Governor Malloy Won't Push For Costly XL Center Upgrades | Page 4 | The Boneyard

Governor Malloy Won't Push For Costly XL Center Upgrades

Drew said:
Found myself laughing by the end of this. So ridiculous that every single bullet point ends in a negative. Sad really but that's the state of Hartford/XL.

By the way- and I love UConn hockey- there's no way they didn't see the attendance drop coming. Look at the national average for college hockey. Combine it with UConn's struggles so far and that's what you're gonna get. Obviously the BC and ND types will draw well but they don't make up most of the schedule
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No real surprise to me, though, I wonder what are the numbers that they projected? Someone forgot that this is a college hockey team and even the good college hockey teams (BC, North Dakota, etc.) average about 5K a game. UConn is not an NHL team.

As for basketball, continued erratic play against our AAC conference mates will continue to depress attendance at least in comparison to the Big E days. That said, if the rumors are somehow true that UConn may join the XII, that could turn-around very quick.

Good news on the football front with respect to expanded parking to replace the areas to be lost due to the retail outlet.
 
Thinking it might be a while until we see a XL Center renovation after reading this:

State Budget Deficit Explodes This Year and Next

"New deficit numbers released Thursday are causing alarm among legislators as the state's budget deficit is now projected to hit $900 million next year.

The latest numbers say the deficit is $266 million for the current fiscal year and will get even worse next year. The numbers are based mainly on a bad performance of the January 15 estimated payments in the state income tax, which are made largely by small business owners, millionaires and billionaires.

The estimated payments, which make up about 20 percent of the overall state budget, are highly volatile and often depend on the performance of the stock market. But Republicanssaid the shortfall cannot be attributed only to the stock market but include wealthy residents who have moved out of the state.

"It's a very, very sad day and upsetting day here in Connecticut,'' said Senate Republican leader Len Fasano of North Haven. "Those are just incredible numbers. What's happening is really shocking.''"

http://www.courant.com/politics/hc-budget-deficit-rises-0226-20160225-story.html
 
Drew said:
Thinking it might be a while until we see a XL Center renovation after reading this:

State Budget Deficit Explodes This Year and Next

"New deficit numbers released Thursday are causing alarm among legislators as the state's budget deficit is now projected to hit $900 million next year.

The latest numbers say the deficit is $266 million for the current fiscal year and will get even worse next year. The numbers are based mainly on a bad performance of the January 15 estimated payments in the state income tax, which are made largely by small business owners, millionaires and billionaires.

The estimated payments, which make up about 20 percent of the overall state budget, are highly volatile and often depend on the performance of the stock market. But Republicanssaid the shortfall cannot be attributed only to the stock market but include wealthy residents who have moved out of the state.

"It's a very, very sad day and upsetting day here in Connecticut,'' said Senate Republican leader Len Fasano of North Haven. "Those are just incredible numbers. What's happening is really shocking.''"

http://www.courant.com/politics/hc-budget-deficit-rises-0226-20160225-story.html
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Malloy is worried his paycheck may bounce next week...
 
Thank you Malloy. But I guess we just need to get used to "the new normal".
 
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Who Ha said:
I understand the time is not right and the atmosphere in Storrs rocks. But the crowd was wild last night and it continued into the streets. I still maintain knock the XL down if we continue on the mid major path or find the financing if we are a P5 program
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Ah yes, another start of a string on how great Storrs is for BBall. You obviously we're not at the SMU game. Please no more of this. a $900 million projected budget deficit and going up, is not conducive to the pipe dream of a new , larger facility on campus.
 
Padutch5 said:
Ah yes, another start of a string on how great Storrs is for BBall. You obviously we're not at the SMU game. Please no more of this. a $900 million projected budget deficit and going up, is not conducive to the pipe dream of a new , larger facility on campus.
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The athletic department just announced a ticket surcharge of $1-$5 on every ticket sold for a UConn athletic event to fund facility upgrades on campus. The state has already been clear to UConn any faculty upgrades on campus are on them.
 
Padutch5 said:
Ah yes, another start of a string on how great Storrs is for BBall. You obviously we're not at the SMU game. Please no more of this. a $900 million projected budget deficit and going up, is not conducive to the pipe dream of a new , larger facility on campus.
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He wrote that after the SMU game... Which was played at XL... Clearly he was at the game. He was crediting the XL.
 
really my biggest issue with building a new XL is theres no major tenant to host anything in it. Its a chicken/egg conundrum. No new team will come without the facility and no facility should be built without a guarantee of a new team. So here we sit in purgatory
 
Drew said:
really my biggest issue with building a new XL is theres no major tenant to host anything in it. Its a chicken/egg conundrum. No new team will come without the facility and no facility should be built without a guarantee of a new team. So here we sit in purgatory
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Exactly. Ask Kansas City when their NHL team is going to start playing at the Sprint Center.
 
Drew said:
really my biggest issue with building a new XL is theres no major tenant to host anything in it. Its a chicken/egg conundrum. No new team will come without the facility and no facility should be built without a guarantee of a new team. So here we sit in purgatory
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Which is exactly my belief that UConn should build an on-campus facility for both hockey and basketball. It addresses a major issue for UConn, does not rely on Hartford nor the NHL to fix problems, and, while not the best solution, saves some money via a dual arena.
 
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MattMang23 said:
Exactly. Ask Kansas City when their NHL team is going to start playing at the Sprint Center.
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I'm a Hartford guy so I'm biased, but KC doesn't have UConn men's and women's hoops to play a significant number of games at their arena. Their arena also allows them to be considered as an NCAA tournament site. Look where the other top hoops programs play and it's clear UConn deserves that type of 18,000+ modern facility that would be suitable for major events and/or potential tenants.
 
HartbeatHusky said:
I'm a Hartford guy so I'm biased, but KC doesn't have UConn men's and women's hoops to play a significant number of games at their arena. Their arena also allows them to be considered as an NCAA tournament site. Look where the other top hoops programs play and it's clear UConn deserves that type of 18,000+ modern facility that would be suitable for major events and/or potential tenants.
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There really aren't many teams in large modern buildings, actually. I can really only think of Louisville (at least in cities in which the school doesn't also share the facility with a pro team). Most of the newer buildings are small, Gampel size, arenas. Most of the big buildings are older, from the 80s or older.

I want UConn to play in a first rate facility just because I want the best for UConn, but when you compare our place in the arms race, we really aren't far off.
 
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Yup let's isolate our basketball program to the least populated part of the state. #6thborough
 
MattMang23 said:
There really aren't many teams in large modern buildings, actually. I can really only think of Louisville (at least in cities in which the school doesn't also share the facility with a pro team). Most of the newer buildings are small, Gampel size, arenas. Most of the big buildings are older, from the 80s or older.

I want UConn to play in a first rate facility just because I want the best for UConn, but when you compare our place in the arms race, we really aren't far off.
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You are right that they are older but most have undergone recent upgrades. That's what the XL needs. Some programs that we like to compare UConn to:

UNC arena seats 21,000, Kentucky arena seats 23,500, Kansas arena seats 17,000, UofL arena seats 21,000, Ohio St. arena seats 18,800.
 
HartbeatHusky said:
I'm a Hartford guy so I'm biased, but KC doesn't have UConn men's and women's hoops to play a significant number of games at their arena. Their arena also allows them to be considered as an NCAA tournament site. Look where the other top hoops programs play and it's clear UConn deserves that type of 18,000+ modern facility that would be suitable for major events and/or potential tenants.
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I actually think Kansas City is a fairly accurate comparison for Hartford. Having been there last fall (as well as multiple other times when I lived in St Louis) I'll say that what separates KC and Hartford is something like the power and light district and the amount of youth living in/around the area. If Hartford was able to build a new arena in the Downtown North area by the baseball stadium and new apartments that attracted a young, large clientele it would be awesome for the city. Problem is Hartford is losing the ability to attract anyone let alone young people and the city is going to be almost a BILLION dollars in debt by the end of 2017. FWIW the College Basketball Hall of Fame is also attached to the arena in KC
 
Just like we would have to expand the rent to get into p5, im sure it will probably be a contractual requirement to upgrade the XL.

Oil tycoons and rich businessmen from TX and OK will probably not accept sitting in skyboxes 500 feet away from the action. NCAA/UConn/and whatever conference will want to maximize revenue. It's not happening @ current XL.

I'm sorry, sports are a business and I'm sure big wigs @ UConn care more about increasing revenue streams from sporting events than catering to students and fans of on-campus facilities. The XL needs drastic renovations to Bring in a major tenant like a power 5 conference

They just signed a 20 year LOI to stay in Hartford if the upgrades happen. Their spending 10 million to fix gampel roof.

Ticket surcharge made no mention of hockey barn. Only baseball, softball, soccer facilities. I'm sure it will be also used for on-campus barn, but it was not mentioned in articles I read.
 
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I've read somewhere that the KC arena has actually been a money maker even without a tenant. Too lazy to look it up.
 
I'd rather see a separate hockey barn rather than have them play in oversized BBall arena.
 
Hartford’s XL Center set to get $250M facelift | New York Post

This was posted in non-key tweets, but I thought it deserves discussion here.
I found out SCI is a wholly-owned subsidiary of BBB.

Yes, it's the NY post, but I'm intrigued by the: "talks have accelerated from private investors, sources said"

With the talks of CR with UConn, I could see some private investors actually being interested. We have to address the aging XL center in the near future no matter what happens. If private $ could take on even 1/2 of the renovation price tag, it will be much easier for the public to hop on board. It's a state owned building so I'm not sure how it will work. But, the public needs to support this. We may lose Aetna. We have to invest in our cities the right way. We lost GE because we care about our towns way more than our cities. The future generations want to live in cities and want stuff to do downtown. We're late to the party and it's showing. I think the ballpark and a renovated XL will help tremendously. Just without all the need for bribes and kickbacks. Please stay away centerplan
 
ct06111 said:
Hartford’s XL Center set to get $250M facelift | New York Post

This was posted in non-key tweets, but I thought it deserves discussion here.
I found out SCI is a wholly-owned subsidiary of BBB.

Yes, it's the NY post, but I'm intrigued by the: "talks have accelerated from private investors, sources said"

With the talks of CR with UConn, I could see some private investors actually being interested. We have to address the aging XL center in the near future no matter what happens. If private $ could take on even 1/2 of the renovation price tag, it will be much easier for the public to hop on board. It's a state owned building so I'm not sure how it will work. But, the public needs to support this. We may lose Aetna. We have to invest in our cities the right way. We lost GE because we care about our towns way more than our cities. The future generations want to live in cities and want stuff to do downtown. We're late to the party and it's showing. I think the ballpark and a renovated XL will help tremendously. Just without all the need for bribes and kickbacks. Please stay away centerplan
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I want to like this three times. Yes, this could be smoke regarding our conference affiliation future. In addition, spot-on discussion about improving the XL center specifically and changing the mindset about the importance of cities in 21st Century demography in general. Also, my wife works for Aetna and I do not want to move :)
 
History Geek said:
I want to like this three times. Yes, this could be smoke regarding our conference affiliation future. In addition, spot-on discussion about improving the XL center specifically and changing the mindset about the importance of cities in 21st Century demography in general. Also, my wife works for Aetna and I do not want to move :)
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Aetna is trying to have zero real estate. They have moved people home for years. Even if they 'move', the building will still have thousands of people in it and she can just work from home more often.
 
whaler11 said:
Aetna is trying to have zero real estate. They have moved people home for years. Even if they 'move', the building will still have thousands of people in it and she can just work from home more often.
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Actually, she is working from home a lot now, when she is not visiting clients. You are right about that.
 
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whaler11 said:
Aetna is trying to have zero real estate. They have moved people home for years. Even if they 'move', the building will still have thousands of people in it and she can just work from home more often.
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If they can pay their employees to sleep more than 7 hours, then they can pay the "real estate" and stay in Hartford.
 
ct06111 said:
If they can pay their employees to sleep more than 7 hours, then they can pay the "real estate" and stay in Hartford.
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Not quite sure the point you are trying to make.... the company started moving people home starting in about 2005-2006 - it certainly hasn't hurt the stock price....
 
Since Aetna really started moving people home - the stock is up 120% and they bought two of their six biggest competitors.
 
whaler11 said:
Not quite sure the point you are trying to make.... the company started moving people home starting in about 2005-2006 - it certainly hasn't hurt the stock price....
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All I'm trying to saying is; if they can pay their employees with a perk like sleeping for more than 7 hours a night, then they can pay to keep offices in Hartford . I don't work for them, so I have no idea how their daily operations work. I'm sure tons of work can be done from home, but don't leave Hartford where you've been for decades. Buildings are probably already paid for. I'm just being a homer and don't want more companies leaving Hartford for selfish reasons in which in reality, I'm sure their doing quite fine. I'm sick of the requirements of shareholders requiring 20 -30% profits each quarter at the expense of hard workers and a great city. Decades ago 5-10% each quarter was acceptable.
 
ct06111 said:
All I'm trying to saying is; if they can pay their employees with a perk like sleeping for more than 7 hours a night, then they can pay to keep offices in Hartford . I don't work for them, so I have no idea how their daily operations work. I'm sure tons of work can be done from home, but don't leave Hartford where you've been for decades. Buildings are probably already paid for. I'm just being a homer and don't want more companies leaving Hartford for selfish reasons in which in reality, I'm sure their doing quite fine. I'm sick of the requirements of shareholders requiring 20 -30% profits each quarter at the expense of hard workers and a great city. Decades ago 5-10% each quarter was acceptable.
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They wouldn't leave Hartford. They would move the headquarters.
 
ct06111 said:
If they can pay their employees to sleep more than 7 hours, then they can pay the "real estate" and stay in Hartford.
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ct06111 said:
All I'm trying to saying is; if they can pay their employees with a perk like sleeping for more than 7 hours a night, then they can pay to keep offices in Hartford .
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Help me understand the "if they can pay their employees to sleep more than 7 hours" and the "perk like sleeping for more than 7 hours a night" thought process? They should make them work longer hours?
 
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