let's be honest in Connecticut it would be double the price due to Connecticut laws.

 

[CL82]

I think you are confused. Do you even have an argument?

There has already been enough information provided here. Feel free to read it.

I’m not an engineer but if they don’t do something to fix the damage done to the place caused by the elements then it will reach the end of its useful life very prematurely. The “caulking” you speak of is more than just “caulking”.

In typical Boneyard fashion you are oversimplifying this to a ridiculous degree.

Well, let me just sum it up in a sentence for you. Do any of the items that make up the 64 million purport to extend the life of the stadium beyond its normal useful life? Not that I’ve seen, but I haven’t read the whole report yet. Was that easier to understand?

 

[CL82]

You’re literally complaining about one of the least expensive line items that also provides one of the biggest ROI.

No, I’m literally reading the language that was posted. It lays out two alternatives one is that the broadcaster upgrade the cabling and the other is that the CDRA does it at a cost of about 2 million. If CBS Sportsnet decides it’s more convenient for them to have cabling in place, and want to put it in, God bless. if not, I go back to my question from several posts ago, what businesses have chosen not to use Rentschler field because it wasn’t pre-wired with fiber optics. The answer to that question needs to be something more than “well golly we imagine that if we had it we would get more people.”

 

[huskymedic]

Alternate access link here <<<

-> “Looking at the financial picture of our athletics program as a whole, I think there things we do that make it look much more precarious than it really is,” said Dan Toscano, UConn Board of Trustees chairman. “We may be the only program in the country, a state university that plays in a state-owned facility and has to pay rent for it. It’s sort of right pocket, left pocket. The unintended consequence is, it shows up in our financial statements and you have people saying, my God your’re running this huge deficit. I say, if we get funding from the state and we turn around and pay $5 million back to the state, not a dollar of the $5 million has actually changed hands. And yet, you’re creating a big hole.

“I find that whole thing somewhat odd. At some point we’ll try to sit down with OPM and the CRDA folks and the governor’s office and figure it out once and for all.” <-

-> The legislative session will kick off in January and the CRDA will soon have an idea what's available to finance the work. Gov. Lamont has been vocal supporter of Mora and UConn football, but it is a challenging economic time to seek funds for a sports venue. Freimuth and the CRDA are preparing for scenarios in which the state offers less funding. The priorities are the roof and the technology issues, so those will be top-of-the-list issues.<-

-> “Right now, it’s the only place that we have an option to play football,” Toscano said. “We can play basketball on our campus when you think about XL (Center) being part of the CRDA landscape, we have options for that. And come Jan. 14, we’ll have options for hockey as well. But when it comes to football, that is our sole venue.

“I think the state will decide how it moves forward and we’ll adapt to that. I don’t know what that is. I think ultimately that will a Governor and Speaker of the House discussion about what they want to do.” <-

(Keep the partisan politics out of any discussion)

 

[Exit 4]

Crazy possible outcome; operations of the Rent are given to the university to manage?!?!?

 

[CONN78SEJ]

I believe that a stadium could be built on campus for less than 500M when you look at what it cost to build the Rent. Found this in a google search Construction cost: $91.2 million; ($134 million in 2021 dollars). Guessing the number's it looks like the Rent could be built on campus for around 200 million or so.

The more steel you use in its construction vs concrete, the cheaper the cost. However the flip side of that means maintenance costs go way up when the use of steel increases, either by itself or in reinforced concrete. It’s the reason the Yale Bowl and the Rose Bowl have lasted well over a hundred years as both used relatively little steel compared to concrete and earthen fill. Just wanted to point that out.

 

[CTFAN4LIFE]

Good job, your post is by far the dumbest post of the year. You opinion is 180 degrees opposite from what the coaching staff, almost all on campus students, the players, and most importantly future recruits all want. Do you honestly think Calhoun would have had 4 NC’s if Gampel was built on Pratt & Whitney field?

Calhoun and his guys would've won playing anywhere, including the moon.

 

[CONN78SEJ]

Calhoun and his guys would've won playing anywhere, including the moon.

You completely missed my point, which is that JC would not have been playing with the same guys he won his NC’s with. Mora’s recruiting would go so much easier with an on campus stadium to pitch to recruits.

 

[CTFAN4LIFE]

You completely missed my point, which is that JC would not have been playing with the same guys he won his NC’s with. Mora’s recruiting would go so much easier with an on campus stadium to pitch to recruits.

I didn't miss your point - I was just having some fun, but honestly I don't think it matters all that much. Recruits go where they feel like they're home, have a great support system, feel like they can take their game to a new level, get their needed playing time, and have a shot at the next level. Would it be easier? Yes, but not significantly. We have other aspects in terms of challenges to football recruiting (i.e. lack of 1A/FBS history, lack of (recent) success, a decade of bad coaching hires, lack of conference fit since the BE collapsed, lack of in-state recruiting successes/relatively small number of D1 players as compared to other states, relatively small interest in college football in our state, etc etc). Bottom line - we are fighting an up-hill battle. BUT, with the right coaching and leadership, the hill can be climbed. It was done in the RE-1 era and it can be done again.

 

[ScottVib]

You completely missed my point, which is that JC would not have been playing with the same guys he won his NC’s with. Mora’s recruiting would go so much easier with an on campus stadium to pitch to recruits.

You mean the guys who were recruited after more than a decade of playing the biggest Big East games even further off campus at the Civic Center?

 

[CL82]

Alternate access link here <<<

-> “Looking at the financial picture of our athletics program as a whole, I think there things we do that make it look much more precarious than it really is,” said Dan Toscano, UConn Board of Trustees chairman. “We may be the only program in the country, a state university that plays in a state-owned facility and has to pay rent for it. It’s sort of right pocket, left pocket. The unintended consequence is, it shows up in our financial statements and you have people saying, my God your’re running this huge deficit. I say, if we get funding from the state and we turn around and pay $5 million back to the state, not a dollar of the $5 million has actually changed hands. And yet, you’re creating a big hole.

“I find that whole thing somewhat odd. At some point we’ll try to sit down with OPM and the CRDA folks and the governor’s office and figure it out once and for all.” <-

-> The legislative session will kick off in January and the CRDA will soon have an idea what's available to finance the work. Gov. Lamont has been vocal supporter of Mora and UConn football, but it is a challenging economic time to seek funds for a sports venue. Freimuth and the CRDA are preparing for scenarios in which the state offers less funding. The priorities are the roof and the technology issues, so those will be top-of-the-list issues.<-

-> “Right now, it’s the only place that we have an option to play football,” Toscano said. “We can play basketball on our campus when you think about XL (Center) being part of the CRDA landscape, we have options for that. And come Jan. 14, we’ll have options for hockey as well. But when it comes to football, that is our sole venue.

“I think the state will decide how it moves forward and we’ll adapt to that. I don’t know what that is. I think ultimately that will a Governor and Speaker of the House discussion about what they want to do.” <-

(Keep the partisan politics out of any discussion)

It sounds as if Toscano is going to take on the status quo regarding the way the university pays for state owned facilities. I note his comments that for basketball and hockey we have other alternatives and his squarely addressing the bizarre way the finances are currently being run. To me that’s a good thing, though long overdue.

 

[ZooCougar]

No, I’m literally reading the language that was posted. It lays out two alternatives one is that the broadcaster upgrade the cabling and the other is that the CDRA does it at a cost of about 2 million. If CBS Sportsnet decides it’s more convenient for them to have cabling in place, and want to put it in, God bless. if not, I go back to my question from several posts ago, what businesses have chosen not to use Rentschler field because it wasn’t pre-wired with fiber optics. The answer to that question needs to be something more than “well golly we imagine that if we had it we would get more people.”

Yeah I’m so sure CBS Sportsnet would prefer the cost of them setting up thousands of feed of cable for days before the game versus having a a permanently installed system that every other modern stadium already has.

 

[CONN78SEJ]

You mean the guys who were recruited after more than a decade of playing the biggest Big East games even further off campus at the Civic Center?

Yes I do, the guys who played only 1/4 of their games at the Civic Center. Lol

 

[UConnJim]

It's kind of funny. When organizations have an old facility, they understand that there are annual repair and maintenance expenses that are pretty significant. When they replace the old facility with a new one, somehow they think they will not have repair and maintenance expenses in the future. In fact, many organizations justify the new facility by saying they are spending so much on repair and maintenance that there are cost savings to build a new one. The reality is that the maintenance costs should be similar if you are maintaining the new facility correctly, but the repair bills are smaller until the facility ages. But, do organizations accrue for the future higher repair and maintenance costs after they finish the new facility? Of course not.

Unfortunately, the Rent has reached the age that you can't really defer repairs anymore and things need to be fixed. $64 million over 5 years doesn't seem to be a large number to me. If you had a 30 year old facility that cost $100 million is being depreciated over 30 years that's $3.3 million per year. The problem is they didn't accrue for the future expenses and repair bills are back end loaded.

 

[CL82]

Yeah I’m so sure CBS Sportsnet would prefer the cost of them setting up thousands of feed of cable for days before the game versus having a a permanently installed system that every other modern stadium already has.

Prefer is an interesting word. Isn’t it? Very squishy and noncommittal.

 

[noeynox]

Nor is it Nantucket. Storrs is lonely, it needs a beautiful stadium to fill its woods and fields. When? Put the plans together and then lets see where alignment leads us by 2030 or so. The great reorg of the ACC should be underway about 2-4 years before the end of the ACC deal and we should have a stadium plan on hand if it helps.

So be proactive instead of reactive for once?

 

[John]

It's kind of funny. When organizations have an old facility, they understand that there are annual repair and maintenance expenses that are pretty significant. When they replace the old facility with a new one, somehow they think they will not have repair and maintenance expenses in the future. In fact, many organizations justify the new facility by saying they are spending so much on repair and maintenance that there are cost savings to build a new one. The reality is that the maintenance costs should be similar if you are maintaining the new facility correctly, but the repair bills are smaller until the facility ages. But, do organizations accrue for the future higher repair and maintenance costs after they finish the new facility? Of course not.

Unfortunately, the Rent has reached the age that you can't really defer repairs anymore and things need to be fixed. $64 million over 5 years doesn't seem to be a large number to me. If you had a 30 year old facility that cost $100 million is being depreciated over 30 years that's $3.3 million per year. The problem is they didn't accrue for the future expenses and repair bills are back end loaded.

It's the UConn way, they didn't adequately budget for the UConn 2000 maintenance either.

 

[gampelcrazies]

Crazy possible outcome; operations of the Rent are given to the university to manage?!?!?

That would be a game changer

 

[How Sway?!]

agree on what is that based on?

I do think the infrastructure would be costly

I will say in some states it could be built at
Protective Stadium

Team: UAB Blazers

Capacity: 47,100

Cost: 174 Million

Opening Date: July 7th, 2021
Let's be honest in Connecticut it would be double the price due to Connecticut laws.

Couple of things to put in context the price:

1) The union density in CT is about 3 times as high as that of Alabama, so Labor costs are much higher. Now there are plenty of economic studies showing the pros and cons of unions but just for the sake of simplicity I'll focus on the higher labor costs.

2) The Stadium started construction during a favorable economic environment. Not only that but material costs at that time were probably 50% of what they are now when you consider the supply chain problems we have now and the depressed market that was in place at the beginning of the pandemic.

When you consider both of those points, if UAB were to build that same stadium starting now, Im pretty sure they would be looking at at least double the price tag.

 

[Redding Husky]

I’m a little surprised by this. SMU’s stadium had the same architect and was completed in 2000. It still looks great, although they are talking about expansion.

 

[John]

I’m a little surprised by this. SMU’s stadium had the same architect and was completed in 2000. It still looks great, although they are talking about expansion.

Is SMU doing yearly routine maintenance or deferring it?