Game Cancelled

[Adios]

Sure is amazing what a passionate fan base we've developed. But seriously, think of those who've been really hurt by the storm. Many people lost cars, houses, food, etc, etc, etc. More then a ticket's worth. Let's hope they play on Saturday or Sunday. We do need the game to get an "easy" start on progressing the new team.

 

[brasssbonanzaa]

Just a note to those wondering why rentschler was decided as the spot to set up the NG. First, it's one of the more open spots of land that is centrally located in the state, infrequently used, easily accessible 84, 91, 384, route 2, etc., and most importantly here, not close to the shoreline, thus reducing the chances that it will be flooded. While it is somewhat near the river, it's set back roughly two miles from it, so flooding would be more unlikely than a spot on the shoreline. The point of a NG post to distribute supplies to people isn't to locate that spot DIRECTLY where the affected people are, that means the spot itself is affected and could possibly not be usable. Based on the projection of this storm, it would've been a bad idea to use the Yale Bowl, because it was unclear how bad the storm surge would be, 95 could've been flooded, access up and down the coast could've very well been spotty at best, which it was. The lesson everyone in the country learned from Katrina was to plan, plan, plan, and plan some more. And in the case of Irene, by and large, that's what they did, and total disaster was avoided. Part of that plan was designating a place before the storm for the NG to set up a post and distribute supplies to people, a place that will likely not be hit as hard, won't be flooded, has lots of space, isn't frequently used, and has easy access to major roadways to get all over the state. The most logical place that fits all or most of those requirements is rentschler, and not some random non-descript warehouse somewhere. You can't just Monday morning quarterback this whole situation and say "oh, rentschler is nowhere near the devastated towns!" So you're suggesting they plan and decide where to move everyone after the storm has already hit? Great idea, that worked in New Orleans. You plan beforehand and make the most logical decision based on the forecast.

As for the need for all of this, there are still entire towns without power, and areas of the state that are still incredibly flooded, and people can't get out of their homes. Go look at the picture on the Courant's homepage, that's from today. This means the food in their refrigerator is likely no longer safe to eat, who knows if they have running water, phones, cell phone service, or if the grocery store in town is either open or even accessible. This is not a "hand out some bottles of water" operation. At the same time, it's not a major disaster such as Katrina, but it's not just some families who can't watch TV or get on the internet. This mentality that some people have on here that UConn football trumps every last thing in the world is sometimes so offsetting. The drive to make UConn into this southern football school that dominates the lives of everyone in the state, where it comes first before serving the general welfare of people who don't have power, phones, running water, or the ability to get to a grocery store - it's very unsettling. This ideal is not going to happen in Connecticut. UConn and Connecticut is not that kind of place. If you want that, go move to Louisiana. Surely they were all up in arms when their home opener was moved a few days in 2005. Probably was the end of the world since Baton Rouge is nowhere near the coast.

 

[UCHuskies08]

As long as the game happens, I'm okay with this. If it is completely canceled then this is an epic fail.

 

[Carl Spackler]

Agreed. IF/WHEN an announcement comes that the game is going to be played in a reasonable timeframe at the Stadium, then it's all over.

I didn't have any problem when I got the news that the game was cancelled becuase of national guard hurricane relief operations. I thought to myself that it makes sense.

My problems started after that. When I found out that the game was cancelled with apparently no plans or discussion in place about rescheduling. In my book, simply from a political standpoint, you don't just shut down an event with the revenue stream involved around it, the size of a UConn football game on such short notice without some kind of contingency in place already to reschedule. There are too many people's pay checks, organizations entire budgets (i guarantee taht Fordham's athletic budget is very much interested in this game) involved. To the best of what I can determine, the decision to shut down the game was made, with pretty much no thought of getting it played at another time. The game wasn't scheduled to be broadcast on national TV - luckily. Maybe that was a big part of the decision, but I'd bet that a local CT business, the size of ESPN, that would have a big interest in that game being on live TV as expected had it been another scenario - maybe this decision doesn't happen this way.

Next, I find out that the operation involved consists of 100 soldiers occupying the stadium grounds and trucks moving in and out. This is where the question marks really start, and they've been reviewed in depth in the past 24 hours.

Nobody's really asked an important question, so I will.

Where are the rest of 4,900 or so Army guard and Airwing soldiers and what are they doing?

They're clearly not at Rentschler at a centrally located, very suitable staging area for emergency infrastructure support operations state wide.

 

[UConn4ever]

Agreed. IF/WHEN an announcement comes that the game is going to be played in a reasonable timeframe at the Stadium, then it's all over.

I didn't have any problem when I got the news that the game was cancelled becuase of national guard hurricane relief operations. I thought to myself that it makes sense.

My problems started after that. When I found out that the game was cancelled with apparently no plans or discussion in place about rescheduling. In my book, simply from a political standpoint, you don't just shut down an event with the revenue stream involved around it, the size of a UConn football game on such short notice without some kind of contingency in place already to reschedule. There are too many people's pay checks, organizations entire budgets (i guarantee taht Fordham's athletic budget is very much interested in this game) involved. To the best of what I can determine, the decision to shut down the game was made, with pretty much no thought of getting it played at another time. The game wasn't scheduled to be broadcast on national TV - luckily. Maybe that was a big part of the decision, but I'd bet that a local CT business, the size of ESPN, that would have a big interest in that game being on live TV as expected had it been another scenario - maybe this decision doesn't happen this way.

Next, I find out that the operation involved consists of 100 soldiers occupying the stadium grounds and trucks moving in and out. This is where the question marks really start, and they've been reviewed in depth in the past 24 hours.

Nobody's really asked an important question, so I will.

Where are the rest of 4,900 or so Army guard and Airwing soldiers and what are they doing?

They're clearly not at Rentschler at a centrally located, very suitable staging area for emergency infrastructure support operations state wide.

There probably on leave

 

[brasssbonanzaa]

I will agree that there should've been some foresight about what would happen if the game couldn't be played, or hell, if the storm damaged the stadium. That doesn't fall on the planners to use Rentschler as the staging ground, but on the department for not thinking ahead as much, and potentially even rescheduling the game to Saturday or Sunday in advance of the storm. Boo hoo if you're going to Cape Cod for the weekend. Compare that inconvenience to those whose towns are under water and have no food. If the game is played this weekend sometime, this is a non-issue and the correct decision was made.

 

[Husky68]

Seems like lot of space and cops can set up direct routes in and out for support work. Have everyone park close together and no tailgating room, or buses or something that would free up more than enough space for 100 soldiers and supplies. It took me 20 minutes to walk from the parking to game, there is a lot of space there. The game wouldn't be until Saturday, that is a lot of planning time. Also, expect lot of fans wouldn't be going so how big is the parking need anyway.

 

[uconnbill]

+1

This game has to happen otherwise it looks bad for the state of Connecticut.

As long as the game happens, I'm okay with this. If it is completely canceled then this is an epic fail.

 

[minidarren]

Fenway should be shut down. For different reasons though.

Please. This is beyond idiotic. NJ was hit harder than CT and somehow Giants Stadium isn't shut down, nor is Fenway, Citi Field or others.

This idea that this is a higher purpose is lunacy. Just simple coordination. I agree, another failure of many from Malloy.

Leas

 

[Jax Husky]

Seems like lot of space and cops can set up direct routes in and out for support work. Have everyone park close together and no tailgating room, or buses or something that would free up more than enough space for 100 soldiers and supplies. It took me 20 minutes to walk from the parking to game, there is a lot of space there. The game wouldn't be until Saturday, that is a lot of planning time. Also, expect lot of fans wouldn't be going so how big is the parking need anyway.

You don't think that 30+K fans coming in and out would disrupt the NG? Really? It isn't about parking either. It is about being able to get in and out of these areas without severe congestion.

 

[Excalibur]

I think this is a super appropriate place to debate the fundamental role of government's place in its citizens' lives.

Post of the day

 

[brasssbonanzaa]

Fenway should be shut down. For different reasons though.

I was wondering whether someone (not you, the poster you quoted) would moronically ask why Fenway wasn't closed. I live about four blocks from Fenway, we never lost power once, the storm damage in the city of Boston was very, very minimal. By about 3:00 PM, there was no more rain, just some weak breezes, which is common here, this being the windiest city in the country. No flooding, a tree or two down, some branches and leaves on the ground, but other than that, absolutely nothing. People were out jogging and everything was open by mid-afternoon. The only reason anything remained closed was because the T was pre-emptively shut down for the entire day, so employees couldn't get places. Most people here thought this was an overhyped media creation and nothing really happened.

Of course, that's not to mention that Fenway would probably be the single worst place in the city to set up a National Guard post to distribute supplies, seeing how it's surrounded by one lane roads that mostly go nowhere important, is not accessible to 90, 93, or Storrow Drive, and has about 10,000 traffic lights within a five minute walk, so anybody trying to get in and out of there would be stuck for hours.

 

[TJ Madison]

Well, if we're going to get political, then let's say this ... At least our guardsmen are here helping the Citizens of CT instead of being in Iraq or Afghanistan.

 

[Husky68]

You don't think that 30+K fans coming in and out would disrupt the NG? Really? It isn't about parking either. It is about being able to get in and out of these areas without severe congestion.

You telling me with all the high IQ guys in government they can't figure out how to set up a zillion acre field with many exits and entrances to facilitate 6 hours of conflict with some parking and entry exit. With an announcement that no tailgating, people must have 4 in a car to get in, buses available from points ; this couldn't be figured out. How much stuff is there and how much traffic in and out with these supplies? I don't know that, but boy if our national guard leaders can't figure this out, wow. And you don't think 300,000 homes without electricity still and all the fixing up and repairs to be done on houses won't keep an unscheduled Saturday game against Fordham down below 30,000. If true I say expand now.

 

[HuskyNan]

Here are some facts:

The National Guard can't use the Hartford Armory as it's being used as the state's CT Emergency Operation Center.

Here's why Rentschler Field won't be available on Thursday (article):

[Gov.] Malloy said 92,160 liter bottles of water and 21,300 meals were delivered to a staging area at Rentschler Field in East Hartford, and the supplies were then transferred to 37 towns. On Wednesday, 12 tractor trailers carrying water and 15 with food will arrive at Rentschler.
The UConn football game Thursday night at Rentschler is expected to be postponed until Saturday.

 

[Carl Spackler]

According to that article, and that's why I love HuskyNan, for links just like that, everything that came in to the facility as of Tuesday - was already out, and that consisted of 96k liter water bottles, and 22k meals, sounds like a lot, but it's not, that probably was less than 10 trucks worth of supplies and regardless - it was out.

So today, 27 trucks are arriving, for unpacking, sorting and distribution, of water and prepped meals, with approximately 40 or so towns requiring pickup/delivery. By a 100 soldiers with equipment and lots of experience doing stuff like that.

They need the entire facility and grounds of Rentschler to do it.

I just really hope the game gets rescheduled quickly. Let the dust settle later. Cancelling this thing the way it was done, for the reasons given, with no rescheduling in place, is a mess. I read this a little while ago.

http://thequad.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/08/31/uconn-fordham-game-is-postponed/

A completely factual report of the events as they're going on, as it looks from the outside, it appears taht the state is doing something organized and important on a large scale, as was my first thought upon hearing the game was cancelled, and it wasn't postponed, it was cancelled, postponed - means that you know your'e going to play the game in the future.

But the reality of the situation is so much different.

Politics and politicians.

 

[Chief00]

So The Rent is uniquely indispensable to the disaster relief Thursday night but is irrelevant Saturday morning - there are no projections of people getting their power back on Friday to support this nonsense.
Business Lawyer I am not anti government just anti the way this fiasco has been handled. And yes I thought Katrina was handled poorly, especially in New Orleans. Get your head out of the sand - all levels of government failed there - the Mayor did not use the available buses for peeps to get to safty, etc.

 

[HuskyNan]

So The Rent is uniquely indispensable to the disaster relief Thursday night but is irrelevant Saturday morning - there are no projections of people getting their power back on Friday to support this nonsense.

Maybe by Saturday there will be an alternate distribution center set up, one closer to the areas of need? But I tend to be an optimist, thinking well of people rather than assuming everyone else (but me, of course) is disorganized, badly motivated and hapless.

 

[businesslawyer]

Of course the government failed in katrina. That is why government needs to be given far more slack to make sure they are overprepared for natural disasters, which is what the State is doing.

What is your first point -- that relief efforts can't be wound down at some point? You don't care that it looks like you're just trying to save face?

The State said "not yet" to a facility that it was using for disaster relief for Thursday evening on Tuesday and decided a day later that Saturday morning would be fine. You have to be beyond paranoid to be finding things suspicious in this.

 

[rich1122]

This is a state-owned public facility. It's owned by all of us and all of us deserve to use it in emergencies. No brainer to use it, as opposed to other sites, for this type of thing. Happens once every 25 years. We will get over it. It's only a football game.

 

[rich1122]

We should blame this whole thing on?

A) Global Warming
B) Bush
C) The Tea Party
D) Oswald
E) The guy on the grassy knoll.
G)) Aliens
H) Big Bang Theory
I) Malloy
J) Edsall
K) Hathaway

 

[CTMike]

We should blame this whole thing on?

A) Global Warming
B) Bush
C) The Tea Party
D) Oswald
E) The guy on the grassy knoll.
G)) Aliens
H) Big Bang Theory
I) Malloy

Couldn't find room for Edsall/Hathaway in that list?

 

[FfldCntyFan]

I'm really stunned at some of the responses I've seen here and a few other places. To save typing I'm copying a response that I sent into the Courant (on Dez' bog piece on 100 National Guard on duty):


The thing is there are 'Big Time' programs in the southeast who have postponed games on the threat of a hurricane that ended up doing little damage. Their 'Big Time' fans accept this without complaint (that it cost them a weekend or screwed up their plans) and attend the game (80k - 100k strong) at its new date.

Nobody is a bigger college football fan than I am (going back decades before the idea of UConn becoming a major player was even a pipe dream) and nobody is a bigger fan of any school than I am of my alma mater. With this, the past weekend made it very clear how insignificant playing Fordham on its intially scheduled Thursday evening is. I was very fortunate to have only lost power (for ~70 hours) save a generator keeping my fridge running. The inconvenience of having to eat every meal out, not shaving for four days, having no television or internet until this morning and likely needing a couple of days to get things fully reorganized is nothing compared to what some went through. If added to this is the minor inconvenience of the game being postponed for a couple of days, the total inconvenience is still minor.

If we are really this upset by the inconvenience of postponing this game (in order to ease the national guard's effort in providing some relief) the last thing we can do is claim that we are a big time fan base.

 

[businesslawyer]

Well said FCF. See you in Section 241 Saturday.

 

[CTMike]

FfldCntyFan... just wanted to say, awesome avatar.