Hockey Arena Groundbreaking/Progress | Page 9 | The Boneyard

Hockey Arena Groundbreaking/Progress

jho said:
They’ve started to make ice.
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Yeah, I was watching that last night at six. It has to be the worlds tiniest Zamboni.
 
UCONNJACK said:
Wouldn’t the lines, circles and logos be painted before putting the ice down?
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First that put down a couple of thin layers of ice, then they paint the surface white. After that they paint the lines and then put additional layers of ice over that.
 
Just saw pics of the new arena and admittedly haven’t followed the progress but wow that’s embarrassing. 9 rows of seats? Looks like some kind of club program. UMass built theirs 30 years ago and it’s still nicer than this minor league place. Awful.
 
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Vuce said:
Just saw pics of the new arena and admittedly haven’t followed the progress but wow that’s embarrassing. 9 rows of seats? Looks like some kind of club program. UMass built theirs 30 years ago and it’s still nicer than this minor league place. Awful.
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It’s not fair to compare the Mullins Center to the Toscano Family Ice Forum. The Mullins Center is a multi purpose facility while Toscano is strictly an ice rink. Check out the below Wikipedia link for the Mullins Center.

en.m.wikipedia.org

Mullins Center - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org en.m.wikipedia.org
 
UCONNJACK said:
It’s not fair to compare the Mullins Center to the Toscano Family Ice Forum. The Mullins Center is a multi purpose facility while Toscano is strictly an ice rink. Check out the below Wikipedia link for the Mullins Center.

en.m.wikipedia.org

Mullins Center - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org en.m.wikipedia.org
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I am very familiar with the Mullins Center - I’ve been there many many times. It’s even more embarrassing that for a hockey only facility that this dinky arena was the best UConn could do. It’s screams small time. And all of our big games will be in the almost 50 year old XL Center.
 
I've said it before and I'm sure others have said it but they really should have considered building a multi purpose arena for both basketball and hockey.
 
gampelcrazies said:
I've said it before and I'm sure others have said it but they really should have considered building a multi purpose arena for both basketball and hockey.
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While it would have been nice to get a new basketball arena so we could have a modern facility that is a little bigger in capacity, I am glad they didn't do that.

It would be great for hoops and bad for hockey. Playing in an arena greater than 5k for hockey would be bad most nights and Gampel is part of the program's identity and makes for a great gameday experience (hopefully they build the concourse in the next 10 years), even if slightly undersized at the behest of state government.

It's also part of modern trends to have sport specific venues rather than multi purpose to better enhance in person experience as the TV viewing experience improves.

They could have just put three more rows in to get to 3k seating + the presumed 500 standing and there would have been little to complain about and if that wasn't feasible then build it in such a way to allow for expansion if and when program continues to improve and build a following with coming success.

They did neither of these things so they will get crucified for it.

It looks like it will be very nice from the renderings, livecam and having driven by it, but also a very difficult ticket at the detriment to the every day fan who will be relegated to watching them exclusively at the dump in Hartford.
 
UConn’s average hockey attendance is 3-4k which is right in line with the arena capacity. There is no reason to pay more $ in an arena unless you expect to fill it. Albeit, they probably paid more $ than they should have… but the arena looks beautiful and is consistent with Gampel which is cool IMO.

UMass has a capacity of 8k+ and they only average about 4-5k. Our arena will look good on TV with a full capacity compared to a half empty arena. It will be louder and difficult to play at for opponents.
 
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Storrs South said:
While it would have been nice to get a new basketball arena so we could have a modern facility that is a little bigger in capacity, I am glad they didn't do that.

It would be great for hoops and bad for hockey. Playing in an arena greater than 5k for hockey would be bad most nights and Gampel is part of the program's identity and makes for a great gameday experience (hopefully they build the concourse in the next 10 years), even if slightly undersized at the behest of state government.

It's also part of modern trends to have sport specific venues rather than multi purpose to better enhance in person experience as the TV viewing experience improves.

They could have just put three more rows in to get to 3k seating + the presumed 500 standing and there would have been little to complain about and if that wasn't feasible then build it in such a way to allow for expansion if and when program continues to improve and build a following with coming success.

They did neither of these things so they will get crucified for it.

It looks like it will be very nice from the renderings, livecam and having driven by it, but also a very difficult ticket at the detriment to the every day fan who will be relegated to watching them exclusively at the dump in Hartford.
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Look at the new Texas basketball arena. I wonder if UConn could have copied that model and put removable panels to close off seats.
 
huskymedic said:
The lines, logos, circles, etc usually are painted in between the multiple layers of the ice.

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Initial ice is down and lines & logos are being painted now. Interested in knowing who the advertisers besides UConn Health are.

| EarthCam Construction Camera

Watch the live EarthCam feed of the construction. See real-time views, time-lapse clips, and more.
share.earthcam.net
 
UCONNJACK said:
Initial ice is down and lines & logos are being painted now. Interested in knowing who the advertisers besides UConn Health are.

| EarthCam Construction Camera

Watch the live EarthCam feed of the construction. See real-time views, time-lapse clips, and more.
share.earthcam.net
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From the picture it looks like Coca Cola and Travelers are visible.
 
Not a bad seat in the house. But if all the rows are aligned why not make at least all the side seats chairbacks? Is it that much more room?
 
1671371936229.png

Boys, we’ve got ourselves a pretty nice barn!
 
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Disclaimer: This info is an educated guess based on available arena renderings.

There are 24 sections in Toscano Family Ice Forum. I think they will be arranged as follows:
Sections 101-106 - West Side -Visitor Bench Side - Chairbacks
Sections 107-111 - North Goal - Chairbacks
Sections 112-117 - East Side - UConn Bench Side - Chairbacks
Sections 118-124 - South Goal - UConn shoots 2X - Bench Seats - Includes Student Sections

If I’m wrong, I blame the JCJ Architects.
 
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On the one hand, I'm very excited that I got tickets in the new arena - but on the other hand, I'm afraid that since they put me in Row A, I'm going to be on the ice which is exactly where I don't want to be.

It remains really, really weird to me that they're just assigning tickets to existing season ticket holders in this way.
 
ableton04 said:
On the one hand, I'm very excited that I got tickets in the new arena - but on the other hand, I'm afraid that since they put me in Row A, I'm going to be on the ice which is exactly where I don't want to be.

It remains really, really weird to me that they're just assigning tickets to existing season ticket holders in this way.
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I agree that the row A is not the best seat for hockey but the good news is that the first row at Toscano is on top of the boards. I’ve been to Schneider Arena at PC with an elevated first row and the site lines are pretty good. Also, it’s only for 4 games so you’ll get to pick seats for next year in the Spring.
 
jho said:
I agree that the row A is not the best seat for hockey but the good news is that the first row at Toscano is on top of the boards. I’ve been to Schneider Arena at PC with an elevated first row and the site lines are pretty good. Also, it’s only for 4 games so you’ll get to pick seats for next year in the Spring.
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ohhhh if first row is at the top of the boards that's certainly better than XL - good to know, even if not ideal!
 
CL82 said:
Boys, we’ve got ourselves a pretty nice barn!
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Great to finally have an actual campus arena! Outside of the current new glass-fronted end, is sufficient room available to potentially enable future extension of the existing structure (insert more rows at glass end)? Not a civil engineer obviously, just hopeful. Skate on IceBus.
 
Da_Aisijimo_Gou said:
Great to finally have an actual campus arena! Outside of the current new glass-fronted end, is sufficient room available to potentially enable future extension of the existing structure (insert more rows at glass end)? Not a civil engineer obviously, just hopeful. Skate on IceBus.
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I have been going through that thought process as well. It seems to me the easiest place to put additional seats would be in the standing room area, the ice level lounge, and putting counter level tables and chairs on both sides of the arena, right now it’s only on one. Additionally, we could expand the upper deck section. I think we could, provided there is demand, get to 3000 pretty comfortably. Perhaps a bit more.

Has anyone done a drive-by lately? I’m curious to see how the rink looks with the exterior panels on it. I presume that is finished now.
 
CL82 said:
I’m curious to hear your comparison of the two. Both are very nice and seem like great places to see a game. Have you been to Quinnipiac’s rink? That looks nice as well.
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Yes, I’ve been to see two games at QU’s barn (now M&T Bank Arena). One of them was when Ruslan Ishkakov got knocked out cold by a monstrous hit - very scary moments! The arena itself is great except for how they handle beer sales lol. I also take acoustics as well as sight lines into account, and all are favorable there. I’m hoping an announcement about the CT Ice tournament for late January 2023 will be made soon!
 
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