Joe Markley: No More Public Spending on XL Center

[Pudge]

This is a potential precursor for everyone on the BY who thinks we can just snap our fingers & the Rent will be expanded.

I know there are supposedly drawings somewhere. I know that the footing are already in place.

All of that means nothing when it comes time to get the voters in the state of CT to approve a potential $100MM expense.

Well ...

The completed RENT Stadium was $91m. Given what I know about Construction Cost ... I think you would see an eye-opening number for a mere add of 15,000 seats PLUS a few new ancillary improvements.

That's not the point. This State & This City & This University is in a business. We decided that a long time ago and it has many many components that are an ecosystem that succeeds. Hartford sucks after 5? So does Albany, Springfield, Worcester, Syracuse, Manchester ... but not Providence, Portland and looking like New Haven. Why? I have my opinion. It is everything to do about Demand Drivers. But ... sunk cost thinking is not the way forward. Of course, anything that is in Hartford is in a symbiotic relationship with the XL. And the move of UConn from West Hartford ... and the growth in the hospitals. All those institutions. Renovating and growing - with a Hockey East & a B12 - can really make this so much better as a thriving city.

 

[Fishy]

Screw it.

I agree - the civic center isn't going to save Hartford so let it go.

I'll take a 12,500 seat basketball arena and a new hockey barn on campus, thank you.

We won't even need the entire $250,000,000, so everyone's a winner.

 

[Marty Jackson]

The study was absolutely ridiculous and a complete waste of taxpayer money

Honestly if they're going to build a new arena they should put it in DoNo IMO but it won't happen due to the "save Hartford" sentiment


I agree with @JSM1970 that cities like Omaha, Grand Rapids, Columbia (SC) are great cities to model after for Hartford. Could add Greenville (SC), Kansas City, and a couple others to it as well. The one major difference with Omaha (Creighton) and Columbia (South Carolina) is their universities are in the city with which they reside and are full time tenants. Colonial Life Arena in Columbia is as close to on-campus as you can get without it actually being on campus. Omaha benefits from Creighton having a huge following- it would be like if Hartford basketball could sell out the XL Center (which obviously it never will). Also pretty sure that USC owns Colonial Life Arena.

My ct lingo isn't as current as others. Where exactly is DoNo?

 

[auggie22]

My ct lingo isn't as current as others. Where exactly is DoNo?

Downtown North. Essentially a block away from XL

 

[31GuardTrap]

Hartford needs a master plan. What is the economic incentive to a new arena, when you can hardly produce an active city center, and have bad crime, crap neighborhoods. There are enough companies in Hartford, enough potential foot traffic, that could produce a decent enough city.

Hartford truly stinks. Sorry to those offended. UCONN grads are moving to West Hartford instead of Hartford. That really says it all.

Look at Providence, it's about 20 times nicer than it was in the 70's-80's. Thats with shoddy government too.

I was in Providence on Sat. I looked out the window from Providence Place and said to my wife..."Just imagine what Hartford could be with someone half as capable as these schmucks were".
we were both very sad for about 1 minute. Then I remembered I was heading to a brewery. Instant happiness.

 

[Dooley]

My ct lingo isn't as current as others. Where exactly is DoNo?

Thanks Marty. I was too embarrassed to ask myself.

 

[CL82]

I was in Providence on Sat. I looked out the window from Providence Place and said to my wife..."Just imagine what Hartford could be with someone half as capable as these schmucks were".
we were both very sad for about 1 minute. Then I remembered I was heading to a brewery. Instant happiness.

 

[Kolumbo]

Downtown North. Essentially a block away from XL

Wouldn't that be Uptown?

 

[Drew]

Wouldn't that be Uptown?

They're putting the ball park in there and calling it "Downtown North"

I don't make the rules I just follow them (sometimes)

 

[Dooley]

They're putting the ball park in there and calling it "Downtown North"

I don't make the rules I just follow them (sometimes)

You hipster, you. I kid, I kid. I've lived in Connecticut for all but 2 years of my life and that's the first time I've heard or read DoNo. I'm not saying I hate it, just saying I never heard of it. The phrase makes me think of NoRA cupcakes in Middletown. Mmmmmmmmm cuuuuuppppppcccaaaaaaakkkkkkeeeeessssssssss.

 

[Kolumbo]

I know what SOHO stands for, but that's about it. I guess Tribeca falls in that category.

 

[uconnphil2016]

You hipster, you. I kid, I kid. I've lived in Connecticut for all but 2 years of my life and that's the first time I've heard or read DoNo. I'm not saying I hate it, just saying I never heard of it. The phrase makes me think of NoRA cupcakes in Middletown. Mmmmmmmmm cuuuuuppppppcccaaaaaaakkkkkkeeeeessssssssss.

NoRA cupcakes rules. Just in case you don't know, they have a new pop up store in West Hartford (Blue Back Square). I bought a gift card there for a Yankee swap and ended up stealing back my own gift because I like that place so freakin much.

 

[uconnphil2016]

On a more contentious note, I didn't read the article but agree with the headline that Hartford should be done with the business of further public funding for stadium projects (at least for the next 10+ years). A shiny, new XL center is going to do very, very little to improve Hartford's economic climate. What do you guys think, that people are going to suddenly decide to eat dinner in Hartford and move the family there because there's a little more cushion on their a** while they watch a basketball game? If there really is such an incredible profit to be made from building a new Hartford stadium, then a private developer will jump at the chance to fund the stadium...that's how the market works.

 

[HuskyHawk]

Let's use important metrics. Springsteen is playing just 21 cities and Providence isn't one of them.

And the number of residents of the actual city of Hartford at that show will be close to zero.

Providence has two colleges in town and actual urban residential that isn't gang land (not that a lot of it isn't gang land). U Hartford is as far away from downtown Hartford as it can be, and Trinity is the same on the south side. Hartford needs destinations...that means a civic center type building near a convention center that is then surrounded by bars, restaurants, breweries and expensive urban residential. It needs gentrification. It has since I was a kid.

I lived in South Boston for a couple of years from 2001-2003. The waterfront was nothing but Harpoon Brewery, the Seaport Hotel, a small concert venue and the world trade center. The rest was empty lots and empty buildings. Now it is the hottest location in the city. KC has had a similar renaissance in the power and light district...which used to be the red light/adult bookstore and strip club zone. It can be done.

 

[Dooley]

NoRA cupcakes rules. Just in case you don't know, they have a new pop up store in West Hartford (Blue Back Square). I bought a gift card there for a Yankee swap and ended up stealing back my own gift because I like that place so freakin much.

Very well played.

 

[Adios]

If Bridgeport can be revived (and it's in the process), so can Hartford. Hartford has way more than Bridgeport, besides Long Island Sound.

 

[upstater]

This is a potential precursor for everyone on the BY who thinks we can just snap our fingers & the Rent will be expanded.

I know there are supposedly drawings somewhere. I know that the footing are already in place.

All of that means nothing when it comes time to get the voters in the state of CT to approve a potential $100MM expense.

It will be approved in 10 minutes when the lawmakers understand that UConn's TV money will increase by $23m a year.

 

[upstater]

Hartford needs a master plan. What is the economic incentive to a new arena, when you can hardly produce an active city center, and have bad crime, crap neighborhoods. There are enough companies in Hartford, enough potential foot traffic, that could produce a decent enough city.

Hartford truly stinks. Sorry to those offended. UCONN grads are moving to West Hartford instead of Hartford. That really says it all.

Look at Providence, it's about 20 times nicer than it was in the 70's-80's. Thats with shoddy government too.

Several of the people I know who live in Providence commute to Mass. on the train. Providence has a little bit of the Fairfield Cty. thing happening.

 

[upstater]

First, you create a giant rest home with amenities in Chaplin to lure all the obstruction artists out of Mansfield. Then you build extra lanes on the roads into Storrs. Then you build a new DOMED football stadium on campus that also houses a separate court and rink. You take the Rent and you land a Major League Soccer franchise.

 

[FartMan69]

This kind of stuff really makes me wonder what the point of a two decade long "study" was to determine the viability of the XL Center. That in itself seemed like a waste of money to me. We all know the XL is an outdated dinosaur. We also all know there is zero incentive for people to go into downtown Hartford other than for work (and once 5:01 hits the clock, it empties quicker than a Rentschler Field parking lot).

Sports venues and the state of Connecticut go together like oil and water.

The concourses are paper thin and smell like melted hog fat, the roof tiles has mysterious brown stains, the lights buzz louder than the fans and the building looks like a housing project in Moscow

They spent millions of dollars for professional studies and they could have just asked me.

 

[Waquoit]

First, you create a giant rest home with amenities in Chaplin to lure all the obstruction artists out of Mansfield. Then you build extra lanes on the roads into Storrs. Then you build a new DOMED football stadium on campus that also houses a separate court and rink. You take the Rent and you land a Major League Soccer franchise.

And then you wake up.

 

[CL82]

First, you create a giant rest home with amenities in Chaplin to lure all the obstruction artists out of Mansfield. Then you build extra lanes on the roads into Storrs. Then you build a new DOMED football stadium on campus that also houses a separate court and rink. You take the Rent and you land a Major League Soccer franchise.

Domed stadium? No self respecting Northeastern football team would have a doomed stadium. Football is a game for men. We don't wilt in the cold like a tropical fruit.

 

[SAMCRO]

Domed stadium? No self respecting Northeastern football team would have a doomed stadium. Football is a game for men. We don't wilt in the cold like a tropical fruit.

I see what you did there.

 

[auggie22]

Several of the people I know who live in Providence commute to Mass. on the train. Providence has a little bit of the Fairfield Cty. thing happening.

A close friend of mine does that. Bought a 2200 square foot apartment in a beautiful new building right next to the train station, and he takes Accela to and from Boston for work- only 1 hr door to door most days. He paid about $700 less per square foot than I paid for my condo in Boston. But he also pays about 5 x more in local taxes and condo fees than I did. In the end our monthly living expenses were roughly the same.

 

[31GuardTrap]

I will be older than Tom Coughlin if and when this actually happens.