Key tweets, and it's all gone to Hell.

[Chin Diesel]

I can second that. The entire experience felt disconnected from the college atmosphere. The setup seemed geared more toward the general public than the student body, especially now that students are crammed into the far reaches of the red lot.


I'm not saying it wasn't exciting at times, but overall, it lacked the campus experience. Even in victory, the excitement never carried over to the campus community. Getting off the bus or parking back on campus always felt very anticlimactic.

I was at UConn at the height of football success. I completely agree about losing the college atmosphere. It felt like I was off to watch a AAA baseball game or something. The bus ride is just too long. By the time you get there a lot of the hype is lost.

A college sports event should first and foremost cater to the college students. It's for them first and the community second.

And that is part of the reason why when the team isn't doing well, attendance drops off dramatically. There is no attachment to the stadium, the team and the college experience. There is no going back to the ole stomping grounds.

 

[Luna]

Do they have the space to build a stadium on the school campus?

 

[UConnJim]

And that is part of the reason why when the team isn't doing well, attendance drops off dramatically. There is no attachment to the stadium, the team and the college experience. There is no going back to the ole stomping grounds.

As an alum, the Rent is ideal for meeting up with friends from all over and tailgating. It is easy in and out and plenty of room for tailgating. I understand the student issues, but we went to basketball games in Hartford and had a blast. When a team doesn’t win for a while and conference realignment negatively impacts UConn, I understand there will be more criticism of the Rent. When UConn played WVU, Michigan, Baylor,… the Rent rocked.

 

[LoyalFanCT]

Do they have the space to build a stadium on the school campus?

Huge number of places with easy access to local roads.

 

[Chin Diesel]

When UConn played WVU, Michigan, Baylor,… the Rent rocked.

That's why I specifically said when the team does poorly attendance drops dramatically. When the team does well, it will draw regardless where it is located in the state.

 

[UCONNJACK]

Huge number of places with easy access to local roads.

The main campus site description “The University of Connecticut (UConn) is the State of Connecticut’s sole land-grant university. Situated on 3,100 acres in Storrs, CT, UConn’s flagship campus serves approximately 27,000 faculty, staff, and students working and living in 12 million sq. ft. of academic, residential, research, and administrative space within 370 buildings.” I don’t believe that most of the UConn Forest which consists of about 2,100 acres in several parcels in Mansfield, South Willington and Coventry is included in the Storrs campus 3,100 acres.

 

[John]

That's why I specifically said when the team does poorly attendance drops dramatically. When the team does well, it will draw regardless where it is located in the state.

it's the same with basketball, ultimate fair weather fan base.

 

[Ha Who]

it's the same with basketball, ultimate fair weather fan base.

Wow first for everything. I agree with you on something. Ask Scott Haney. Flurries in the forecast and fans won’t drive to Storrs. I remember driving in decent snow storms

 

[John]

Wow first for everything. I agree with you on something. Ask Scott Haney. Flurries in the forecast and fans won’t drive to Storrs. I remember driving in decent snow storms

They'll drive in bad weather when the team is good. When the team is bad it can be sunny and 70 degrees and the tickets practically given away by the AD and the place will still be half empty.

 

[How Sway?!]

They'll drive in bad weather when the team is good. When the team is bad it can be sunny and 70 degrees and the tickets practically given away by the AD and the place will still be half empty.

So like any other sports fan?

 

[John]

So like any other sports fan?

this fan base is worse.

 

[JMick]

this fan base is worse.

Our fanbase is pretty average in this respect. It's just a culture thing and it's not worth reading much into it. If we were really bad then attendance in the AAC would have fallen off much harder than it did.

College sports are worshipped to a pretty unhealthy degree in parts of the country (the ones I assume you're comparing us to). It's not something you'd want to emulate.

 

[Drew]

You can’t even make a direct comparison to hoops playing games in Hartford as basketball at least also plays half their games on campus every year.

 

[CL82]

Do they have the space to build a stadium on the school campus?

Huge number of places with easy access to local roads.

I would say probably four leading places:
1. The athletic campus behind Toscano.
2. Off of Discovery Drive.
3. On or behind Horse Barn Hill, near the "UConn forest.
4. On the Mansfield Depot campus.

The one that makes the most sense to me is the athletic campus. There's plenty of room in the parking lots can provide parking for all of our athletic events including games at Gampel. When they built Toscano they did an environmental impact statement which shows no environmental issues. it is not on land that requires any approvals by Mansfield.

Horse Barn Hill is a visually significant part of campus. It isn't historic, as we found out when Pfizer proposed a co-venture with the university. If that were the only location on campus, I could think about it, but there's no need to put it there.

The depot campus really is slightly off-campus, or at least slightly off what most people think of is the campus. Again, if it were the only alternative it would be a viable one, but there are better choices.

Discovery Drive isn't a bad option and it has the easiest access on Route 44. That alone makes it worth considering, but I prefer having all the athletics in a single campus aesthetically and because it allows us to utilize things like the parking lot in more than one season. For what it's worth you could channel traffic one way on Hillside Road two get it from the athletic campus to Discovery Drive pretty easily.

 

[UConnJim]

I would say probably four leading places:
1. The athletic campus behind Toscano.
2. Off of Discovery Drive.
3. On or behind Horse Barn Hill, near the "UConn forest.
4. On the Mansfield Depot campus.

The one that makes the most sense to me is the athletic campus. There's plenty of room in the parking lots can provide parking for all of our athletic events including games at Gampel. When they built Toscano they did an environmental impact statement which shows no environmental issues. it is not on land that requires any approvals by Mansfield.

Horse Barn Hill is a visually significant part of campus. It isn't historic, as we found out when Pfizer proposed a co-venture with the university. If that were the only location on campus, I could think about it, but there's no need to put it there.

The depot campus really is slightly off-campus, or at least slightly off what most people think of is the campus. Again, if it were the only alternative it would be a viable one, but there are better choices.

Discovery Drive isn't a bad option and it has the easiest access on Route 44. That alone makes it worth considering, but I prefer having all the athletics in a single campus aesthetically and because it allows us to utilize things like the parking lot in more than one season. For what it's worth you could channel traffic one way on Hillside Road two get it from the athletic campus to Discovery Drive pretty easily.

Best option is at EO Smith HS for an on campus stadium.

 

[JMick]

if we had a P* opportunity that required an on-campus stadium, I have no doubt that it would happen.

Yeah if it's a condition to join then we'd do it. Personally I think it's the only way we'd do it. That's why we should get another feasibility study done asap.

 

[CL82]

Best option is at EO Smith HS for an on campus stadium.

That would be a cool option. I'm not sure that it's big enough, but I've never looked at it with that in mind. Keep in mind though that the university wanted to use that site for the hockey rink and offered to build a brand new high school on the Mansfield depot campus. Amazingly Mansfield turned that down.

 

[JMick]

That would be a cool option. I'm not sure that it's big enough, but I've never looked at it with that in mind. Keep in mind though that the university wanted to use that site for the hockey rink and offered to build a brand new high school on the Mansfield depot campus. Amazingly Mansfield turned that down.

Mansfield doesn't know what's good for themselves. The town has held back the school for it's entire history.

 

[CL82]

Mansfield doesn't know what's good for themselves. The town has held back the school for it's entire history.

It is what it is. Fortunately, we don't need approvals from Mansfield to build on the athletic campus. I'm not sure about other sites but I would guess that we would need approval on the depot campus.

 

[CL82]

For what it's worth these are three of the four sites that I mentioned:

 

[Storrs South]

The Rent was pretty awesome at it's peak from 2007-2011 and that's coming from someone that was making the bus trip. The atmosphere in and outside the stadium was fantastic for students, alums, and fans.

The only negatives were 1) the bus ride itself was a time suck for students, but the student section was still full anyway so hardly a negative other than people's time, but 2) because of the bus, students left after the 3rd quarter most of the time to get back to campus and beat the bus line.

The problems are obvious and have already been stated here: the team needs to win, and not just win, but be good, which hasn't been the case in 13 years, and beat recognizable opponents (separate discussion that's been litigated 1,000x).

Secondarily, though, student habits around sports are not the same as they were a decade ago or even 5 years ago. Even if the team was just pretty good, I question how likely they'd actually go into the stadium.

I'm not going to act like I know the modern student that well, but anecdotally it feels like today's class of students at UConn are more studious and choosy of how to spend their time. "Why spend 6 hours in East Hartford to watch a 7-5 football team, when I can just spend 3 hours in a parking lot partying then go home." Then the supposed shutting down of much student tailgating post COVID doesn't help the situation either and further dissuades students from making the trip at all.

Anyway this is much ado about nothing in my opinion since I do not see a world where a stadium is built on campus unless something dramatically shifts and I'd give it like a <5% chance.

It took UConn Men's Basketball winning not 1, but 2 national championships back to back for the State and Athletic Department to get serious about renovating Gampel and I'm still unsure how substantial the changes will be. That's the type of mountain you are talking about climbing here.

 

[Vowelguy]

If we had a P* opportunity that required an on-campus stadium, I have no doubt that it would happen.

And if I had a ham sandwich, I'd have a ham sandwich.

 

[nelsonmuntz]

this fan base is worse.

I agree with this statement when it comes to some of the fans.

 

[CL82]

And if I had a ham sandwich, I'd have a ham sandwich.

Well, it's good that you are a hungry husky, I guess.

 

[Waquoit]

And that is part of the reason why when the team isn't doing well, attendance drops off dramatically. There is no attachment to the stadium, the team and the college experience. There is no going back to the ole stomping grounds.

After the Baylor game, I read a Baylor beat guy say our student section was "the equal of any in the Big 12". All this "losing the college atmosphere" is just more piffle. The place was rocking when we were in the Big East.