Empty promises and empty seats: After 15 years, Rentschler Field struggles to match expectations (Putterman)

[Waquoit]

If that actually happens, in 20 years you'll be swapping your war stories at soccer games.

 

[ScottBonz]

So, in a 20-mile span, there's going to be:

-new soccer stadium on campus
-new soccer stadium in Hartford
-The Rent



...what? How does this make sense to anyone? Stop having 5000 venues for one sport over and over again, maybe you'll save some freaking money.

So we should play Uconn Soccer and USL at the Rent? No one would play soccer at the rent because its a trash stadium for Soccer. I have season tickets to hartford athletic and there would be no way in hell I'd buy them if they were at the rent.

 

[John]

why aren't there concerts anymore at The Rent? I saw the Police and Springsteen there, both good shows.

 

[CL82]

stumbling into the Memorial stadium still drunk to watch us lose

"Get out of my head Dooley!"

 

[Dooley]

"Get out of my Dooley!"

Ahhhh the good ol' days!

 

[billybud]

It can be done...with $$$$.

Where once was a run down industrial district and low rent housing on the edge of FSU's campus...has now been transformed into Collegetown.

It was the venture of the FSU Boosters Inc. in partnership with developers...restaurants, bars, stores, apartments. Having the area designated as "blighted" and eligible for tax credits attracted investors

Next to campus, the stadium, baseball fields, and basketball center.

Not end all-be all....but still a vibrant area where it once looked bleak.

Welcome to FSU College Town - the Entertainment District in Tallahassee, Florida: Home: FSU College Town at Madison Street

 

[zls44]

So we should play Uconn Soccer and USL at the Rent? No one would play soccer at the rent because its a trash stadium for Soccer. I have season tickets to hartford athletic and there would be no way in hell I'd buy them if they were at the rent.

Ok, except everyone agrees its the best soccer facility in New England. So.

 

[Dooley]

I'd have no issue whatsoever turning the Rent into a soccer stadium. It's a great soccer venue with perfect sight lines for fans who are right on top of the action.

And I also like @LoyalFanCT 's AFL idea. I have actually watched a little of those games and it's not all that bad. Certainly not NFL quality but nothing is NFL quality except the NFL. Should definitely be able to draw a 10K type of crowd more often than not. In other words, the AFL should be able to draw a UConn crowd...on a sunny afternoon...preferably before November.

 

[whaler11]

It’s a wee bit cold for outdoor football when the AAF plays.

Nobody short of the national teams could possibly afford to rent the rent on soccer ticket sales. an mls team would drown under that number.

 

[Waquoit]

The Rent already hosted a minor league FB team and it only lasted one year.

 

[ktuck911]

It's neither here nor there but that stadium should've been built much much closer to campus... or on campus... Now that the old fogies around Storrs/Mansfield have either passed away or relocated to Florida for retirement, and we've squandered Millions of taxpayer dollars on the initial set up, it's put us in a conundrum...

Instability hurt us badly... Yet the facilities (on campus as well as the stadium damn near 30 minutes away) are extremely nice....

Bottom line the powers that be, that think they knew EVERYTHING, that are all loooonnnng gone screwed things up....

 

[Pudge]

I was involved in the original win on the RFP on Storrs Center; and heard those principals discuss Rentschler at about the same timeframe.

Residential. Storrs Center works because of the bodies. The original developers wanted to make it like StudentDISNEYVillage. All kinds of "best of the best" concepts for the retail; pulling from all over the region. What makes Mixed Use work … is solid residential that mix with Placemaking to make an interesting place that you enjoy being at. The idea that Outlet shopping would work in that East Hartford location was at least 15 years too late; with lots of near competition, better located. I have to believe that a "community" aspect is missing in that Silver Lane. It's not too late. The ideas that could work for an empty building are huge. The people running that site seem bankrupt of how to get it done.

That stadium at $92m (PUTTERMAN) would have a comparable total replacement cost to the $250m that is being projected in Minnesota, Cincinnati, Austin for MLS stadiums. It is a damn shame that the Authority is dysfunctional.

 

[ktuck911]

WE need a boatload of billionaire boosters to kick in and help us put a stadium on campus....

 

[UCFBfan]

It’s a wee bit cold for outdoor football when the AAF plays.

I do believe that their goal was to only have southern teams because they play in February so you are correct. There's no shot there will be an AAF team here.

 

[pepband99]

That stadium at $92m (PUTTERMAN) would have a comparable total replacement cost to the $250m that is being projected in Minnesota, Cincinnati, Austin for MLS stadiums. It is a damn shame that the Authority is corrupt and essentially a shell game for graft.

FIFY

 

[Alum86]

How about getting a team from the new Alliance of American Football. They should expand if
it works.

We are getting a Freedom League team, the CT Underground. A league run by kooks like stoner Ricky Williams. Or Not. They are 3rd league after AAF and XFL.

 

[huskymedic]

Haven’t listened yet...

 

[Madmannsucks]

So I looked up the last season they went to a bowl game. Total attendance was around 170k for 6 games. Something like 45 K fewer this season. I guess with a few w's the team can draw.

 

[HuskyAlum012]

So I looked up the last season they went to a bowl game. Total attendance was around 170k for 6 games. Something like 45 K fewer this season. I guess with a few w's the team can draw.

Make the Rent Fun Again

 

[whaler11]

So I looked up the last season they went to a bowl game. Total attendance was around 170k for 6 games. Something like 45 K fewer this season. I guess with a few w's the team can draw.

attendance this year was 60k. that they print tickets and put them in a dumpster doesnt really matter

 

[Rentschler9]

UConn should be both the operator and management “company” behind P&W Stadium. Having your primary tenant pay rent AND operational losses while you have at least 2 third parties (CRDA and Global spectrum) call the shots is beyond the pale. Handing over the keys to UConn provides the primary tenant to improve their game day presentation, with an additional incentive to book events and to build upon their program.

It is an absolute lost opportunity that the CRDA/Global spectrum couldn’t find a way to budget for every major high school soccer and football game to be played at The Rent. Why did the public foot the bill for Rentschler if they aren’t allowed to use it for public events?

 

[Madmannsucks]

attendance this year was 60k. that they print tickets and put them in a dumpster doesnt really matter

Yeah I realize the actual number of attendees was much lower than advertised.

 

[whaler11]

Yeah I realize the actual number of attendees was much lower than advertised.

weird conclusion then

 

[zls44]

It is an absolute lost opportunity that the CRDA/Global spectrum couldn’t find a way to budget for every major high school soccer and football game to be played at The Rent. Why did the public foot the bill for Rentschler if they aren’t allowed to use it for public events?

Oh, they're allowed to, it's just going to be a financial bath.


Ever wonder why the state championships in Hockey and basketball are at a college rink in new haven and Mohegan sun, respectively?

 

[BlueDogs]

Nothing less than the first salvo in the campaign to de-emphasize FB. I talked to someone from the UConn Foundation a couple nights ago. I was shocked to hear this person say with conviction that UConn was, "NOT a FB school!! We are a BB school!!"

So true, RST. Seen it, heard it and made that point many months ago when I first picked it up. The first step is trial balloon, informal talking to take a read on how passionate the insider cocktail circuit feels.. lobbyists, state and local officials, town committee type folks with longtime ties at UConn.. to figure out how much political blowback comes. The BOT is not to be trusted at all, most of which are State political cronies. All I can say is I’ve seen it in action and the low level “conversation” is well underway.

 

[whaler11]

So true, RST. Seen it, heard it and made that point many months ago when I first picked it up. The first step is trial balloon, informal talking to take a read on how passionate the insider cocktail circuit feels.. lobbyists, state and local officials, town committee type folks with longtime ties at UConn.. to figure out how much political blowback comes. The BOT is not to be trusted at all, most of which are State political cronies. All I can say is I’ve seen it in action and the low level “conversation” is well underway.

putterman seems to be on the payroll

 

[huskymedic]

putterman seems to be on the payroll

... and from/living in East Hartford. Made point in Capital Watch podcast about how the PILOT payments to EH never materialized at promised levels and have declined over the years (from $million+ to $69k +/-).

 

[whaler11]

... and from/living in East Hartford. Made point in Capital Watch podcast about how the PILOT payments to EH never materialized at promised levels and have declined over the years (from $million+ to $69k +/-).

looking to help kill off local sports when you work as a sports reporter is an odd position to take.

maybe dan harr can encourage all ins companies to move

 

[RSTuthill]

So true, RST. Seen it, heard it and made that point many months ago when I first picked it up. The first step is trial balloon, informal talking to take a read on how passionate the insider cocktail circuit feels.. lobbyists, state and local officials, town committee type folks with longtime ties at UConn.. to figure out how much political blowback comes. The BOT is not to be trusted at all, most of which are State political cronies. All I can say is I’ve seen it in action and the low level “conversation” is well underway.

Yeah, I think that what is new is the orchestration. Getting Putterman to serve as a mouthpiece. The ground is being prepared for a certain bitter seed. HCRE2.0 better have a better year this year or FB may be beyond saving. I rather think the new Prez may try to block this emerging bandwagon, however.

 

[nelsonmuntz]

Everyone knows I am lukewarm at best about the football program for a lot of reasons. That said, UConn's problems go much deeper than the stupid stadium. Location is a problem, but that problem is Storrs, not East Hartford or Hartford. Storrs is in the middle of nowhere, is expensive to support, and results in duplicative costs. UConn 2000 wrapped up 20 years ago, and the school is only 10-20 years away from another major construction facelift. It is not worth spending another nickel on that Storrs campus.

I think UConn should move the entire school to Hartford over the next 20 years, and turn Storrs into a satellite campus for eastern Connecticut, at maybe 10-20% of its current size. You could put most of the university downtown just by taking over abandoned buildings or buying the ones that were still on life support for pennies. I would make the XL Center the center of the "campus", and shrink the arena down to 10k seats. I would turn the rest of that building into classrooms and dorms. There are probably 15 abandoned or semi-abandoned buildings within 3 blocks of the XL Center that could be turned into classrooms or housing relatively cheaply.

Moving the school to Hartford would save the school and Hartford, which is effectively saving the state from a pending problem when Hartford ultimately face plants. It would bring students closer to their recruiters, put them in an urban setting that will be more vibrant and interesting, and eliminate the constant hostility between the school and the locals in eastern Connecticut.

I would start by moving the Business School to Hartford. Graduate School could be moved in a couple of years, and then transition the undergrads over the next 10. Engineering would go next, then eventually the humanities. Every graduate program could be based out of Hartford within 10 years, and the final transition could be done within 20 years.

If THAT was the school's plan, then an East Hartford stadium would be more viable.