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.
