Future of the XL Center as a Home Site

[upstater]

Probably like 30-40% of the entire Liberal Arts department. Serves no useful purpose.

Congratulations. You've just bankrupted your entire university. Liberal Arts departments are actually in the black and bring in revenues that subsidize other departments.

 

[upstater]

Exactly. UConns main campus is located in Storrs Connecticut. Why wouldn’t UConn be more concerned about the well being of their campus and college town? Unless the only reason the AD can run a massive deficit is an agreement to stimulate business in the state capital, but if that’s true, why is the school even pretending they have leverage?

This makes absolutely no sense to me. The state doesn't pay the athletics deficit. It comes out of UConn's budget.

The state's response would have to be to cut more than the $160m it's already cutting. And woah if that new cut were explicitly tied to the athletics deficit. Obviously the President would be fired long before the athletic budget were cut, but the damage to the institution would be done at that point.

Isn't that leverage?

 

[ConnHuskBask]

So you don’t think that park in revenue and concession revenue adds up over the course of the season?

Since “the state is UConn and UConn is the state” then we should just get to play in the XL Center for free right? The logic is exactly the same.

Not enough to make a difference when you're talking about hundreds of millions of dollars.

It's all just games and politics with the money. The pool of money is damn near the same, they just move it around. What you think LAZ parking as an entity is so enamored with Lamont's policies they just couldn't help themselves but to donate to his campaign without some expected return?

 

[businesslawyer]

But that’s not what you said, was it? You said that Lamont would cut $160 million from the UConn’s budget as punishment for not playing in the XL Center. If he ever did that he would be politically destroyed on a national level. I get why you’re trying to run away from that statement in your subsequent post. It was a pretty epically dumb thing to say.

Seriously? I said the University has little leverage against its state government, which appoints its board of trustees and funds it. Do you actually disagree with that? Or are you just deciding it's easier to try to pick at language?

 

[ToolzieFan]

I’ll never ever ever get people hanging onto Hartford in its current state. It’s also comical that people think UConn wouldn’t draw well if every game was at Gampel.

Yes, we draw well at Gampel when we’re good. I think it’s reasonable to point out that Gampel games shut out 5,000 or 6,000 fans who want to watch UConn games live pretty badly.

 

[RC111]

"Handful of games"...its half the home schedule, let's not act like its like 3 a season. No one assumes its just the surrounding towns that go, most people just suck it up and drive the extra half hour. We're the third smallest state in the country, we really complaining about literally any commute? These fans you talking about that NEED these games to be "accessible" the same ones that abandoned the team from 2017-2020 and made XL look like a ghost town. Same people that complain about having to drive an extra 30 minutes, are the one's that complain about the students not going to XL games. Selfish attitude. Being a student, there was no better feeling than leaving your dorm and being 2 min away from entering the arena, the buzz on campus all day, the postgame at Teds immediately after....XL games rob the students from what college basketball is really all about.

I was a student at Storrs, so I get a good chunk of your argument and I agree. It was great seeing games on campus (though I also went to the Civic center). And I have never and will never complain about the students not turning up. I'm fine with more games being played at Gampel.

That being said, I stand by the idea of continuing to play games in Hartford. Kemba above mentioned what I think is a reasonable suggestion.

And someone else mentioned this already, but it's not an "extra 30 minutes" for half the state. I spent a few years living in the Southwest corner of the state and I95 is absolutely brutal anytime other than 6am on a Sunday morning. It can literally take an hour to move 10 miles during rush hour and there's an accident every single f@ing day.

 

[RC111]

Probably like 30-40% of the entire Liberal Arts department. Serves no useful purpose.

As an alum who paid decent money for two liberal arts degrees, I don't know how to feel about this. My money was just as good as an engineering student's, even if I'm not building bridges post-college.

 

[Hondo 77]

Solution: Build a 15,000 seat on campus facility. Call it Gampel XL or whatever you want. Something that seats 4-5,000 more than Gampel would be the perfect size. I will contend that the same fans that can’t be bothered to drive 25 minutes more to Storrs are the same fans who won’t stand up and cheer. Last night’s crowd was mediocre at best, it was not even close to the atmosphere of the Xavier game at Gampel. I was at both and they were night and day. If you can’t be bothered to drive to Storrs after working late at your white collared insurance job in Hartford, just go watch at a bar in Hartford instead.

Can Gampel be expanded? I know Rutgers has plans to expand the RAC to about 11 or 12,000 but has never acted upon them.

 

[dennismenace]

It was because of the flow of the game. If we made that comeback at XL it would have been equally as loud.

Disagree. The entire game represented a mammoth comeback from the floundering they have been doing since they started Big East games. If you could not get excited about that performance against the no. 10 team in the country, then what the hell does get the Hartford crowds excited? Playing way below their capability and then pulling out a miracle at the end? That's not being a fan. It's being some kind of an adrenaline junkie. They should have been on their feet at least half the game.

 

[dennismenace]

View attachment 83936
See, now that’s a little too heavy handed. Saying if you cut our budget, we won’t play Hartford has a little too much of an extortion feel. Instead, I would rather see her talk about the fact that the cost to UConn for the use of the facilities is dramatically above fair market, and in a climate where our budget is being cut, we really can’t afford it. It’s a little more subtle and less confrontational.
View attachment 83937
Lol, it’s like Stephanie has been reading my Boneyard posts. By the way I think she may be missing a facility fee as well.

This conversation is well overdue. Playing at the XL center is a money loser for us for all but the biggest games, and even those are only breakeven. If the legislature wants us to continue to play in Hartford, the lease deal needs to be re-negotiated. I wondered if that would be on the table once Toscano was built until we had a place to play our hockey games we really didn’t have much leverage. That’s changed now.

The CDRA continues to lose millions of dollars even with the $4 million a year the University provides to them. Charging exorbitant lease fees has only served to hide a portion of their ineptitude. It’s time for that to change.

The easy solution is to renegotiate the XL deal so that the university makes the same amount of profit whether games are held at Gampel or at the XL. Propping up the Hartford economy shouldn’t come out of the athletic department budget.

"The Hartford economy" = a handful of gin mills and LAZ parking for a few nights.

 

[willie99]

Liar. You don’t have better offerings where you live. I don’t live in Hartford. Something tells me the same person protesting income taxes is also scared of cities. For whatever reason. Did you crawl out of Andover or Killingly to go to Hartford to protest the presidential election results too?

Well now, that has to be as big a tangent as I've ever seen. Do you like more taxes? Are you asking about 2016 or 2020? And what is he lying about?

 

[willie99]

Guys. Just a friendly reminder. Storrs is a long way from most of the state"s population. And even farther away from most of the state's money.

There is no easy access from anywhere

GP is not a modern, state of the art facility (neither is the HCC)

We have issues my friends, there is no easy fix on the horizon. We're just going to have to play with the hand we're dealt

 

[dennismenace]

Gampel has been full so getting people there is not a problem. Plenty of other big east teams evenly split the home games between 2 arenas? Which ones? Off the top of my head nova and St. John’s play in 2 arenas, pretty sure nova only plays a few games in Wells Fargo not sure what St. John’s split is like. How many blue bloods nationally split it down the middle?

St John's Carnesecca Arena holds 5602 for seating. It looks like a high school gym and I could never figure out how the Big East allowed them to build such a small arena. Here is a picture:

Carnesecca Arena - St. John's University Athletics

Directions to Carnesecca Arena | Carnesecca Seating Chart | Guest Policy | Carnesecca Arena Photo Gallery | Summer 2019 Facility Upgrades Formerly known as A...

redstormsports.com

I don't know how many games are at the garden vs on campus.

 

[Storrs South]

St John's Carnesecca Arena holds 5602 for seating. It looks like a high school gym and I could never figure out how the Big East allowed them to build such a small arena. Here is a picture:

Carnesecca Arena - St. John's University Athletics

Directions to Carnesecca Arena | Carnesecca Seating Chart | Guest Policy | Carnesecca Arena Photo Gallery | Summer 2019 Facility Upgrades Formerly known as A...

redstormsports.com

I don't know how many games are at the garden vs on campus.

It varies year to year and it's more or less a reflection of how high the AD thinks ticket demand will be for the season.

If you go back a decade ago they played anywhere from 8-12 games a season at MSG.

Today it's around 4 or 5 as the program has dwindled into obscurity.

 

[CTMike]

There is no renovating the XL. Some folks here have been in the belly of the beast and there’s no fixing those bones. The lipstick is already on the pig. Stop playing there until they build a new one.

 

[CTFAN4LIFE]

There is no renovating the XL. Some folks here have been in the belly of the beast and there’s no fixing those bones. The lipstick is already on the pig. Stop playing there until they build a new one.

Not true. You can look up the renovation scenarios to see how major renovations would modernize the building similarly to what happened at MSG.

 

[XLCenterFan]

Disagree. The entire game represented a mammoth comeback from the floundering they have been doing since they started Big East games. If you could not get excited about that performance against the no. 10 team in the country, then what the hell does get the Hartford crowds excited? Playing way below their capability and then pulling out a miracle at the end? That's not being a fan. It's being some kind of an adrenaline junkie. They should have been on their feet at least half the game.

My section didn’t sit at all. Not once.

 

[bigknight3]

Haven't read the thread so don't know if this was added already but it was just emailed to me so sharing.

UConn president reportedly threatens to pull sports from XL Center in Hartford if Lamont’s proposed higher education budget cuts pass

Gov. Ned Lamont is challenging the state’s public colleges and universities to adjust as federal pandemic aid expires. Though his new biennial budget proposal technically increases “bas…

www.courant.com

 

[CTBasketball]

Congratulations. You've just bankrupted your entire university. Liberal Arts departments are actually in the black and bring in revenues that subsidize other departments.

I’m actually interested in the numbers, not sure if you have access to them. But I have a hard time believing some of the departments/programs are not in the red.

Regardless my point is: shouldn’t the president put all negative revenue departments, programs, activities, etc. on the chopping block due to the budget cuts?

 

[CL82]

Not enough to make a difference when you're talking about hundreds of millions of dollars.

It's all just games and politics with the money. The pool of money is damn near the same, they just move it around. What you think LAZ parking as an entity is so enamored with Lamont's policies they just couldn't help themselves but to donate to his campaign without some expected return?

The athletic department is running a deficit every year. The CDRA charging the university lease costs well above fair market rental is a large part of that deficit. It’s not only the exorbitant cost to play the XL but it’s also the lost money that playing again, but would have made.

But here’s the thing, Whatever the economic affect of UConn playing in Hartford is, it happens just the same whether UConn regardless of what you do University pays to the XL Center. So if the state wants us playing in Hartford, they should charge us lease rates that make it economically desirable to be there. The only thing the high lease rates do is make the CDRA’s ineptitude look less bad.

 

[CL82]

I’m actually interested in the numbers, not sure if you have access to them. But I have a hard time believing some of the departments/programs are not in the red.

Regardless my point is: shouldn’t the president put all negative revenue departments, programs, activities, etc. on the chopping block due to the budget cuts?

Agree. Maric didn’t say it quite this way, but the point is valid regardless.

 

[willie99]

@Chin Diesel

Oh boo hoo, grow up and face reality

 

[UCONNJACK]

Agree. Maric didn’t say it quite this way, but the point is valid regardless.

Proposed State Budget: Impact on UConn & UConn Health - UConn Today

A message from President Maric regarding the proposed state budget

today.uconn.edu

Here’s the Marci’s message to the university posted this morning on UConn Today.

 

[willie99]

St John's Carnesecca Arena holds 5602 for seating. It looks like a high school gym and I could never figure out how the Big East allowed them to build such a small arena. Here is a picture:

Carnesecca Arena - St. John's University Athletics

Directions to Carnesecca Arena | Carnesecca Seating Chart | Guest Policy | Carnesecca Arena Photo Gallery | Summer 2019 Facility Upgrades Formerly known as A...

redstormsports.com

I don't know how many games are at the garden vs on campus.

Back when St John's was good, most of their games were at MSG

Now they don't want to play in an empty house

 

[willie99]

My section didn’t sit at all. Not once.

I saw nothing but an engaged and energetic crowd