Future of the XL Center as a Home Site

[MrSec238]

What are everyones thoughts on the article that came out today where Maric is threatening to pull out of the XL Center to combat the budget cuts.

Could be a very interesting situation about to unfold.

Breaking News: President Maric claims UConn may receive an estimated $160 million budget cut for next fiscal year in Lamont’s new budget proposal

Governor Ned Lamont is expected to include a budget cut estimated to be $160 million to the University of Connecticut's FY24 funding and an estimated $200 million cut to UConn’s FY25 funding in his annual state budget proposal to be announced Wednesday at noon, according to UConn President...

dailycampus.com

 

[uconnric]

Doubt it would happen, an agreement will be worked out. Give her credit for standing up to the budget cuts. She seems to be at every Hartford game.

 

[navery12]

 

[1999GoodSon]

Not everything is a dollar. In spite of the XLs obvious deficiencies, having the Huskies in Hartford is a godsend for fans that work late, can't get up to Storrs often, seating capacity etc. Plus it's long tradition.
Let's talk turkey. Our boys are big business, and a king's ransom is thrown at our athletic programs. The real issue to be hammered out is how do we find a middle ground that keeps the program in Hartford long term.

 

[Gburyhusky]

I've always assumed that there was an unstated understanding involved in all of this between the University and the State. UConn is allowed to run athletics at a significant deficit without alot of complaints or scrutinty from the politicians. In exchange, UConn basketball is expected to be an economic contributor to the downtown Hartford stakeholders (mainly restaurants, bars and parking magnates). I don't see this dynamic really changing that much.

 

[shizzle787]

Horrible idea. Alienating half the fan base and capping the number of people who can go to games is not going to work out.

 

[CL82]

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.

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.

 

[CTBasketball]

So Maric is telling the world she’s upset with the $160M budget cuts, so she’s going to war saying “we’re pulling out of Hartford to save $4M.” 2.5% of the budget cut. Meanwhile, UConn invested a lot of money in the grad school & law school in Hartford.

She might be the dumbest person in this entire state. Yes the deal needs to be renegotiated but I don’t know why she’d send out a nuke during the opening statements.

 

[Hurleyman216]

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.

 

[gampelcrazies]

Good time to pull out and put some pressure on the state. XL needs to give UConn a fair deal and needs to renovate. If they fail to do both good bye!

 

[CL82]

So Maric is telling the world she’s upset with the $160M budget cuts, so she’s going to war saying “we’re pulling out of Hartford to save $4M.” 2.5% of the budget cut. Meanwhile, UConn invested a lot of money in the grad school & law school in Hartford.

She might be the dumbest person in this entire state. Yes the deal needs to be renegotiated but I don’t know why she’d send out a nuke during the opening statements.

If you know her résumé, you know she’s certainly not dumb. Talking about the loss of revenue from playing in Hartford isn’t particularly dumb, either. In fact, I would argue it’s long overdue. I do agree, however, that she was a little inelegant in the way she brought it up.

 

[surf1729]

She might be the dumbest person in this entire state. Yes the deal needs to be renegotiated but I don’t know why she’d send out a nuke during the opening statements.

No, that would be the person that originally signed a pay to play off campus arena contract and as an added bonus said go ahead and keep the concession sales as well.

 

[ConnHuskBask]

So Maric is telling the world she’s upset with the $160M budget cuts, so she’s going to war saying “we’re pulling out of Hartford to save $4M.” 2.5% of the budget cut. Meanwhile, UConn invested a lot of money in the grad school & law school in Hartford.

She might be the dumbest person in this entire state. Yes the deal needs to be renegotiated but I don’t know why she’d send out a nuke during the opening statements.

A total clown show in Storrs as per usual.

 

[Hungryhusky99]

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.

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

 

[wheelerdog]

. 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 Gamp

This is absolutely spot on.

 

[wheelerdog]

If you know her résumé, you know she’s certainly not dumb. Talking about the loss of revenue from playing in Hartford isn’t particularly dumb, either. In fact, I would argue it’s long overdue. I do agree, however, that she was a little inelegant in the way she brought it up.

Subtle hasn't worked up until now. I like her approach

 

[BIIIG]

Horrible idea. Alienating half the fan base and capping the number of people who can go to games is not going to work out.

"alienating" you mean, having the college team play...at their college? Adding 30 minutes to your drive is not alienating...what is alienating is having half the games 30minutes off campus where the majority of students don't have cars.

 

[MoeLittle66]

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.

If you were at both games then you would be able to see the difference in the games themselves? Seems like you're just desperate to make a point that XL center crowds suck

 

[upstater]

I've always assumed that there was an unstated understanding involved in all of this between the University and the State. UConn is allowed to run athletics at a significant deficit without alot of complaints or scrutinty from the politicians. In exchange, UConn basketball is expected to be an economic contributor to the downtown Hartford stakeholders (mainly restaurants, bars and parking magnates). I don't see this dynamic really changing that much.

I'm trying to understand the logic of this.

Why wouldn't they be allowed to run a deficit?

If they weren't allowed, they'd slash funding to athletics which would destroy athletics.

So, it's a hollow threat.

The money is coming out of the university budget.

So, fine, it's subsidized by the state. But the state already sends one of the lowest higher ed. subsidies in the entire nation. UConn is in the bottom quintile and apparently getting worse when it comes to receiving state funding.

I think the President is putting her career on the line, but on the other hand, she'll have a crap job if this cut goes through. It's a massive cut for an academic budget; only a little bit of that budget is fungible. There will absolutely be a deterioration in the quality of education, and there will be a massive tuition increase as well. There is no other way around it.

This is a 10% budget cut. Massive. She won't be able to find the savings no matter how many administrators she fires, no matter how many programs she shutters, no matter how long a hiring freeze is instituted.

 

[upstater]

So Maric is telling the world she’s upset with the $160M budget cuts, so she’s going to war saying “we’re pulling out of Hartford to save $4M.” 2.5% of the budget cut. Meanwhile, UConn invested a lot of money in the grad school & law school in Hartford.

She might be the dumbest person in this entire state. Yes the deal needs to be renegotiated but I don’t know why she’d send out a nuke during the opening statements.

She's sending out a nuke because this is mutually assured destruction. In case you didn't notice, UConn just fired a President a little while ago who was barely even in the job, and it too was over budget cuts. So here we have a state university whose presidents are repeatedly stepping out of line, which is something these people almost never do because they like making $1m a year.

Why do you think people making that amount for the first time in their lives are doing this?

Could it be something is really really wrong and that they've considered the ramifications of what they're doing and they've determined they HAVE to do it or else they're not doing their jobs?

Some Presidents take the cowardly road and continue to collect their checks.

 

[RC111]

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.

Projecting much, are we? My wife works 12 hour shifts at her hospital job, and we find it a thousand times easier to make it to XL because of her schedule, and we both stand and cheer as much if not more than you.

I will contend that the same fans who deride people based on their income and time constraints are the same fans that don't bother to donate to the university in general or athletics in specific, thinking their few hundred dollars in tickets fees will magically fund the department's ballooning deficit while also buying brand new on-campus arenas and stadiums.

 

[CTBasketball]

She's sending out a nuke because this is mutually assured destruction. In case you didn't notice, UConn just fired a President a little while ago who was barely even in the job, and it too was over budget cuts. So here we have a state university whose presidents are repeatedly stepping out of line, which is something these people almost never do because they like making $1m a year.

Why do you think people making that amount for the first time in their lives are doing this?

Could it be something is really really wrong and that they've considered the ramifications of what they're doing and they've determined they HAVE to do it or else they're not doing their jobs?

Some Presidents take the cowardly road and continue to collect their checks.

She’s trying to play hardball but she doesn’t know how.

 

[RC111]

"alienating" you mean, having the college team play...at their college? Adding 30 minutes to your drive is not alienating...what is alienating is having half the games 30minutes off campus where the majority of students don't have cars.

My parents live in Eastford, 15 minutes from campus. They and 2000 others. How do you think those Storrs crowds are filling Gampel? Because it isn't Eastford, Coventry, or Tolland alone. You may not like it, but most of the state's population is west and south of Storrs, and it makes sense to have a handful of games be more accessible.

 

[zls44]

For games at the XL Center and Rentschler Field, UConn doesn’t get money from suites or food or beer or parking AND pays rent, but people wonder why they have a deficit.


How would you propose they make more money? Magic??? That’s the venues for 70% of UConn football/MBB/WBB/men’s hockey where they make nothing while paying for the privilege! The math doesn’t work because IT CANT!

 

[How Sway?!]

Cutting UConns budget seems counter productive to me. It has proven time and time again that investment in higher education has some of the best ROI. If anything we should be increasing the schools budget, along with CSU.

 

[RC111]

For games at the XL Center and Rentschler Field, UConn doesn’t get money from suites or food or beer or parking AND pays rent, but people wonder why they have a deficit.


How would you propose they make more money? Magic??? That’s the venues for 70% of UConn football/MBB/WBB/men’s hockey where they make nothing while paying for the privilege! The math doesn’t work because IT CANT!

That's a different issue. I'm not defending paying to play or giving up money rights to play in Hartford. I'm saying that playing a handful of basketball games in the city is not an inherently bad thing. And I'm tired of being pigeon-holed as a lousy (choice word edited out) fan because my schedule makes it easier to go to Hartford than Storrs (which we also do for soccer and basketball a few times a year).

 

[Chin Diesel]

For games at the XL Center and Rentschler Field, UConn doesn’t get money from suites or food or beer or parking AND pays rent, but people wonder why they have a deficit.


How would you propose they make more money? Magic??? That’s the venues for 70% of UConn football/MBB/WBB/men’s hockey where they make nothing while paying for the privilege! The math doesn’t work because IT CANT!

If she can accomplish getting the "accounting" rules or intra state transfer of funds more amicable to UConn, that would be a win.

Right now every number for revenue is meant to minimize a benefit to UConn and every expense it made to make it look worst for UConn.

 

[Kolumbo]

Good for Maric. I don't care about the way her message is received. She is European and English is like her 2nd or 4th language. She shoots from the hip.

 

[Hurleyman216]

If you were at both games then you would be able to see the difference in the games themselves? Seems like you're just desperate to make a point that XL center crowds suck

Nope…you can make the argument that last night was the most important game of the year for us. The crowd last night wasn’t half as good as the Nova game, so I’m not just blaming the XL. I think it has more to do with the type of fan that shows up at a weeknight game in Hartford.

 

[HuskyAlum012]

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.

Will admit I was not at the game last night but the roar from the crowd on TV sounded fantastic... was that not the case in person? The roars were giving me goosebumps this morning watching the highlights... Will caveat that by saying the first half sounded fantastic and the second half not as good but thats obviously due to the situation of what was occuring in the game. Blowing out a team at home while fantastic, doesnt allude to the most raucous of crowds.