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Hartford > Gampel

huskymedic said:
Close on your math for Gampel the last couple of games as well per Mike Anthony this morning:

-> The announced crowd Saturday at Gampel Pavilion was 10,167, the second consecutive sellout in a building that the UConn men’s basketball team has used as a stage to rip through a little portion of the schedule that it needed to…

…There were actually just 6,790 fans in attendance Wednesday for the Seton Hall game. That’s the number of tickets scanned for entry. There were 7,608 fans in attendance Saturday.<-
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Have to say it looked like more on TV.
 
HooperScooper said:
Seemed the place was full. Anyone at the game yesterday want to comment on that statement that Gampel was only 75% full on Saturday?
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Maybe that number doesn’t include students since they don’t pay for tickets? Also, I don’t think the true capacity is 10,167 now that one of the corners they use for the press

Looked very full, for Xavier, and the prices on the secondary market make it seem unlikely there were that many no shows. Seton hall looked much further from a true sell out, but still that number seems low
 
AntG168 said:
Screenshot_20220221-000840_Gallery.jpg

It wasn’t that packed before tip. I was there.
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Yeah, not packed at all.
 
Mike Anthony just wrote an article regarding the XL center lease today and from the summary, it looks like the AD provides some thoughts. It is behind a paywall so maybe someone with access can post a summary?
 
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Big Loubowski said:
Mike Anthony just wrote an article regarding the XL center lease today and from the summary, it looks like the AD provides some thoughts. It is behind a paywall so maybe someone with access can post a summary?
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Most enlightening quotes are here:

“We’re part of the state, and we’re the flagship of the state,” athletic director David Benedict said. “So there is certainly an appreciation for how we are helping the state and a lot of people in downtown Hartford by playing there. … I’m not sure that it necessarily helps UConn athletics or UConn basketball as much as it does a lot of other entities.”

UConn pays a per-game rent of $40,500 for men’s and women’s basketball and $20,500 for men’s hockey, plus $20,000-$30,000 in facilities fees for each event. The CRDA also collects a $3 surcharge per basketball ticket (up to 12,450 tickets) and a $2 surcharge per ticket for hockey tickets (up to 4,600)

Benedict said attendance must be “well north” of 10,000 for UConn to avoid operating at a loss at the XL Center on a given night. And by playing in Hartford, revenue potential built into events at Gampel is sacrificed. UConn takes no money from XL concessions or parking. It does control sponsorship signage revenue for Hartford games, but not suite or loge seating. Cost and lost opportunity adds up to several millions of dollars, annually.

“There is a comfort level with Gampel that you don’t have with XL,” Benedict said. “And then you add the fact that, aesthetically, it’s not necessarily exciting for our kids to play down there. A lot of Big East members play in off-site facilities, so this isn’t necessarily unusual. But look at those facilities. Most of them are NBA or NBA-like facilities. Everybody knows, factually speaking, the building is old and it needs a major renovation. There’s nothing necessarily about that building that is a pro right now for anybody, whether it’s our student-athletes and the amenities they have there, or our fans.”
 
BleedHuskyBlu said:


I’m fine with both XL and Gampel to be fair but Jon Rothstein really has been entrenched in this debate and just crapping all over the XL center. Has to have been asked to do this by UConn staff because there is no way he cares about this issue that much to continue to bring it up.
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Rothstein has never had a problem continually voicing his niche opinions on twitter. Guy is a fiend for this stuff. He definitely cares this much. Look how often he tweets about Temple (probably the 6th best basketball program in the AAC currently) going back to the A10.
 
I have season tickets to XL. I have no problem with the games being split half and half -XL Center much more easily accessible for most of us in the Hartford Area 10-20 minute drive max - parking pretty easy- All my buddies are in our 30s and 40s with families and still cheer super hard -not like the stuffy white suits in the lower sections - even though hartford is not what it used to be for bars and restaurants - And as far as pregaming is concerned Hartford way better —we went to the Seton Hall game last week in gampel -Bidwell Tavern was mobbed and forget about going to Ted’s , if you’re not there three hours early you’re not getting in. no place else to really pregame up there— I’m fine with the split- tomorrow XL will be rocking— the providence game was insane but the crowd just never had a chance to fully explode because we played like crap. Magine if this nova game was a 6 PM Saturday night game at XL? Hartford wud be nuts. Remember also a lot of uconn fans fell off the map after last title / move to the AAC ollie years / we’re just starting to get the electricity back —providence was a chance we fumbled , let’s not mess up tomorrow —unfortunately we’re gonna need those casual fans to make things pop in the future.
Ps: If you want to pregame tomorrow probably gonna have to get to the Tavern at 5:30 LOL
 
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JB75 said:
I have season tickets to XL. I have no problem with the games being split half and half -XL Center much more easily accessible for most of us in the Hartford Area 10-20 minute drive max - parking pretty easy- All my buddies are in our 30s and 40s with families and still cheer super hard -not like the stuffy white suits in the lower sections - even though hartford is not what it used to be for bars and restaurants - And as far as pregaming is concerned Hartford way better we went to the Seton Hall game last week in gampel -Bidwell Tavern was mobbed and forget about going to Ted’s if you’re not there three hours early you’re not getting in. no place else to really pregame up there— I’m fine with the split tomorrow XL will be rocking— the providence game was insane but the crowd just never had a chance to fully explode because we played like crap. Magine if this nova game was a 6 PM Saturday night game at XL? Hartford wud be nuts. Remember also a lot of uconn fans fell off the map after last title / move to the AAC ollie years / we’re just starting to get the electricity back —providence was a chance we fumbled let’s not mess up tomorrow unfortunately we’re gonna need those casual fans to make things pop in the future.
Ps: If you want to pregame tomorrow probably gonna have to get the Tavern at 5:30 LOL
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UConn is not Hartford’s team. I live 40min from Hartford and 1hr from Gampel. The extra 20 minutes should not be an issue. We act as if Gampel is in another state. If any of my friends from out west or Texas seen UConn fans complain about a 40-60 minute commute the view of our fanbase would change drastically. People in Texas drive an Hr to church every week lol. It’s not the treacherous commute UConn fans make it out to be.
 
AntG168 said:
UConn is not Hartford’s team. I live 40min from Hartford and 1hr from Gampel. The extra 20 minutes should not be an issue. We act as if Gampel is in another state. If any of my friends from out west or Texas seen UConn fans complain about a 40-60 minute commute the view of our fanbase would change drastically. People in Texas drive an Hr to church every week lol. It’s not the treacherous commute UConn fans make it out to be.
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Right and I agree that most games should be in Gampel, going into Hartford isn’t exactly like going into Baghdad.
 
navery12 said:
Most enlightening quotes are here:

“We’re part of the state, and we’re the flagship of the state,” athletic director David Benedict said. “So there is certainly an appreciation for how we are helping the state and a lot of people in downtown Hartford by playing there. … I’m not sure that it necessarily helps UConn athletics or UConn basketball as much as it does a lot of other entities.”

UConn pays a per-game rent of $40,500 for men’s and women’s basketball and $20,500 for men’s hockey, plus $20,000-$30,000 in facilities fees for each event. The CRDA also collects a $3 surcharge per basketball ticket (up to 12,450 tickets) and a $2 surcharge per ticket for hockey tickets (up to 4,600)

Benedict said attendance must be “well north” of 10,000 for UConn to avoid operating at a loss at the XL Center on a given night. And by playing in Hartford, revenue potential built into events at Gampel is sacrificed. UConn takes no money from XL concessions or parking. It does control sponsorship signage revenue for Hartford games, but not suite or loge seating. Cost and lost opportunity adds up to several millions of dollars, annually.

“There is a comfort level with Gampel that you don’t have with XL,” Benedict said. “And then you add the fact that, aesthetically, it’s not necessarily exciting for our kids to play down there. A lot of Big East members play in off-site facilities, so this isn’t necessarily unusual. But look at those facilities. Most of them are NBA or NBA-like facilities. Everybody knows, factually speaking, the building is old and it needs a major renovation. There’s nothing necessarily about that building that is a pro right now for anybody, whether it’s our student-athletes and the amenities they have there, or our fans.”
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Thanks for posting this. I would hope that the AD is leveraging the poor condition of the facility not for reduced rent in a new lease but for a major upgrade/renovation to the building. With all this recent debate, one would think that at least one of the journalists would ask the politicians where that stands.
 
Scoe said:
Right and going into Hartford isn’t exactly like going into Baghdad.
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We are spoiled. We’re talking about the extra 20min like that’s not just 4 meek mill songs and I’m there. It’s preposterous lol
 
AntG168 said:
We are spoiled. We’re talking about the extra 20min like that’s not just 4 meek mill songs and I’m there. It’s preposterous lol
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It's a lot more than 20 minutes even if you speed.
 
Waquoit said:
It's a lot more than 20 minutes even if you speed.
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It’s not. Hartford is 45 minutes from where I live. Gampel is 1hr and 2min. It’s a decent 20 minute difference
 
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KSC94 said:
Rothstein has never had a problem continually voicing his niche opinions on twitter. Guy is a fiend for this stuff. He definitely cares this much. Look how often he tweets about Temple (probably the 6th best basketball program in the AAC currently) going back to the A10.
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This is rothstein talking to Hurley.
 
The notion that there were ~7,500 people at the game on Saturday is patently absurd. Like others here, I was there and it's just wrong. Would love to know more from MA if the quote he got only pertained to scanned tickets or actual butts in seats. For instance - do all students get a barcode scanned when they enter? If not, are they included in that 7,500 number? Similarly, does it account for guests, player tickets, comped tickets? Does it account for barcode scanner malfunctions? I saw the latter happen on my way in. I'd hazard a guess that the number he quoted does not include all students.

That said, it'd seem the most reasonable proposal for a home site split would be:
  • All winter break games at XL
  • One early-season cupcake at XL, perhaps on a weekend or over Thanksgiving break
  • One good spring session conference game at XL, preferably a weekend
  • All other home games at Gampel

Using this year's schedule, that'd come out to:
CCSU - GP
Coppin - GP
LIU - GP
Binghamton - XL
MD-ES - GP
Grambling - GP
PC - XL
Butler (in its original scheduled slot) - XL
SJU - XL
GT - GP
CU - GP
MU - GP
SHU - GP
XU - XL
VU - GP
DeP - GP
 
navery12 said:
Most enlightening quotes are here:

“We’re part of the state, and we’re the flagship of the state,” athletic director David Benedict said. “So there is certainly an appreciation for how we are helping the state and a lot of people in downtown Hartford by playing there. … I’m not sure that it necessarily helps UConn athletics or UConn basketball as much as it does a lot of other entities.”

UConn pays a per-game rent of $40,500 for men’s and women’s basketball and $20,500 for men’s hockey, plus $20,000-$30,000 in facilities fees for each event. The CRDA also collects a $3 surcharge per basketball ticket (up to 12,450 tickets) and a $2 surcharge per ticket for hockey tickets (up to 4,600)

Benedict said attendance must be “well north” of 10,000 for UConn to avoid operating at a loss at the XL Center on a given night. And by playing in Hartford, revenue potential built into events at Gampel is sacrificed. UConn takes no money from XL concessions or parking. It does control sponsorship signage revenue for Hartford games, but not suite or loge seating. Cost and lost opportunity adds up to several millions of dollars, annually.

“There is a comfort level with Gampel that you don’t have with XL,” Benedict said. “And then you add the fact that, aesthetically, it’s not necessarily exciting for our kids to play down there. A lot of Big East members play in off-site facilities, so this isn’t necessarily unusual. But look at those facilities. Most of them are NBA or NBA-like facilities. Everybody knows, factually speaking, the building is old and it needs a major renovation. There’s nothing necessarily about that building that is a pro right now for anybody, whether it’s our student-athletes and the amenities they have there, or our fans.”
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If the state really had an appreciation for what UConn sacrifices to play at their crappy arena, then we should at least be collecting on concessions and parking. They also need to get rid of the ridiculous fees. UConn has the leverage here. If the state wants to continue pimping out our athletics for the sake of downtown Hartford business owners, then we need to tell either we cut the fees and give us concession money, or we play every game at Gampel and they can suck it. We owe them absolutely nothing.

I'm so tired of UConn basketball always getting the short end of the stick on everything.
 
Folks thinking that moving all the games to Storrs will cut costs while maintaining the same level of fan and financial support are dreaming.
 
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Waquoit said:
Folks thinking that moving all the games to Storrs will cut costs while maintaining the same level of fan and financial support are dreaming.
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You've said this enough times that I have to ask, would you really stop going to games if they only played at Gampel?
 
navery12 said:
You've said this enough times that I have to ask, would you really stop going to games if they only played at Gampel?
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More importantly does he actually believe that all the commentary from people who actually have access to the data is wrong?
 
navery12 said:
You've said this enough times that I have to ask, would you really stop going to games if they only played at Gampel?
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Plenty of people would stop having season tickets and going to games if they were all in Gampl.
 
brasssbonanzaa said:
The notion that there were ~7,500 people at the game on Saturday is patently absurd. Like others here, I was there and it's just wrong. Would love to know more from MA if the quote he got only pertained to scanned tickets or actual butts in seats. For instance - do all students get a barcode scanned when they enter? If not, are they included in that 7,500 number? Similarly, does it account for guests, player tickets, comped tickets? Does it account for barcode scanner malfunctions? I saw the latter happen on my way in. I'd hazard a guess that the number he quoted does not include all students.

That said, it'd seem the most reasonable proposal for a home site split would be:
  • All winter break games at XL
  • One early-season cupcake at XL, perhaps on a weekend or over Thanksgiving break
  • One good spring session conference game at XL, preferably a weekend
  • All other home games at Gampel

Using this year's schedule, that'd come out to:
CCSU - GP
Coppin - GP
LIU - GP
Binghamton - XL
MD-ES - GP
Grambling - GP
PC - XL
Butler (in its original scheduled slot) - XL
SJU - XL
GT - GP
CU - GP
MU - GP
SHU - GP
XU - XL
VU - GP
DeP - GP
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I could live with this. You realize they would have to dramatically increase the seat donation at Gampel with an equivalent decrease at XL. You could try it and see if fans would pay. I think fans would give up season tix at XL and spend the money on th 2 or 3 good games you would schedule there. I’m there either way but can see issues.
 
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